Welcome to

Farm Club

St. Ives

Explore the

magic

of Farm Club

St. Ives

Farm Club St. Ives is located in the heart of a Cambridgeshire town, within the district of Huntingdonshire. Our setting is comprised of thoroughly thought out learning and play spaces, catering for both primary and secondary aged students. The St. Ives site is proudly home to our Training Centre, as well as Farm Club HQ, our head office. Across our setting we are inclusive of indoor and outdoor spaces, as well as the carefully considered use of technology. Farm Club removes the prescription of location for sessions, allowing students to learn freely across the setting, wherever this is safe and possible. We welcome you to explore our provision below and discover the magic of Farm Club.

The Welcome Room

The Kitchen

The Meeting Hub

Farm Club HQ

The Farm Club animals have both indoor and outdoor spaces. This is not just to keep them safe, but also to encourage students to engage in animal care activities across all seasons.

We have a mini-greenhouse and growing patches at our setting. This encourages students to learn where food comes from by getting them in touch with their environment.

The Play Area is the largest indoor space at Farm Club. The space is used for group activities, team building, social integration, sports, sporting activities and our awards ceremonies.

Most of our students require a space that is calm, quiet and private. The Calm Room offers a sensory escape for our students, catering to the broad range of neurodiverse needs.

The Forest

The Outdoor Play Area

The Playground at Farm Club has been thoughtfully designed to encourage the development of both fine and gross motor skills, across all ages and abilities.

Forest School is integral to Farm Club, within the curriculum and beyond. The Forest is a magical place for exploration and learning-through-play activities.

The Creative Room

The Exploration Garden

A space to explore, express and make a mess! The Creative Room is an area for arts, crafts, music and drama - there are no creative limits in this room, gifting children the freedom to bloom.

The Exploration Garden is utilised greatly by Farm Club students. Inclusive of a mud kitchen and tuff tray stations, students feel enormous satisfaction getting involved with outdoor activities.

The Hexagon Hut

The Rabbit Houses

The Hexagon Hut is a wooden cabin, nestled into the Forest School area. The hut is used for curriculum activities as well as time-out, with the natural aesthetic providing a calm, nurturing environment.

A dedicated space to the much loved rabbits that Farm Club is home to! With enormous amounts of space, students and staff are able to enter the rabbit houses to interact safely and closely.

Cooking is at the heart of the Farm Club curriculum. Our kitchen and prep room are safely equipped with all of the necessary equipment for demonstration and participation sessions.

Every session at Farm Club starts in the Welcome Room. Here, students will register, get settled and be encouraged to engage in multiple invitations-to-play.

Farm Club St. Ives is home to Farm Club HQ - our head office. Our brilliant team are on hand to help with referral, safeguarding, administration and reintegration enquiries.

The Meeting Hub is an essential space at Farm Club, enabling us to hold meetings for students, staff, parents, carers and professionals here. It’s also a place for students to mix when it’s not in use!

The Growing Area

The Animal Cabin

The Calm Room

The Indoor Play Area

The Trim Trail

The trim trail at Farm Club is one of the most popular areas! Here, students are encouraged to explore and stay active as they navigate their way across the wide array of apparatus.

Refer a Student

•

Click Here

•

Refer a Student • Click Here •

“She [my daughter] often tells me ‘everyone is important at farm’ and now recognises not only her own achievements when she receives a end of term certificate but also the achievements of those around her - she’s always delighted to see how everyone is celebrated.”

Parent Testimonial 2024

High Dependency

Provision

High dependency provision at Farm Club is reflective of our staff ratios, the needs and requirements of the child and their families, as well as the approach that is taken to reintegrate a young person back into mainstream or specialist schooling. As a high dependency provision, we are able to supply outstanding resources, a tailored curriculum and dedicate unwavering time and attention to the children in our care, with careful consideration of the level of need required for each individual.

  • High dependency pastoral support on offer at Farm Club:

    • High staff ratios

    • Designated key worker/s

    • One to one support when required

    • Additional onsite student support provided by our Session Supervisor and Session Coordinator

    • Access to experienced mentors.

    • Parents and Carers are invited to visit Farm Club

    • Encourage outdoor learning

    • Monitor behaviour, attendance and progress being made against our four pillars, emotional regulation, appetite for learning and development, compliance and social integration

    • Our individual reporting system includes daily scores around the four farm club pillars, and half termly progress reports and progress graphs

    • Support with transition

    • Play based approach, creating meaningful connections and trust-based relationships between the student and key worker/s

    • Opportunity for social interaction and independent session time in equal measures dependant on the needs of each child

    • Identify barriers and solutions to learning and engagement in liaison with other professionals working with the student.

    • Ability to remove the student from situations they are uncomfortable in or that they are unable to cope with

    • Tailored activities to students likes and needs

    • Varied activity timetable with scope for independent curiosity and student ideas

    • Access to locality Team support can be arranged.

    • Working towards specified and tangible outcomes (LEJ, EHCP, Farm Club four pillars)

    • Behaviour management

    • Goal of reintegration for each student

    • Information, Guidance and Advice

    • Students aged 6 to 16, children outside of this age bracket can be discussed with us on a case by case basis

    • Children who are at risk of exclusion from mainstream education settings

    • Children with poor school attendance/refusing to attend school

    • Children with SEND

    • Children with SEMH needs

    • Children who have experienced trauma and ACE's

    • Children with ASD and autism

    • Children with ADHD (diagnosed and undiagnosed)

    • Students with EHCP’s

  • Farm Club currently does not accept direct referrals from parents and carers.

