Written by Kaaviya, Year 8
On the sunny morning of the 16th of June Year 8 headed out to Rushall Farm. We were full of excitement and anticipation. Covered in sunscreen, wearing our sun hats and sunglasses, we were ready to take on the heat!
The hustle and bustle of the coach carried on for half an hour longer than expected but hopes remained high and before we knew it we had arrived. Once we had reached the farm we had to step in disinfectant since we had come from a city and we had only just arrived on the farm. Following on from this we met the lovely farm staff who introduced us to the five year cycle of the fields on the farm. We learnt this was done to keep the soil healthy and this was very important because it was an organic farm (an organic farm is a farm that doesn’t use chemical fertilisers or pesticides).
After that we did pond dipping. This was where we had to go onto a bridge and using nets we had to fish out all the tiny creatures and put them into a basin. I found this part of the day the most fun as we got to find all sorts of things like water scorpions, newts, water hog lice and many more exciting animals!
Then we ate our lunches and had a break before heading out into the scorching sun. We hopped onto a trailer that was being towed along by a tractor. It was a very bumpy ride and since the road was so narrow we had to keep our legs and arms inwards or else the plants could have cut us. Not only this but I thought I was very lucky since I didn’t have hayfever. After a few sequences of sneezes from both the teachers and students we had reached the fields. When we arrived at the fields we waded through the tall meadows where we came across a hole the farm staff had dug up earlier. We assessed the soil within the hole and did this again on the other side of the meadow. It was very interesting to find out the soil type could vary from only a kilometre apart!
The farmer then showed us the different crops he had in his field. My favourite field was the poppy field. Following on from this the trailer picked us up again and we got to see the animals. There was a herd of cows, two pigs and five chickens. After this we were all very exhausted so we hopped back on the coach and enjoyed our journey home in the cool air conditioning.
