Tag: Royal Highland Education Trust

Scotland’s rural education charity launches school campaign – The Journey of Food: Sheep & Wool

Calling all farmers and the wider agri sector! Can you help get behind the new school campaign?

Rural education charity, the Royal Highland Education Trust (RHET) is delighted to launch ‘The Journey of Food: Sheep and Wool’. 

From this September through to the end of June next year, working in partnership with RNCI, QMS, NSA, and British Wool, RHET will provide a variety of free educational opportunities and experiences for school pupils throughout Scotland.

The resources and events will focus on the important role sheep, lamb, and the uses of wool play in our economy, communities, and creative Scotland. From the rugged hills of the Highlands and Islands, across the central belt and into the Borders, lamb production is woven into our culture and history, from the drovers of years ago to modern-day mixed farming.  

This campaign has developed a range of free accessible resources for use in schools. Teachers have been signing up for two in-person training days, over 70 teachers will attend the first session at Ingliston this weekend and the next in Inverness on 23rd September.  These sessions are also open to volunteers where the resources will be demonstrated and tips on classroom speaker topics to cover. 

The highlight of the calendar is RHET’s popular week-long, online Talk to Farmer event, taking place  in March 2024, where over 5,000 children are expected to join live and have a chance to chat with some wonderful volunteers about their work, their animals, and their passion for farming. 

RHET is delighted to work closely with partners from the sheep industry on this exciting campaign to help bring the Scottish sheep sector to life for pupils all linked to their learning. With help from the wider industry, whether it’s financial support, volunteering, or spreading the word, the campaign needs your help.  

All resources produced and people’s time are FREE for schools to access, and the RHET Team will do all they can to get as many schools as possible on board. 

What can YOU do to help?! 

  • MAKE A DONATION – If are able to support us, please contact the project leads, Sheila or Fran at rhetinfo@rhass.org.uk 
    Become a supporter | Royal Highland Education Trust (rhet.org.uk)
  • Follow and share RHET social media posts, this will help us to spread the word!
  • If you can help by volunteering your time to speak with school children (and teachers) about sheep farming and or wool that would be GRHET!
  • Maybe help by making a short video, sharing photos or stories – any help at all would be appreciated.
  • We need our sector to be energised and doing everything to be talking about this campaign positively.

Fran Matheson, RHET Highland Project Coordinator, and one of the leads on the project, comments: “‘The passion and dedication of Scottish farmers helps produce some of the best quality lamb in the world in accordance with the highest welfare standards that we are all extremely proud of.

‘This campaign is an opportunity to teach children across Scotland about lamb and the role of sheep farming in our communities, the season-by-season work on sheep farms, education about the animals on farm, including its biodiversity, and the traditions handed down through the generations.

“We will also focus on how wool can be used sustainably in so many products with the hope of encouraging more of us to embrace this remarkable material. RHET has, with the help of some very passionate volunteers, created lots of wool crafting activities for school pupils to enjoy and learn in the classroom.

“We are very excited to be sharing this campaign with you all and hope you will help us.’

If you would like to know more about what is coming up during the year or how you could get involved locally, please visit the RHET website (rhet.org.uk) or contact rhetinfo@rhass.org.uk/ call 0131 335 6627 where someone on the team will be more than happy to help.

The launch video is available on the RHET You Tube channel and teachers can register their interest in the RHET resources now:

 https://www.rhet.org.uk/teachers/the-journey-of-food-sheep-and-wool/  

RHET Chairman’s Cycle Challenge is on the road

Royal Highland Education Trust Chairman Alistair Marshall is currently covering hundreds of miles over eight days to raise funds for the education charity RHET.

His challenge started at Stobhill Primary, Gorebridge last Tuesday morning, and Alistair is now making his way around all 13 RHET areas across Scotland before arriving at the Royal Highland Showground at Ingliston on Wednesday. 

Thanks to the incredible support for individuals and businesses, the initial target of £10k has been smashed and is currently sitting at over double! NFU Mutual are the lead sponsor for the challenge, with Graham’s Dairies, Kite Consulting, Hillhouse Group, Scottish Blackface Sheep Association and SRUC amongst the next tier supporters.  

Alistiar explained: “Keeping our services free of charge for schools is so important to RHET as it helps us to take the classroom to the countryside, for pupils and schools all over Scotland.

‘This challenge was inspired by our previous chair George Lawrie who took a tractor on tour round Scotland in 2019 and who doesn’t love a bit of friendly competition to inspire a great cause!

“My wife Fiona is cycling with me on the road and we are being joined by RHET volunteers and sponsors, and vintage tractor escorts along the way”. 

Accompanying Alistair is ‘Sky’, one of the RHS ‘Flock to the Show’ sheep who was the winning design by Daniel Threlkeld from Eaglesfield School. Dumfries artist Tricia from Falu Studios adorned Sky with the colourful rural scenes chosen by the judges out of over 1,600 entries.

The winning prize for his design is a free trip to the Royal Highland Show for the whole school. Sky will be auctioned by RHET at their gala dinner next February to keep the fundraising live. 

If you would like to support the chairman’s cycle challenge, there is a dedicated JustGiving page:

https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/RHET-ChairmansCycleChallenge?invite=true

or scan the QR code if you are visiting the Royal Highland Show this week. 

You will be able to see Sky and the other Flock to the Show sheep who will be dotted around the showground as part of a trail for all the family to enjoy. 

Rural education charity RHET secures Scottish Government funding to inspire young people about food and farming

The Royal Highland Education Trust (RHET) has secured £200k of funding from the Scottish Government to provide a farming and rural learning experience for a minimum of 80,000 pupils across Scotland. 