    The funding channels that are commonly accepted are:

    • School funded placements

    • Local authority funded placements

    There may be additional funding channels that can be accessed. This would be reviewed on a case by case basis.

  • Farm Club has worked with a broad range of additional needs over the years. Our dedicated staff team access training across SEMH, SEND and trauma in young people. We also have experience in students recovering from medical interventions and subsequent absences from school, related to medical trauma or ongoing treatment. At Farm Club, we are on hand to assist with issues surrounding attendance in school for a broad range of circumstances. Our aim is to reignite a passion for learning and socialising for all children, with any challenges or obstacles that a young person may be facing in mind.

The Offering

Weeks

Farm Club is open for approximately 39 weeks each year. We follow the timetable for mainstream schools, as proposed by Cambridgeshire County Council. Our services run between Monday and Friday in term times.

Hours

Students attending Farm Club have a maximum cap of 15 hours per week. This is applicable across all independent AP’s, and not dictated by Farm Club. Our sessions run between 9am-12pm and 12.30pm-3.30pm.

Attendance

Farm Club offers a minimum of one 3 hour session per week. A minimum of one term’s attendance is recommended, however shorter placements may be possible in extenuating circumstances.

Ratios

Farm Club ensure that the appropriate staff to student ratios are in place at all times. Ratio’s are dependent on the level of need for each individual. There are many opportunities for group and solo time in every session.

Staff Allocation

Every student at Farm Club is assigned a key member of staff upon successful induction. However, this does not however mean that the same staff member will lead every session, due to an awareness of attachment.

Support

There are two members of supporting staff present for every session: a session supervisor and a student supervisor. Our student supervisor’s are trained Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSL).

Reporting

A report is written for every student for each of the sessions that are attended. These reports are circulated to our professional contacts only (e.g. teachers). Half termly detailed reports are also written and shared.

Communication

We take great pride in our great communication between multiple agencies. Upon referral, key contacts must be shared with our team in order for us to keep all relevant parties updated regarding a student’s journey.

Reintegration

Our aim is to prevent any student from becoming permanently excluded. The process of this reality can look different on a case-by-case basis and vary in length of time. We always strive for reintegration into schooling.

Take a look

inside

A Flexible Films interview 2023

The Curriculum

The Farm Club curriculum has been meticulously curated to cater for the broad range of student needs within the setting.

Focus on our outcomes

The curriculum allows the opportunity to delve into our 4 key pillars: Emotional Regulation, Compliance, Social Integration and Appetite for Development & Learning. We’re able to quantify our progression with our specific, individualised reporting.

Wellbeing, welfare and mental health

By encouraging a curriculum that uses the outdoors as a classroom, we see great success in the improvement of mental wellness in our students. Not only does it increase student productivity, we’ve learnt that student socialisation has room to blossom when presented with peers in an outdoor environment.

Would your student  benefit from a

combination of indoor and outdoor

learning to help them fully engage?

  • Our students learn about the outdoors, connecting them with their natural environments.

  • Animals are a large part of the curriculum, including how to care for them and keep them safe.

  • All students participate in cooking, sport and arts as core curriculum topics.

  • Farm Club operates Forest School sessions year round and tailored to each child’s ability.

  • Team building and social opportunites allow students to interact safely, despite not being in school.

  • Every session at Farm Club includes a combination of adult and child led learning and play.

Refer a student.

The Reintegration

Process

The reintegration process for every student looks different. However, the intention for every student that attends Farm Club is the same; to successfully reintroduce every child into mainstream or specialist schooling. We understand the importance of maintained attendance for every young person. This is why Farm Club strives for consistent attendance whilst at our setting, enabling a smooth transition back to school.

  • Progress

    Monitoring Student Progress

    Student progress is carefully monitored from the student’s very first session. Session Leaders write daily session reports and allocate a session score around each of the four farm club pillars, social integration, compliance, developing an appetite for learning and development and emotional regulation. The session scores are plotted on progress graphs which are regularly reviewed and shared with the students school and/or other professionals involved in the care of the student.

  • Reporting

    Consistent Reporting & Learnings

    Half term reports are written and sent to school and referrers, providing all professionals working with the student an opportunity to collaborate, review and share goals for the students ongoing journey.

  • Reviews

    Attending Review meetings

    Farm Club attends regular review meetings for all students (EHCP, CIN, Core Group, TAF, Virtual School, STRAT) and provides valuable feedback about the students wellbeing, any safeguarding concerns and ongoing progress, which supports the student's journey and onwards transition.

  • Challenge

    Increased Challenge for Students

    As students work towards their goals, the level of challenge is increased. For example, students will be gradually supported to engage in activities for a longer period of time, (up to 45 minutes) and will engage in group activities with increasing numbers of students as they prepare to transition.

  • Collaboration

    Collaboration of all Parties

    Visitors are welcome at Farm Club to support the students ongoing journey. Visitors from the students current school, the LA, a school considering an application for the student and assessing if the need can be met, and other professionals involved in the care of the child or involved in the decision making about their onward educational journey are welcome to organise a visit to observe and interact with the student as required.

  • Transitions

    Supporting the Transition

    Transition into school is bespoke to the needs of the student. Next steps can involve a ‘staggered transition’ where sessions at Farm Club gradually reduce as reintegration at school increases. This can involve staff from the new school or setting attending Farm Club sessions ahead of the student starting at their new setting. This enables the student to begin to build a relationship of trust, which can involve Farm Club staff supporting a student to visit their new school/setting alongside their parent/carer. We offer students to remain in contact with Farm Club as ‘Friends of Farm Club’ and are welcome to visit the setting and stay in touch with the team.