Suzy Stone: Reflecting on a year in the education team 17 Mar

We’ve been working on bigger and better things throughout 2019 to build our outreach throughout the local community, we’ve expanded the delivery to schools and are constantly working to encourage education of young people’s knowledge around the topics of food, farming, and the countryside.

What are some of your highlights from your time at the Showground so far?

We had an amazing time working on and delivering Lincolnshire Day, this event has expanded from a one-day event to huge two-day event due to the demand we had from local schools. All the exhibitors we welcomed were great and delivered excellent hands-on learning experiences for all ages. We welcomed so many new businesses to Lincolnshire Day who really got involved, to see every single young person engaged in the day really was amazing. In the future, we’d really like to welcome more new Lincolnshire employers and grow the event year on year.

Schools’ Challenge at the Lincolnshire Show was another highlight, last year was the first year of running the event ‘in house’. To document the first year, we had a video made all about the Schools’ Challenge. This is a great tool to use when advertising the programme to new schools who may not have been involved before, to learn what the Schools Challenge is all about.

Our Farmhouse Breakfast Week has also been extended to run across six days rather than five due to overwhelming demand. We welcomed over 180 children during the 2020 Breakfast Week who got involved with making porridge, omelettes, learning all about eggs and the farming story.

Finally, I’ve been working on developing our Impact Group programme. This year we hosted Business Workshops for the first time, welcoming experts in their field to talk to our members all about a range of topics including marketing, business planning and diversification. These workshops received excellent feedback and we are looking to run a similar programme next year.

What new developments have taken place in the Education department over the last year?

Over the last year or so we’ve really worked hard to build closer links and relationships with Secondary Schools. We’ve also developed a brand-new education brochure, that includes all aspects of our programme and is a great tool to take into schools to help tell the story of everything we do at the Lincolnshire Agricultural Society, and how they can get involved! We’ve also launched our new careers branding which we use when attending careers fairs and events – we hope this will help us stand out and engage with students and teachers.

Are there any challenges in your role?

We do have a few challenges in the education team, we see there are quite a few challenges facing teachers. We do have to work hard to make sure they see the importance of embedding food and farming education into the curriculum, and that we are a great tool to support this.

What has been the most memorable moment from your time at the Lincolnshire Showground?

This is easy! One of our students at the most recent Farmhouse Breakfast Week turned to me at the end of the day and said “I’ve been at this school for six years now, and this is the best day ever!”