The GWCT Grampian art competition launched in 2019 and has now been extended across Aberdeenshire. Our first overall primary winner was Matteo from Midmar Primary who won with his pencil drawing of a fox, seen below. Matteo received many prizes but one of them, courtesy of the Royal Northern Countryside Initiative who work closely with RHET (Royal Highland Educational Trust), was a farm visit for his whole class. This would have been due to go ahead in the spring of 2020 but due to Covid it was postponed, and the class did at last get to go this year.
Midmar primary visited Wester Tulloch Farm courtesy of the Thomson family. Here they looked at the different land uses around and learnt about the Thompsons’ timber business. They saw beautiful cows with calves, sheep with lambs and they also sat on a combine! They were then treated to juice and cakes from Mrs Thomson, a proper Aberdeenshire fly cup!
We sadly had to cancel the 2020 competition, but our 2021 overall primary winner was Beibhinn Baker from Bervie Primary who won with her image of a pheasant as seen here. Her class enjoyed a fantastic trip to Dendoldrum Dairy Farm, courtesy of Gregor and Faye Colquhoun, where they run an automatic milking system. Cows are milked by robots approximately 3 times a day, producing a total of around 22,000 litres of milk a day. One of the pupils highlights was seeing the process that the slurry goes through as it is dried using heat from a bore hole and turned into bedding for the cattle parlour. A superb example of recycling.
Images of Bervie School learning about Slurry and dairy cattle. Photo credit to Alison Johnston, Royal Northern Countryside Initiative.
It is with much thanks to the Royal Norther Countryside Initiative that these farm visits can go ahead and be so informative. Thanks also to all those who took part in the art competition across the region. The 2022 art competition has recently been launched across Aberdeenshire, Angus and Perth and Kinross. Each area has a farm visit as the main prize for the overall winning primary artist. The farm visit is also local to the winning pupil’s school and open to the winners whole class. RHET always work to ensure the visit fits with some ongoing learning at school and aim to give pupils a valuable experience.