Larkrise Community Farm
We are a hands-on, all-inclusive community Care Farm, based near Trowbridge, Wiltshire.
We provide therapeutic, stimulating, animal care experiences for children and adults of all ages and abilities.
We are a hands-on, all-inclusive care farm, based near Trowbridge, Wiltshire.
We provide a fun, stimulating farming experience for children and adults of all ages and abilities.
- Placements for clients with learning difficulties, and accredited courses in animal care.
- Horticulture work experience for college/school students
- Riding lessons via our Larkrise Riding for the Disabled Group
- Carriage driving Farm Club every other Saturday morning for children of all abilities, from 5 – 16 years
We offer work placements for adults, college students and school age children and accredited ASDAN courses.
The working farm was originally established by the town's Larkrise Special School in 1987. The Charity was formed, and control handed over to the Executive Committee in 1999.
Thanks to the generosity of our major sponsors, the house builders George Wimpey (now Taylor Wimpey), we moved in 2005 to our superb purpose-built premises on West Ashton Road, close to the village of West Ashton.
The building provides living space for a population of small or domestic animals, plus room for tuition of our students, administration and storage. The large animals live outside in our 6-acre grounds, which are divided into paddocks and provided with field shelters.
Prospectus for school and college teachers and tutors and mentors for people with additional needs.
Larkrise Community Farm is a user-friendly, hands-on Community Farm.
We provide our therapeutic training in life skills for our students within an animal-based environment. We mainly work in conjunction with Education Authorities helping coach children with social and emotional needs back into learning. We also work with adults who have a range of needs including learning difficulties and provide opportunities for practical animal husbandry for students already taking animal management courses at college.
Our students work with a variety of different animals to advance their animal knowledge and also their life skills.
They work with others as a team to improve self-esteem and confidence and achieve a sense of importance.
Some students find working with animals can reduce stress and anxiety. They may be working towards a recognised qualification or directly towards future employment. We find that school students attending Larkrise Community Farm have shown improvements in motivation because they want to attend the Farm. This in turn has led to improved school attendance and motivation within school lessons.
We provide full day or half day placements for students. At the end of each daily placement they are required to write a record of their activities on the farm on that day in their personal portfolio. The Farm also offers ASDAN courses to enable students and individuals to develop life skills, as well as practical animal care experience.