MEASURING THE IMPACT
We were introduced to Jake Curtis, Director of Programmes and Operations, who explained how they meet schools, to discuss the programme and the benefit the children will receive from their experience at Jamie’s Farm. Jake works closely with schools to help measure the impact of the programme, by visiting the school a few weeks before their planned visit to evaluate the pupils attending by studying their behaviours and exclusions. After the programme, Jake returns to the school to re-evaluate the pupil’s behaviour and engagement at school, working with teachers to help them re-engage with their pupils also.
We then met Toby Meanwell, Farm Manager at Lower Wernddu in Hereford, who gave us a tour of the farm and showed us the gardens where the children were planting seeds and picking fruit and vegetables to cook later. We saw sheep, pigs and cattle that the children rear, as well as horses. While the pupils cannot ride the horses, they can walk them around the paddock; Toby explained that a horse will mirror your mood and actions, and therefore if you are calm, the horse will be calm too. This allows the children to confront their own behaviours and learn to trust and self reflect.
Increasingly, the Jamie’s Farm therapeutic approach is recognised as an example of best practice within the education sector. The UK’s leading progressive think tank, The Institute for Public Policy Research, published a report in October 2017 in conjunction with The Difference, revealing an excluded child costs taxpayers £370,000 over the child’s lifetime (per child). The Jamie’s Farm therapeutic approach is included within their findings as one of four best practice models of alternative provision within the UK to tackle this. The charity’s monitoring and evaluation shows that of all the children at risk of exclusion before a visit to their farm, 68% are no longer at risk six weeks on, with evidence at six months showing that the changes children make are sustained and even improved.