Cute lambs are perfect way to relax for students
BURTON’S biggest school teamed up with the National Forest Adventure Farm for some unusual mental health therapy – lamb petting.
To mark Mental Health Awareness Week, the Tatenhill-based visitor attraction brought four lambs to the de Ferrers Sixth Form Campus in Waterloo Street, Burton.
Some 120 students had the opportunity to take a break from their studies and meet and stroke the lambs, just some of the 750-plus born at the farm this year.
It has been widely acknowledged that the pandemic has had a negative impact on people’s mental health. A survey of 13–25-year-old by the charity Young Minds found 67% believed the pandemic will have a long-term negative effect on their mental health.
The lamb petting fitted in well with the theme of 2021’s Mental Health Awareness Week, which is nature. National Forest Adventure Farm director Tom Robinson said:
“We were delighted to help The de Ferrers Academy with this initiative. I certainly advocate experiencing nature as having a positive effect on mental health. Animals can have a wonderfully calming effect and our lambs certainly provided an unusual distraction to the stresses of student life.”
Hannah Roberts, head of the sixth form campus, said: “This has been a wonderful experience for our students. The excitement and joy this has bought has been fantastic to see.”
Student Lizzie Bull added:“the lambs are so adorable, it’s hard to believe. It has given me a lift for the rest of the day.”
Regularly updated and extended over the years, the adventure farm now includes an outdoor adventure play area, animal display areas with
outdoor paddocks and chicken feeding area, farmyard safari tractor ride, barrel stampede ride, animal barn with meet and feed animal areas, outdoor go-karts, guinea pig petting, jumping pillows, JCB big dig zone, musical maze, Jurassic sand play and fossil dig and mini quad bikes. There is also an indoor threestorey soft play centre and Scarecrow Joe’s Restaurant, although this is currently closed until further notice due to Covid restrictions.
The farm offers a variety of themed family events throughout the year including the annual maize maze with an intricate maze cut into 9ft-high corn for families to explore, New Life spring event to meet the new baby animals on the site with lambing demonstrations, feeding, new chicks and planting. There are also autumn and Halloween events with pumpkin picking and potato planting.
For more information, visit www. adventurefarm.co.uk