Learning how to help a lamb being born, stroking a sheep and thrilling to the speed of sheep shearing helped make a day out of the classroom fun and fascinating.

The pupils of Bere Alston School were among 1,500 primary school pupils from about 40 schools across Devon at the Westpoint Centre, Exeter for Farmwise, an annual event that teaches how and where local food comes from.  

Running now for ten years, Farmwise puts on show every part of the farmyard and beyond, from calves to combine harvesters, honey bees to horticulture. It also included a sheep simulator and a cuddly toy covered in gloop to simulate delivering lambs. Children also fed pork mince through a sausage machine into casings, cooked them and sampled them. They picked apples from an apple orchard and put them in a mulcher and then a press to make apple juice.

Gareth Bemister, Bere Alston School headteacher, said: “We visited the environment area and planted some peas. We also got a demo from the land surveying robot dog.

“We visited the vegetable area and sat in a tractor. In the pigs’ section we found out about how a pig becomes pork and how the pigs are fed.

“We also saw a sheep being sheared and the children even did a ‘disgusting’ lambing demonstration. It was a fun day for all of our year 5s who behaved impeccably as always.”

Deborah Custance-Baker, chairman and key organiser of the event, said: “This year, we’ve got 1,500 children here so we’re back to pre-pandemic levels of attendance. They’re all primary school age, and at that age they just absorb information, it’s completely fantastic. It’s a day out for them from the classroom but they’re learning so much while they’re here.”

Cllr Percy Prowse, chairman of Devon County Council, added: “When kids are standing and looking at the stuff on display, there’s no mistake as to what they’re looking at. Changing the classroom to this venue once a year is a ten out of ten top mark, surely.”