From January 2024 – March 2025, we received funding from FIPL (Farming in Protected Landscapes) to restore our chicken fencing, facilitate educational visits, organise a programme of seasonal events, and recruit and evaluate volunteers.
Chicken Fencing
In March 2024, we re-fenced two of our fields (Clegg Field and Meeting Field). View our farm map here. These two fields are on a 4-year rotation of chickens and crops. This sustains soil nutrients, fertilises the land, serves as free weeding and pest control, and gives our chickens lots of roots and insects to feed on.
Educational Visits
We facilitated a total of 26 educational visits within the funding period.
As well as one off farm visits, we held recurring visits with two schools, Kites ARB from Cape Cornwall School and Penwith Academy (Wave) with the aid of sessional tutors Nick Taylor, Luke New and Julia Massey-Stewart.
The visits with Kites centred around habitat management, focussing on habitats found around Bosavern, how to maintain and improve them, and what this means for biodiversity. Habitats explored included hedges, wetland, scrapes, scrub, soil, compost, wildflower meadows and more!
The visits with Penwith Academy were focussed on the growing of sustainable food in our market garden and how it benefits us and the world around us. Looking in depth into compost, soil health, permaculture, tree care and chicken care whilst developing photography skills.
Subject areas covered:
Feedback from Schools
‘Many outdoor activities which required ‘doing’ were very engaging for our students’
‘Opportunity for students to develop independence and problem solving skills’
‘The students were able to develop communication and team building skills in a safe space where they could make mistakes and learn from them’
‘Introducing students to healthy eating – all students ate a mangetout.’
‘It was great to learn about harvesting, see different animals (grass snake), handle chickens and eggs, and build numeracy skills with weighing.’
‘Allowing students to work as part of a team. They have the opportuntity to learn about how vegetables grow and how to make our earth more sustainable.’
‘The students were able to lead their experiment. They learned about aspects of autumn crops and the nature that specialises on farms.’
‘Our visit went well beyond what we thought we would experience. The children left the farm inspired and well nourished in their understanding and hopes for the future.’
‘A fantastic provision with an amazing opportuntity for children to leave their comfrot zone and experience life on a working farm. Excellent tuition and children given the chance to feel helpful and listened to.’
‘Students appreciated the opportunity to be trusted with livestock. This really took them out of their comfort zones.’
We found that visits with students outside of mainstream learning were incredibly helpful for both the students and staff. Improvements in student’s independence and concentration at school before the visit was reported overwhelmingly with these schools. The visits also brought students out of their comfort zones, encouraging them to engage in the outdoors, handle chickens and try new foods. These were notable benefits outside of the standard educational benefit you would expect.
Programme of Seasonal Events
We organised and hosted a plethora of events during this funding period, from our usual farm open days, to free arts workshops for wellbeing. More infromation on our events over this time can be found here.
Volunteer Recruitment
In January/February 2024 we did a large recruitment drive around the local area for our volunteering opportunities. We were aiming to engage unemployed members of the community to help build skills and confidence.
Over the course of funding, we arranged four volunteer inductions open to anyone interested in joining us. These inductions included a tour of the farm, a detailed discussion of all our volunteer opportunities, an overview of site safety/policy, and an introduction to existing volunteers and staff.
We increased our overall volunteer numbers by 178.6%, and local community volunteer numbers by 76.9% from January 2024 to March 2025. Some of these volunteers were more temporary than others and have gone into full time employment, education or travelling whilst volunteering on farms globally since coming to us. Others are still volunteering with us on a weekly basis.
Volunteer Evaluation
We aim to provide both our local and WWOOF volunteers with many opportunties to improve their physical and mental health and wellbeing. We have repetedly found that coming to Bosavern results in improvement in these areas for many of our volunteers.
We have also seen large improvements in our volunteers’ knowledge, understanding and engagement in land management, biodiversity and conservation.
Feedback from Volunteers
‘I would not be lying if I said it completely brings me to life every week’ ‘Bosavern has given me job training and social connection’ ‘The thing I expected least was to be completely enamoured by the community element. Seeing old and young mixing is so ridiculously eye -opening and wholesome and something I see as being super-super important’ ‘I feel more happy and satisfied’ ‘I feel more interested in pursuing a career in farming, especially through community supported agriculture’ ‘I feel much more connected with and inspired by the land and nature’s cycles; this has fostered a sense of inner peace and connection to that which is bigger than me’ ‘I have felt more settled, knowing that this community space is available.’ ‘I feel purposeful and part of a community with a purpose. I feel as if we are doing something positive to meet the challenges of climate breakdown’ ‘I feel more optimistic about the future on a long-term basis, because of experiencing the community aspect of the farm, and because I have gained more direction in my life from volunteering here (in terms of vocation and interests).’ ‘Volunteering at Bosavern has given me a purpose and a means of directly benefiting my new community/ home. Enabled me to undertake healthy activity (including travelling to the farm on bike) and engage with others.’
