Shelley Primary School students play their part at Farnham Community Farm

Yes Futures is a multi-award winning education charity. The charity specialises in running personal development programmes in Sussex and the South East, to help students to realise their potential and develop the life skills needed to succeed in and out of the classroom.

A key part of the Finding Futures programme is the Play Your Part day, where students volunteer with a local community project.

Throughout the day, students learn the benefits of giving back to their community, gain valuable experience in charitable activities, and develop key teamwork and communication skills outside of the school environment.

Before setting off for the farm, the Shelley Primary School students set themselves a goal for the day, based on the four Yes Futures’ Talents: confidence, communication, resilience and self-awareness.

Many of the students set themselves a goal of improving their resilience and communication skills: for example, by persevering even if the activities were challenging, and by communicating effectively and kindly with their fellow students and adult volunteers at the farm.

When they arrived at the farm, students were split into groups with other students who they wouldn’t normally work with, to give them the chance to build their communication skills.

The students then took part in a range of varied activities, including weeding the vegetable beds, ready for planting new vegetables to feed the local community.

Despite this being a physically demanding task, the students got stuck in and supported one another brilliantly, making a significant difference to the vegetable beds in a short space of time.

Students then worked together as a team to plant potatoes, assigning each other different roles to work together as effectively as possible.

The students’ final task was to wheel compost across the farm, ready to plant new vegetables. Students turned this into a competition, to see who could fill the most wheelbarrows and carry them across the farm the quickest.

At the end of the day, students reflected on what they’d learned from the day and whether they’d succeeded in meeting their goal.

Many students highlighted that they’d enjoyed working with classmates who they wouldn’t ordinarily work with, and enjoyed seeing the difference they could make to a local not-for-profit organisation – especially when they worked together as a team.

Sophie Brown, one of Yes Futures’ coaches, said: "The Shelley Primary students worked together brilliantly at Farnham Community Farm.

"All of the students were highly engaged throughout the day and approached every task with enthusiasm, demonstrating excellent teamwork.

"For many of the students, doing practical work outside was something that they hadn’t done before, and many of the students were proud of themselves for learning something new.

"The students made a huge impact in the short time that they were at the farm, and they should all be very proud of themselves."

To find out more about Yes Futures and their programmes, visit https://www.yesfutures.org/ or follow the charity on social media on @yesfutures.

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