Ninety children from two schools (St. John Fisher and SS. Peter and Paul Catholic Primary) took part in a carousel of activities to develop their knowledge and understanding of the lives of dairy farmers and the nutritional benefits of milk.
The event began with a talk from NFU dairy board appointee, John Alpe, who explained all about his daily life and work as a dairy farmer. The children were fascinated to learn about the lifecycle of their school milk, from parlour, through processing and all the way to the shop shelves.
Next, our education team led a food technology session which gave the children the opportunity to use science, sport and milk to make their own ice-cream. The children learned about the reaction that takes place between ice and salt to lower the temperature of some special ice-cream making balls and used measuring skills to add in ingredients.
To turn their milk mixture into ice cream, the ice cream balls needed to be shaken so this was where the sport came in. In the autumn sunshine, the children took to the playground to complete a series of relay races while shaking up their ice cream. After all their hard work, they then enjoyed a refreshing bowl of their very own ice cream, accompanied by some seasonal British produce.
Finally, the children worked with their teacher to complete a Farmvention task where they researched the nutritional benefits of milk and produced a poster presentation to share their findings.
All the children had a fantastic day of learning and a lot of fun. One child told us that it was the best day he had ever had and another added that her ice cream was even better than a McFlurry.