Fowey River Academy Farm

The who, what, where, how, when

Who

Fowey River Academy is a secondary school based in Fowey and serving the surrounding area including Par, St Blazey and Lostwithiel.

Cornwall is one of the 10 poorest regions in Europe with Par/St Blazey listed as the second poorest area in Cornwall.
15,100 children (under 16) live in poverty, 22.8% of households are in fuel poverty and more than 30,000 people are on health related benefits.
Last year police reported that a project to feed young people during school holidays resulted in a reduced crime rate.Data from Eurostat

The farm project is run by Richard Brown a youth worker employed by Anchor Church (charity number 1186018) and seconded to the school. Richard has over 35 years experience in youth work and has run several gardening and work related projects.

What

The development of a school farm including:

Barn

The barn will help us store food, tools, timber and run woodworking classes when it is wet.

Polytunnel

This will enable us to grow a wide variety of produce including peppers, chillies, cucumber, lettuce, tomatoes, etc. It will enable young people to learn gardening skills and also provide a place of rest and peace.

We will also be selling/gifting veg boxes. We have a local business on board who already sells veg boxes. He will help with selling and distribution of the boxes. This will provide a small income for the project helping to keep it sustained. We will also be giving the boxes to families on low income.

Outdoor Kitchen

We are building an outdoor kitchen so we can teach young people how to cook and eat healthier foods. This includes pizzas (we have been given a pizza oven) with fresh ingredients harvested from our polytunnel. Burgers with free range mince and bread made from scratch.

Feeding hungry young people is an important part of our project

Chickens

Keeping livestock and teaching young people how to care for them will be beneficial in many ways. As a lot of the young people are dealing with mental health issues this will include pet therapy. 

Where

At the school adjacent to the front football pitch. The site is approximately 1 acre in size and will allow development of the site as a garden, orchard and woodworking site. We are building a small amphitheatre which will encourage teachers to come and do lessons outdoors. Being outdoors is known to be beneficial and the charity Mind lists several areas where it can help your mental health. These include mood, self-esteem (an area young people struggle in) and confidence. It can help if you are stressed or angry and help you in becoming more active. 

Outdoor Classroom

There is a challenge to encourage teachers to use the resource and we are planning areas that will enable teaching staff to be included. For instance, an amphitheatre as a classroom. The stream for science. Easels built and located around the site for art use. Outdoor instruments to include music.

How

We are committed to empowering the young people to do this for themselves. One of the key elements of this project is that the young people build and design it themselves. This is clearly shown in two projects we are currently developing. We gave the young people the titles – outdoor kitchen and rose garden. We then asked the two groups to decide where they wanted to site the ideas and how they wanted to develop them. The young people acting together built on ideas and are currently in the middle of building both projects.

When

I wished I had started this project in blazing sunshine. We started in January 2024 and have fought through gales and continuous rain. Each morning I arrive on site with 4/5 young people and will spend a couple of hours on the various projects. We then spend an hour talking ideas through and learning different things about gardening, woodworking, chicken care. 

On a Wednesday afternoon we have a larger group of young people who are building the outdoor kitchen and rose garden.

Off-Grid

We will be totally off-grid and fully reliant on rain water and the sun to power the project.

Solar Powered Water Pump

Our first off-grid purchase. The Futurepump SF2 is optimised for two acre farms and uses renewable energy to transform the way we irrigate your land. It can be combined with a variety of irrigation accessories such as sprinklers, tanks or drip irrigation.

Key Dates

January 2024 – The project starts

February 2024 – Orchard planted with 5 trees

March 2024 – Barn built, start of cellar build

March 2024 – Chicken enclosure starts with chickens and ducks arriving over the Easter holidays

March 2024 – Start of building the outdoor raised beds.

March 2024 – Continuation of orchard planting with additional planting under the trees to demonstrate permaculture principles

April 2024 – Polytunnel build and completion. Raised beds are built and irrigation added. Solar pump installed on barn.

April 2024 – Weather station built and results posted to website

April 2024 – Building the feeding station for the birds and installation of a camera to film

May 2024 – Continuation of planting out the polytunnel with a mixture of annual and perennial planting

May 2024 – Stream build with water wheel. Using different materials to show how energy can be generated and efficiency.

June 2024 – Building a bicycle which will generate electricity. 

June 2024 – Solar panels installed.

Milestones

In its development stages we have no milestones other than breaking ground.

Sustainability

In developing the project we are aware that it needs to be sustainable. The largest drain on resources is funding for the youth worker.

In the maintenance and running of the farm, through selling produce and eggs the gardening side of the farm will self-sustain.

We will be able to take the bike generator to various events and sell smoothies made by cycling. We will seek funding to develop this further and build 3 more cycle generators and set-up a cinema. This can also be hired out to generate an income.

Encouraging teachers to use the resource and see it as beneficial to the school will also be a challenge.