About Us
Learning Participating Educating Challenging
Here at Laverstoke Park Education Centre we are committed to teaching all generations the importance of natural farming in today's world. We offer educational insights covering every aspect of bio-diverse farming through this web site and through visits to the Education Centre and farm.
Over 10,000 students of all ages have visited us since 2003. We are delighted to offer our farm as a resource for learning outside the classroom, incorporating all aspects of the national curriculum. We have never charged for a school visit and never wish to do so, since we want it to be as accessible as possible to all students.
In 2007 we were recognised as part of the Enterprise Education body for supporting education within a farm. Our work organising a Mathematics Challenge with Test Valley School and their feeder primaries was such a success that we have continued holding this as an annual challenge for our local schools.
We first became involved with the NVQ Land Based Management Course for 16-19 year olds in 2006. These students work on our farm one day a week and learn all aspects of farming as part of their programme. This partnership has proved so successful that we continue to offer the farm and classroom as a resource for our local secondary school NVQ students.
In 2009 we started the GreenFingered Entrepreneurs. This is a week by week online programme for schools to grow their own produce. There are tips for success and an area outlining the cross-curriculum attainments and Budding Entrepreneurs. For further details please use this link.
Our purpose built classrooms were up and running by June 2009. This has made a huge difference, giving visitors a work-base within the natural surroundings of the site. We have endeavoured to use recycled material where possible, such as eco furniture and recycled rubber flooring. We have energy saving see-through cisterns, lights that dim automatically if it is bright and timer/motion sensors to turn lights off when no-one is in the room. In the next phase, we are planning to install an anaerobic digester to produce methane that can generate electricity to power the classrooms.
All of the environmental lessons taught by the Education Centre are put into practice on the farm. Therefore, we are able to demonstrate not just the theory of bio-diversity and healthy sustainable nutrition but also the practical day to day working of a real-life biodynamic farm.
We explain the farm's fundamental philosophy of healthy soil being the essential first step in the chain that leads to healthy sustainable nutrition.
We have designed our website with three different age group areas. Visit the Learning Zone area for our resources.
Laverstoke Park Education Centre is a registered charity (charity number: 1098108) whose aims are to promote bio-diverse farming and healthy sustainable nutrition.