Taking an adorable alpaca for a walk on the beach is not the start to an average school day – unless you’re on farm duty at Lathallan school.
Fluffy, Macapaca, Popcorn and Marmalade recently joined the independent school, on the Angus and Aberdeenshire coastal border, and have quickly adapted to life on the school’s farm.
Having came from Gilmour Bank Farm, in Lockerbie, the four female alpacas are basking in the attention from the children at the school.
Pupils care for the animals daily, doing everything from feeding and laying down hay, to mucking out.
Future enterprise ideas include selling the alpaca poop, which is said to be a great compost material, and selling the animal’s hypo-allergenic fur.
Therapets
Alpacas are well-known as therapets due to their relaxed nature, and head teacher Richard Toley said he was keen to bring them in to enhance pupil’s wellbeing.
He said: “Just the very fact that they’re here has given everybody a real lift.
“The wellbeing aspect is vital to what we do.
“If you look on some of the mental health education support sites, one of the first things that is mentioned is nature, it’s the environment, it’s interacting with animals.
“And the very fact that alpacas are often described as therapets, I think, emphasises that point.”
Focus on outdoor learning
Mr Toley started the school farm in 2017 with the help of a group of parents who are interested in agriculture.
The intention was to promote the farm-to-fork philosophy and enhance soft skills that young pupils gain by being involved in farm activities and outdoor learning.
It now boasts an apple orchard, soft fruit polytunnel, allotments with root vegetables and various flowers and plants, plenty of chickens and three stunning peacocks.
Farm duty has been worked into the curriculum, so that every class, from nursery through to S6, have a responsibility to be on the farm once a week.
Within that they carry out various tasks depending on the time of year and, while the class is not graded, outdoor learning is central to the school’s philosophy.
J7 pupil Rauben Cole said: “It’s a good reminder that school’s not all boring and that it’s something to look forward to.
“Hanging around with the chickens – it’s still school but it’s a lot more fun to hang around something that will run away from you and have to think of a way to get it to its feeding ground.”
Last term the J7s opened up a farm shop to sell the vegetables they had grown in the allotment to parents.
Rachel Porter, also in J7, said: “I feel excited to come to farm duty because it is really fun and I like planting stuff here.
“I’ve learned how to take care of plants, how important they are and how important bees are because without bees we probably wouldn’t exist.”
The school, which has an Eco-Schools Scotland Green Flag Award, is leading the way with its approach to outdoor learning as pressure rises for similar projects within mainstream education.
