Making a difference to farm animal welfare is child's play!

30.07.11

Year three pupils from East Bergholt Primary in Colchester have beaten primary and secondary schools all over the country to win our national Farm Animal Challenge.

The competition challenged schools to come up with a campaign to improve the lives of farm animals by encouraging more people to choose higher welfare meat and dairy.

Save our pigs!

Pupils from the school ran a 'Save our Pigs' campaign with a school assembly for parents and members of the community. The class also used animation, role play, puppet shows and mock TV adverts to get across the higher welfare message.

They even shared their project with a partner school in Uganda, where children often have to raise their own animals for food.

David Allen, head of our education department, said:

The schools entry ‘Save our Pigs’ was the most innovative and interactive we saw – they were the clear winners!

It is a fantastic example of how young people are engaged in big issues, and can really help make a difference to the lives of millions of farm animals across the country.

A day with Freedom Food pigs

As well as winning a trophy and £200 for their school, we arranged for the students to spend the day at local farmer Mark Hayward’s Freedom Food pig farm in Deben Valley Suffolk, which raises pigs to our higher welfare standards.

At the farm, the children learnt all about how pigs live, what they eat and what they need to be happy and healthy. Sarah Temple, year three teacher at the school said:

Taking part in the farm animal challenge has been so rewarding for the children and it’s enlightening for them to see the welfare issues around farming. I would recommend taking part in competitions like this to any teacher.

Visiting a real working farm was an amazing experience that has really brought everything we learnt in class to reality. The children got so much out of it - they loved seeing the pigs and learning how friendly, social and intelligent they are.

We hope East Bergholt School’s ‘Save our Pigs’ campaign will inspire other teachers and educators to use animal welfare as a vehicle for delivering the National Curriculum and developing the skills of young people.

Switch one for welfare

Freedom Food is our farm assurance and food labeling scheme. It’s the only UK farm assurance scheme to focus solely on improving the welfare of farm animals reared for food.

Support Freedom Food during Farm Animal Week (25 - 31 July), by switching one item in your shopping basket for a higher welfare alternative.

Find out why high price perception is the main barrier to high welfare for farm animals in our previous news.