École de ferme (document en anglais)

Farm School

Shaun Robins, 15, tells us about his life at Brymore School in Somerset where pupils live, study and work on an organic farm. Somerset

is a county in south-west England. It is rural and agricultural, famous for cheddar cheese and cider.

I know a lot about farming because my family have been farming for hundreds of years. We have a sheep farm on Exmoor, but we also

have a few cows, and my mum breeds horses. I want to take over the farm from my dad one day, so I really liked the idea of coming

to a school specialised in agriculture and horticulture.

The boarding school is small and friendly. I live in a house in the village where we have dormitories of five boys. It’s an all-boys school.

We have a school uniform, but a lot of the time we wear work clothes.

We do all the normal school subjects, like maths, English, geography, science and history. But we also do horticulture, agriculture and engineering.

We all help on the school farm and in the gardens. It’s an organic farm, all our vegetables are organic. We grow vegetables and Christmas

trees, and we feed and look after the animals; we have to milk cows and sheep. We can do all the farming jobs adults do, and when

you’re in Year 10 like me, you learn to supervise the younger ones.

We also do lots of technical subjects like engineering and working in the forge. I love engineering. I discovered steam engines when I

was about eight. I started making model engines, then helping on bigger ones. I like driving and working on the mechanics.

I’ll be doing my General Certificate of Secondary Education exams (GCSE) next summer. After that, I might stay on for Year 12, or if I

get good results I might try to get into agricultural college. And then I’d like to start work on the family farm. I don’t mind working with

my parents. I just love the general lifestyle of farming. You don’t have someone in control of you, you’re the boss, you can just do what

you want and enjoy it. I hate being inside. I’m a very “outside” person.

Shaun’s day : We have school six full days a week, but Saturday afternoons are more sports and activities.

7 a.m. Get up and get ready.

7.45-8.30 Breakfast.

8.30-9.00 Free time.

9.00-9.15 Assembly – We have assembly once a day : the entire school meets for important information, a prayer and a

hymn.

9.15-11 Our first three lessons.

11-11.15 Break.

11.15-1.05 Three more lessons.

3.45-5.00 On different days, duty on the farm or in the

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