Down on the farm

Maun Infant & Nursery School

Every child at Maun Infant & Nursery School in Nottinghamshire took Rubens's painting as a starting point for cross-curricular learning. Activities included a trip to a local farm. This was linked to the Department for Children, Schools and Families' initiative Growing Schools and the Year of Food and Farming.

The teachers arranged for the farmer to see a reproduction of Rubens's painting before the visit. He prepared for the children's questions about how to determine the age of hedgerows and how cows are milked today. The children were introduced to animals, such as a shire horse called Winston, and Reception children (three- to four-year-olds) got to see chicks hatching. Back at school, the children made clotted cream using various types of milk to test which one was the most successful.

The children also set up farm shops in role-play corners, wrote collaborative story books, made scarecrows, and invited a local wildlife artist into the school.

© Maun Infant & Nursery School. Photo: The National Gallery, London.