OUTSTANDING IN ITS FIELD
Images of school children enjoying the Border Union Agricultural Society Schools Countryside Day
On one day in late spring, every primary five child in the Scottish Borders descends on Springwood Park in Kelso for the Border Union Agricultural Society (BUAS) Schools Countryside Day. This year’s event saw over 1,250 children and nearly 180 teaching staff from 64 schools across the region spend the day in a rural idyll created especially for them.
Hundreds of volunteers from local businesses gather here each year to teach school children about health, food, the environment, agriculture and rural lifestyle. The children take part in a wide variety of activities,
‘The emphasis is on learning through fun’
including sheep shearing, bread making, honey farming and butchery. Food production is a real focus, everything from ploughing to combine harvesting is covered, as is livestock. The children can even take part in a mock auction, bidding millions of pounds to buy the best sheep.
‘The emphasis is on learning through fun,’ says Douglas Stephens, the Chairman of BUAS. ‘It gives me a real lump in my throat when I see the children enjoying themselves, because I know they’re learning
‘Hundreds of volunteers gather to teach school children about health, food, the environment, agriculture and rural lifestyle’
where their food comes from and how to be environmentally aware of their surroundings.
The event was first held as a one-off day to celebrate the bicentennial year of BUAS, but has now become a legacy of education from the society to the children of the Borders. In the five years that the day has run, Springwood Park has played host to over 6,500 children. And judging by the happy faces in these photos, there will be many more to come.
‘1,250 children spend the day in a rural idyll created especially for them’
Clockwide from top left: Learning the art of sheep shearing; Richard Mackie, Head of Trading Standards spends his day off volunteering at Springwood Park; Emmy Mae Ballantyne and Caiden McHutchison from Wilton Primary in Hawick learn to milk a cow; Jamie-Lee Norman, Connor Turnbull, Nikola Krysa, Oliver Baranowski and Erin Landels; Crafting a ram’s horn.