Hello everyone! My name is Farmer Jeanie, and I am the Education Lead at White Post Farm.
I have always loved animals, and as a child I loved going to visit White Post Farm! It was one of my favourite places to go I have lots of pictures and videos as the farm is where I spent lots of my early birthdays! If you’d have told 5-year-old me that she’d be working there 17 years later, she wouldn’t believe it! My job as the Education Lead means that I plan and deliver the education we provide, so I thought that I’d tell you more about how I got my job and what I do!
I’m currently studying at university to become a teacher! I will be graduating this summer, so in July I will be fully qualified! As part of my degree, I had to do some voluntary work outside of a school setting and when I saw that White Post Farm offered educational clubs and trips, I enquired straight away if I could volunteer there!
So, in May 2022, I started my voluntary work at White Post Farm. I was helping with the Little Farmers and Home Education clubs, as well as doing some guided farm tours! I loved what the clubs provided, and that the children had a variety of learning opportunities with lots of different animal interactions. I loved the Little Farmers sessions, and that the children could meet an animal related to the story, nursery rhyme or theme that the session was themed on! I found Home Education really interesting too, and how it was linked to popular topics in the KS1 and KS2 national curriculum!
I was gutted when my voluntary work experience came to an end as I was loving what I was doing at the farm. Then, on my last day, I was offered a job (thank you Farmer Rebecca!) and I ended up continuing to work on the farm for the rest of the summer! Fast forward to today, I am now the Education Lead at White Post Farm. As I am a (nearly) qualified teacher, my qualifications help lots with my role for planning what we provide and for developing it too!
Education and working with animals, my two favourite things…
I have always loved teaching, so being able to educate anyone who visits White Post Farm about our lovely animals makes me very happy! It is my dream job – my two favourite things combined in one!
The education at White Post Farm is all delivered through experience, with the animals that live here at the heart of it. So, whether your educational experience involves a trip to goat row to feed our Pygmy goats, creating some enrichment treats for Angus and the rabbits in warren, or even giving Hulk the Sulcata tortoise a bath, we aim to ensure that you have a hands-on opportunity to learn something new! With lambing and kidding season here you’ll get to see lambs and goat kids too. My favourites!
I have lots of new, exciting ideas for the future of education at White Post Farm and I want to provide lots of different opportunities, not just for children but for teenagers and adults too, so definitely stay tuned for what’s to come!
I think if I had to pick my favourite thing about working at White Post Farm, it would definitely be the animals. Being the education lead means that I work with all the animals, and I have to know a lot about them! I couldn’t just pick one favourite, but it’s definitely a close call between the meerkats and the rabbits!
Hopefully I will see some of you soon at Little Farmers, Home Education or maybe even something new!
Farmer Jeanie
