🎉BALE’S FARM OPEN DAY- 4th April 2023🎉

 

Come along and visit our outdoor learning provision to discover what experiences we offer young people with additional needs. To secure an appointment please book and complete and return your “Register of Interest” form which will be emailed to you shortly after your booking has been received. Drop by at any time from 10 am - 3 pm to visit our farm.

 

Bale’s Farm offers a therapeutic outdoor learning provision for children and young people between the ages of 5 and 19 with the aim to re-engage and re-inspire them with learning.

 

We particularly identify those children who are currently not attending school, have no school placement, are home schooled or whose current placement is not working for them. (EOTAS funding, Personal Budget and school funded placements available for the Summer and Autumn terms).

 

We are based at a smallholding in Daccombe, we have a range of indoor and outdoor spaces to use and a variety of animals including horses, ponies, sheep, goats, chickens, ducks, rabbits and guinea pigs.

 

All our young people work at their own ability and we have small groups to encourage and enable social interaction.

 

Our ethos is to provide a safe, calming and welcoming environment to help young people realise and reach their full potential.

 

The practical nature of the programme also puts core subjects into context; maths and science become useful to the activities and the results are tangible. 

 

We also provide an opportunity to learn practical life skills and develop independence whilst teaching the importance of responsibility. 

 

Some of our young people are also given the chance to undertake a range of ASDAN qualifications in (including but not limited to) - gardening, personal life skills, English, maths and animal care and welfare.

 

In our allotment area our young people can engage in land work, learning and understanding the process of growing their own fruit and vegetables.

 

Our young people also have the opportunity, on a daily basis, to feed the animals, take them for walks, cuddle with them and learn all about them – their diet, their habitat, how they grow etc.

 

We also include elements of traditional Forest School too, using the land that we are based on to go on nature walks, build dens, go stream/pond dipping, cook on a campfire and learn about how to conserve the environment.

 

Our young people also take part in a variety of nature inspired crafts, ideas, experiments and games. Many of these activities will aid the foundation blocks for reinforcing the need to share, providing a sense of fairness, encouraging giving and receiving and engaging in positive social interactions.   

 

Our staff (including a teacher with 15 years’ SEN experience) are well versed in a variety of communication methods including British sign language, Makaton and PECS as well as using visual aids and gestures to support the spoken word, we ensure we offer the correct support to each individual.

 

And of course, we will have our assistance dogs - Bale, Grace and Arthur on hand all the time to provide that bit of canine companionship and animal assisted therapy.