High school looks to rebrand farm

Rangiora High School is looking to rebrand its farm as an "outdoor lab or classroom".

The school is exploring opportunities to make its farm relevant in the 21st century, board of trustees chairman Simon Green says.

"The board is excited about moving away from a more traditional farm to an outdoor lab or outdoor classroom."

The school’s head of science, David Newsham-West, was released from classroom duties this year to conduct a review of the farm and explore future opportunities.

But principal Bruce Kearney said the farm is not for sale.

He said the school had been building connections with Lincoln University and was looking at a similar model.

"They do the full process really well on a larger scale, so we can learn from Lincoln and what they do and look to offer it on a smaller scale."

Mr Green said as the environment around the school and farm became increasingly urbanised, it placed the farm under greater scrutiny.

"It is like a glasshouse. People are looking in at what we are doing, whether it is raising farm animals, plants or biota nodes.

"And it is important to us for our learning to be seen in action, but we need to ensure that what we do is ethical."

Mr Kearney said the school also needed to consider what was sustainable and added value to the school.

It meant the future of animals at the school was under consideration.

Options included moving from rearing lambs to fattening stock, or moving away from animals altogether.

"The world is shifting to be more sustainable and shifting away from meat, so we need to prepare our students for a changing world," Mr Kearney said.

Mr Green said students who were keen on farming had the opportunity to spend time on a large scale dairy or dry stock farm during class time.

But the farm still had a role to play in giving students a taste of the rural sector and what opportunities were available.

The school was also looking to move all of its classrooms on to the main school site, on the west of East Belt, which will make more land available for the farm.

Mr Kearney said Mr Newsham-West will present a proposal to the board by the end of the year, before consulting with the wider school community.

He said the vision would include working alongside Lincoln University, the Ministry of Primary Industries and Environment Canterbury to prepare students for future careers in the rural sector.

"We have to accept that the nature of our students has changed.

"When the school was established in the 1880s it was mostly farming families, but now more than 80% of our students are urban."

 - Public interest journalism funded through New Zealand on Air.