Over 3,500 primary school children and their teachers from eighty seven Suffolk based schools took a day out of the classroom on Wednesday 23rd April to visit this year’s School Farm & Country Fair held at Trinity Park in Ipswich. This annual event is now in it’s eighth year and is designed to give children between the ages of 7 and 9 an insight into food, farming and conservation in an interactive environment.


Among the exhibitor’s were Easton Farm Park, Otley College, Tastes of Anglia and Suffolk Farmhouse Cheeses to name but a few. The children were given the opportunity to watch sheep shearing, sheep dogs at work and to make cheese, hold chicks and ducklings and play games including a food miles challenge by Suffolk Wildlife Trust, showing how far food products had travelled from it’s Country of origin to the plate.

Each school was escorted around the demonstrations by 1 of 148 volunteer stewards many from the local farming community. “Everyone volunteers for this event, and I think that it shows the strength of the industry” said Chris Bushby, Executive Director of the Suffolk Agricultural Association who organises and hosts the event. “An event like this is also educational to the teachers and helpers. It gives them a rare insight into the farming world which for many years has been very disconnected from its end consumer. We are very proud of this event and we wanted people to know about the wealth of things on their doorstep, what Suffolk is really about”.


The first School Farm & Country Fair was held in 2001 in the wake of the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak which also resulted in the cancellation of the Suffolk Show. Since then it has gone from strength to strength and is now so popular that it is oversubscribed every year. Each child in the County has an equal opportunity to attend as each school receives a grant to offset the cost of transportation to the event.
Alison Millin, a teacher from Gusford School, in Ipswich praised the event saying “It links in well with the food and farming topic the children are studying this year. I think it’s a fantastic day. I’m always impressed with how much they put on in the course of the day and how much there is to see and how helpful and well organised it”.


The Suffolk Agricultural Association is very grateful to the event sponsors; Chadacre Agricultural Trust, Waitrose Education and the Felix Cobbold Trust and also the local companies who provided sponsorship for the transport.