“The Shepherding Programme is fantastic. It is informative, hands-on and educational and Mark and his family are welcoming, supportive, friendly, and exceptionally aware of the needs of kids with SEN. It is brilliant and I cannot fault it.”
Over the period, young people have worked directly with Mark Lowe, and other volunteers and the sheep, helping to complete the relevant sheep tasks for that week.
In the Summer, this has involved covering the following topics:
“Hi, my daughter has totally loved this activity and by that I mean she’s gutted to be coming home! The staff at the farm are lovely and great with the children. The 2½ hours a week
isn’t long enough accord-ing to my daughter lol. My daughter was very socially awkward the first time but the staff really supported her and helped her make new friends xx"
At Easter, this has involved covering the following topics:
"It's hard to put into words how much my son enjoyed this activity! He won't ever forget the experience of seeing a lamb being born. He's recounted it several times a day since! He thought Mark was great and loved the whole atmosphere on the farm."
“The lambing course provides fabulous opportunities for children with SEN to interact in a social setting they would never normally access. This provides them with great opportunities to learn new social skills and grow in self confidence. These courses have been a wonderful way for our son to socialise outside of the home/school environment.’
“My son loved it.
Everyone was so helpful and kind.”
"The lambing course was absolutely brilliant, it's so nice that the kids can have something that they don't feel like they're failing at. Mark is so patient and good with them and you can almost see their self esteem growing, thank you so much."
A small amount of theory was covered during the refreshments break, whilst sat round the kitchen table, with the assistance of Powerpoint and some simple worksheets, according to what was appropriate.
This program has now run for four years. Over this time the same young people have often come year after year. Five of these young people have gone onto attend the farm during regular term time programmes.
“Our son has thoroughly enjoyed the course, it has encouraged him to be independent and attend the course without us his parents, this would usually be a no go as he’s never met Mark the farmer or been at the farm before.
It has sparked an interest in farming and he talks non stop about what he’s been upto when he gets home.
I’m so very grateful for this opportunity, normally our son wouldn’t be able to attend any social activities through school holidays as most settings and staff are not trained to care for children with additional needs & the volume of other children on courses is to overwhelming for him.
Once again thank you for providing this opportunity, It’s made our son so happy to have been a part of something over the summer.”
