School’s out for summer
With this being something so new, the first thing to establish was what to call it. It was first thought of as a farm school, but this term was being used for schools which had installed a farm on their grounds. The term Farm Education centre was the best option given the keywords, so we added Lancashire which has a great farming heritage, and cemented our place in this new market with a great domain name too. Looking in to the future, it’s also very versatile if they decide to franchise the business model.
The website was developed with a teacher first approach. We worked with Elaine to develop curriculum outcomes – all downloadable as PDF’s for easy printing. All safety documentation were produced and placed on the website where it was easy to find. Examples were produced, showing what a typical day would look like, while showing that every session could be customised to the teachers requirements. We added a large group of pages detailing how we worked with schools, added an availability calendar, pre-visit requirements, booking forms, and simple pricing information.
During the styling phase, we fired the drones up and got the cameras out to capture lots of shots of the working farm and the children enjoying the events, which really helped to explain what it was all about. Finally, we got all their social media channels running and promoted their special events, gaining over 600 followers within the first week without any paid advertising.
Since the launch, we’ve been working with LEAF and Lancashire County Council, been on BBC Countryfile, and even visited 10 Downing Street to run a workshop for Aksharta Murty. And this is just the beginning – watch this space!
