An amazing opportunity for a motivated individual to run and develop a farm has a arisen.
The successful person will get the chance to manage around 200 acres and build up successful herds of pigs and cattle and a flock of ewes.
The individual should be passionate and professional with a proven ability to build positive relationships with children and staff.
Jamie’s Farm exists to transform the lives of vulnerable children in challenging urban schools by providing our unique combination of ‘farming, family and therapy’. Having expanded onto a second site in Hereford in 2014 and third site in Monmouth in 2018 and proven that our model is scalable, we are now in the midst of expanding onto a fourth site to enable us to reach an extra 450 children a year. This is an amazing opportunity for a motivated individual to run and develop a Farm. They will get the chance to manage around 200 acres and build up successful herds of pigs and cattle and a flock of ewes. We are seeking a passionate and professional individual with proven ability to build positive relationships with children and staff, in order to play a crucial role in ensuring that all our young Jamie’s Farmers are able to gain the transformative experience that they deserve.
About Jamie’s Farm
Jamie’s Farm helps children to flourish at home, in education and in the community through an intensive week-long immersion in rural life. We provide young people with a tailored range of activities designed to offer each an opportunity for achievement, as well as a supportive family environment that encourages them to push themselves out of their comfort zone. Our therapeutic input makes use of individual and group sessions to allow pupils to reflect on their lives on the farm and back home, in order to draw out tangible strategies for improvements to be realised when they return. By working with teachers and committing to follow up visits in school, we aim to make changes catalysed by Jamie’s Farm last; internal and external evaluation has proven this so.
The initial spark for the charity came from Jamie Feilden, who was teaching in a Croydon comprehensive school when he began taking inner-city pupils back to his home farm in Wiltshire. Eight years on, we welcome 500 young people each year to our beautiful 14th Century Cotswold farmhouse and purposely converted barn. Now, building on the charity’s firm financial foundations, we are expanding the charity, in order that greater numbers of young people can benefit from the transformational experience we aim to offer. Our growth to our fourth site is the crucial step in our development. By 2020, we aim to be working with 2000 young people a year, across five sites. This would represent a significant proportion of the 30,500 vulnerable young people who are most in need of our intervention. Consequently, we would be significantly contributing to tackling the grave problem of social and academic exclusion on a national scale.
However, this grand ambition will only be successful if we can maintain the quality of our intervention, even in the midst of this expansion. The fourth site in Lewes offers a wonderful environment with which to recreate the magic of Jamie’s Farm, and we are determined to recruit into this site a staff team we can entrust to carry the Jamie’s Farm torch into a new area. They will be responsible for quickly establishing the purposeful, welcoming, nurturing environment that is so conducive to enabling pupils to see themselves in a new light. While Jamie’s Farm is not a franchise model and each farm fits in to a broader Jamie’s Farm family, we know that the quality of our staff defines us as an organisation and Allington Farm, Lewes – The home of Jamie’s Farm IV leads directly to the impact we achieve.
Major responsibilities
Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
1 – Responsible for all major farming activities, including:
- Managing the supply of all animal feed and medicines
- Ensuring the cost effectiveness and financial viability of the working farm
- Ensuring the high levels of animal welfare we expect on our exemplar farm, including bedding up and feeding all animals
- Managing hay making, woodland and land management
- Caretaking responsibilities including regular upkeep of most household and farm plumbing, electricity supply and troubleshooting domestic issues when they appear
2 – Participation in up to four visits a month, including:
- Planning and delivering farm based activities with children including daily feeding round, log chopping and major farming responsibilities (30 hours/ week)
- Contributing to farm life including daily walks and meal times
- Leading evening activities and running simple post-meal meetings around the dinner table
- Managing sporting activities and co-ordinating opportunities for adventure
3 – Other major responsibilities include:
- Being on call for all animal emergencies, especially around lambing, calving and higher levels of activity on the farm
- Being a specified member of staff at least one weekend a month, responsible for looking after house lets and security on the farm
- Co-ordinating specific farm based volunteers
Experience, Skills, Abilities:
- Extensive experience of farming, alongside a passion and an ability to set up a farm from scratch
- Ability to exemplify Jamie’s Farm core values of positivity, passion, generosity, collaboration and professionalism
- Ability to develop strong relationships with vulnerable young people in a short amount of time
- Willingness to offer firm boundaries as well as a caring approach towards working with challenging behaviours
- Interest and enthusiasm for living and working in a rural setting
- Interest in the benefits of education beyond the classroom, especially for vulnerable groups
- Sensitivity to racial, cultural and ideological diversity
- Strong work ethic and ability to share this with children
Benefits:
- Competitive salary
- Up to £10,000 worth of further benefits, including:
- Accommodation onsite in beautiful farmhouse setting, including bills and council tax
- All meals during visits
- Use of company mobile phone
- 21 days annual leave plus Bank Holidays
- Participation in Jamie’s Farm study group sessions
- Opportunity to be an integral part of a dynamic and supportive team culture
Timeline:
- Deadline for applications: 9am on the 15th October, 2018
- First interview: Week beginning 29th October, 2018
- Potential second interview: 5th November, 2018
- Notification of decision: By 9th November, 2018
Start date:
To be negotiated, but probably February 2019
Apply now:
Please submit one page letter and CV to toby@jamiesfarm.org.uk
Due to the nature of our work with young people, on acceptance of offer all Jamie’s Farm employees are subject to an enhanced DBS check in accordance with our Safeguarding Policy.
