Delivering the Primary Curriculum through Themes.
What Agriculture-4-U can do for the Primary Curriculum.
Welcome to the Agriculture-4-U Themes homepage.
As cross-curricular or themed approaches to learning are becoming increasingly popular, we have / are producing Agricultural based Themes for you to use. The nature of agriculture, including the science and technology involved means agriculture has links with lots of curriculum areas and topics schools have to cover. Indeed we see it as a golden opportunity to embed food, it’s production and the environment at the centre of pupils learning. Agriculture, has always been an integral part of our lives, but recent concerns over various aspects; food miles, GM Crops, Environmental impact, food security to name but a few, put Agriculture even more at the centre of today’s ever concerned society.
Perhaps most importantly, a focused, topic-based approach can make learning real.
Our themes seek to make learning real and to give pupils an understanding of agriculture, food production and the countryside, which builds year on year; giving them a better understanding of the issues so that they can then make their choices as informed future consumers and not be swayed by inaccurate media scare stories.
What could be better when teaching about food and healthy diets than showing how the food is grown and produced in a clear and interesting way?
Our aim is to provide you with up to date resources, based on Agriculture and the countryside, to help you cover the curriculum using a themes approach. We will give you some suggestions and resources for each lesson, but just how you use these is down to you and what you think best suits your learners and your school situation.
We would be please to hear your feedback and comments. We want to know how it went; if you used our suggestions or not; how you used the resources; and how you think we might improve the service.
Themes from Agriculture-4-U
Themes produced (or in production) so far:
Year 1: Poo Poo Everywhere ! (Why are animals important?) - go to
Year 2: Why are plants important?
Year 3: 'Cheap' Cheep food has a cost!
Year 4: War on the farm - Farmers v Bugs - go to
Year 5: Digging for Victory - Why are peas frozen? Where does the ice come from? Is that where Polar Bears don't have any?
Year 6: What goes in must come out!
The aim of the themes is to build on pupils knowledge year on year as we have the 'big picture' in mind this progression is built in by default!
Agriculture in the Primary Curriculum.
Just in case you where wondering why agriculture is so important - and it's not just us saying that!
Food 2030, the Government’s new food strategy, is the first of its kind in over 50 years. In it they set out their vision of what they want the food system to look like in 2030, and how they hope to get with with agriculture and the food industries help. The vision is summarised into the key points below. See full details on Defra web site
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Use global natural resources sustainably.
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Enable the continuing provision of the benefits and services that a healthy natural environment provides.
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Promote high standards of animal health and welfare.
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Protect food safety.
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Make a significant contribution to rural communities.
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Allow us to show global leadership on food sustainability.
The key message from these points are to have a well educated consumer of the future who is able to understand the 'big picture' from an early age.
Which leads us nicely to education and the primary curriculum.
Several different approaches can be taken in using agriculture as a key role in the primary curriculum.
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Food
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Environment
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Sustainability
These approaches fit aspects of all areas of the curriculum:
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Understanding the arts
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Understanding English, communication and languages
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Historical, geographical and social understanding.
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Mathematical Understanding.
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Understanding physical development, health and well being.
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Scientific and technological understanding