As part of our hands-on learning approach, Village School operates a school farm, with gardens and animals that the children learn to take care of.
Our school farm
Being situated on 8 acres of wonderful bushland in the outskirts of Melbourne allows us to provide a “farm life” experience to our students.
We keep farm animals, have various animals in each classroom and grow a selection of produce in our gardens.
Our current farm animals include chickens and horses, and we have guinea pigs, fish, lizards and a turtle in our classrooms.
Horse riding is also part of the school activities and ponies are sometimes agisted in the school paddocks.
Most recently our school gardens have provided us with fresh basil, rosemary, capsicum, and tomatoes.
Past school farm activities
Our range of animals and produce evolves over the years, as events and opportunities arise.
In the past we have housed goats, sheep and ducks in our farm and had rats, mice, lizards, fish and rabbits as classroom animals.
In the past we have also grown pumpkins, olives and bush tucker in our school kitchen garden beds.
School farm learning outcomes
The Village Farm is an essential part of the school’s social development program.
The children are responsible for the care and well-being of the farm animals and their enclosures.
This encourages organisational skills, time management, team effort and observational skills.
Handling animals also means confronting fears and learning strategies for success, which leads to the development of self-reliance and self-respect.
Experience with animal illness and death also provide children with opportunities to learn the value of life, appreciate the cycles of nature and life, and mourn and celebrate life.
School farm produce & business venture
The children at Village School run a small business venture, based on the products of the school farm animals and gardens.
The business is named VIPP, for “Very Important Poo and Products”, and offers items such as:
- Bags of horse manure
- Fresh eggs
- Excess farm produce on occasions
Any excess produce from family gardens for selling will also be gratefully received and sold to our community as part of the venture.
The school farm business venture connects academic skills to real life.
It provides opportunities to practise:
- Numeracy skills: Coin identification, making change and keeping books
- Literacy skills: Advertising
- Organisational skills, communication skills and social skills
Please ask at the front desk if you wish to purchase any of these products and keep an eye out for the occasional farmer’s stall in the gazebo after school.
Here’s a collection of photos of our school farm and classroom animals over the years:
Our approach to learning
For more information on our learning programs, please see:
Experiential Learning Programs Our focus is always on using practical, real-life experience to help students grasp important concepts and develop the skills that will serve them in life. Read more »
Outdoor Education We use the amazing resources at our disposal to help students build a strong relationship with the outdoors and an appreciation of the natural world. Read more »
Bush School Our bush school setting allows us to bring nature into our daily learning activities, helping students develop a healthy relationship with the natural world. Read more »