In Spring 2016, Year 6 wrote letters to Mr Blakeley to attempt to persuade him to keep animals on the school site. The suggestion was forwarded to the School Council who were already involved in discussing how they could improve the school environment. There were lots of suggestions for new play equipment and paint markings on the playground but the idea of having our own animals really caught their imaginations!
The School Council, with the full support of the school staff, voted unanimously in favour of starting a small school farm starting with the baby chickens that Reception Class were busy incubating. After several weeks of care, seven out the clutch of ten eggs hatched. Sadly, one chick only survived three days having struggled to hatch from its shell. This left us with six healthy chicks who would spend the next three weeks living under a heat lamp in Reception Class.
Whilst all this was going on, the school staff began converting the far corner of the playing field into a large fox proof chicken run and a stock fence enclosure to house pigs.