The funding secures the future of rural education events for children and young people, covering core costs such as infrastructure, bus transport, coordination and safety requirements. 

Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands, Mairi Gougeon MSP, went to see for herself how funds awarded to the Scottish rural education charity The Royal Highland Education Trust (RHET) spend award funding to education Scotland’s young people. 

Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon joined over 100 P5 and P6 pupils from the Brechin schools cluster, who were meeting local farmers, growers and rural businesses running a variety of sessions to learn about how Scottish food is produced.

At today’s event pupils were learning about dairy and making butter, see seeds, sheaves and growing crops, grinding wheat seed into flour, pressing oil seed rape into oil, beekeepers demonstrating how they look after their bees as well as hedge demonstrations, getting up close to John Deere machinery – all linking to the learning outcomes of the curriculum. 

Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands, Mairi Gougeon MSP, said: “I am delighted to be here to see first-hand the benefits of the Royal Highland Education Trust’s Food and Farming education programme. 

“Since 2017 the Scottish Government has given over £700k to the Royal Highland Education Trust (RHET) in order to support their programme of school farm visits and associated educational resources for schools. This has allowed them to educate and inspire thousands of children and young people on how Scottish food is produced. 

“This fresh support will allow RHET to reach even more children, many of whom are from deprived areas. The programme provides an opportunity for young people to visit a farm and offers a hands-on educational experience which highlights the importance of farming and food production to our society. 

“One of the aims of our Good Food Nation Act is to improve access to, and understanding of, the benefits of healthy local foods for everyone in Scotland. It is clear that this ambitious project is contributing massively to this wider vision.” 

RHET Chairman Alistair Marshall said:  “We are very grateful to the Scottish Government for this award which helps support our aim of getting pupils and their teachers out into the working countryside, to get wellies on the ground and ignite their curiosity.  

“We offer all our visits, talks and events for free and this is important to us all in the RHET national network, to make food and farming fun and accessible for all. 

“Through using event spaces creatively, and working in collaboration with Angus Show, as we have today, we can offer more schools the chance to get hands. Brechin show is open tomorrow for the public so today we are using the big marquee for workshops, keeping us out the rain or sun!”  

RHET Angus chairman Bruce Christie said: “Every one of Ms Gougeon’s constituents need a farmer three times a day. The support from the award from Scottish Government means we can keep events like this in the school calendar, helping Scotland’s young people get better connections with their local food and farming industries. 

“Listening to their questions and seeing the penny drop as they see seeds ground into flour is part of the reason I love volunteering with RHET. 

 “I’m an arable farmer and visit many schools during the year, explaining how we grow crops, how we care from them, the machinery and science we use and link it straight back to the food they eat on their plate.  

“Helping them to see Scottish agriculture, like the event here today, gives them a chance to ask questions and provides unbiased information so they can make their own food choices as they grow up.”

Rural education charity launches schools ‘Snack Attack Challenge 2023’

RHET challenge Scottish Schools to discover the power of the superhero Scottish seeds and grains. 

Four new superheroes, “Awesome Oats”, “Brilliant Barley”, “Wicked Wheat” and “Omazing Oil Seed Rape”, will be embarking on a sustainable healthy eating campaign during the 2023 school summer term. 

Have you ever wondered how these super seeds, the staple of our diet, are grown in Scotland, and incorporated into so many of our everyday foods? Join the Snack Attack challenge to find out. 

Rural education charities, The Royal Highland Education Trust (RHET) and Royal Northern Countryside Initiative (RNCI) have been working to create a super powered journey of discovery of our sustainable Scottish seeds and grains.

As part of the year-long spotlight on arable crops, RHET have produced a number of focused teaching resources for all age levels, linked to the Curriculum. Journey of Food – Seeds and Grains is now entering the final few months of the project and with the summer approaching, why not have some fun with our Super Heroes!? 

“Food production in Scotland is as wide and varied as our landscape” explains Katrina Barclay RHET Executive Officer.

“Our ‘Journey of Food…’ activity offers an opportunity to spotlight a different sector within Scottish agriculture (each year,) which demonstrates local food production, careers, nutritional information, environment and land use, data gathering and meeting the people behind the sector, to name a few areas.

“This makes it fully interdisciplinary, accessible to all and based on current practices. We pride ourselves on working in collaboration with a variety of businesses and organisations to bring the facts so pupils can investigate further, enquire, and use their curiosity to make informed choices.

“With support from organisations such as the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, James Hutton Institute and Scottish Agronomy, we are able to access not only research data but also people in the food sector using cutting edge technology who can explain the ‘how’ the ‘what’ and the ‘why’.” 

Scottish companies Nairns and Hamlyns are both generously supporting the Snack Attack challenge. A spokesperson from Nairns commented: “Oats are one of the earliest known superfoods and the Scots have been eating them for hundreds of years, usually in porridge and oatcakes.

“At Nairn’s, we’ve been baking oatcakes since 1896 and, whilst we have made a few small changes over the years and expanded our range of products, we still insist on the very best oats and only a few natural, simple ingredients.

“Our aim is to make it easy for everyone to find tasty, versatile oat snacks which are healthy, low in sugar and full of natural goodness.”

Hamlyns have been working with RNCI and RHET on projects over the years and support from industry is an excellent opportunity to follow the Journey of Food. 

If you are a teacher, or have children in school this challenge is now live and after a school is signed up for the ‘Snack Attack’ they will be entered into a draw to have a real tractor visit their School!

Pupils will be encouraged to help find these Super Heroes in their snack and vote for their favourite.

Competition is heating up, so be sure to visit https://www.rhet.org.uk/teachers/the-ghret-snack-attack/ or see our social media posts for more information.