It's been a busy start for Tara Philips, the new Royal Highland Education Trust (RHET)project co-ordinator in the Perth and Kinross area– she's overseen one of the first on-farm visits by schoolchildren since the various lockdown rules have been relaxed.

She organised pupils from Muthill Primary School to visit Dargill Farm, with Tom Henderson, the stockman there hosting the visit. Organised by her on behalf of the Royal Highland Education Trust (RHET) as part of an ongoing mission to give every school pupil in Scotland the opportunity to visit the outdoors and learn about food, farming and the countryside, the trip involved pupils from P5, P6 and P7.

Tom showed the children round the beef farm and gave them a talk about what is involved in producing a prize-winning Simmental herd. The pupils had the chance to name pedigree Simmental twin calves that were born the day before the visit and after a class vote, they decided on Messi and Pepsi.

Tom commented: “It was great to have pupils from a local primary school on the farm and they had a real hunger to learn about where their food came from. We enjoy working with RHET and are proud that we are playing our part in educating the next generation about food, farming and the countryside.”

Tara was born and bought up on my family mixed farm in Fife and has always been involved with the day-to-day running of the farm, including working with livestock and crops. She studied at Edinburgh University to be a PE teacher and taught in primary and secondary schools within Argyll and Bute, and Fife. She said:s “I am delighted to get this job with RHET as my passion lies within education but wanted to link this with my love of agriculture.

“Dargill was a great venue for a farm visit and Tom is so passionate about what he does. The pupils asked great questions and I enjoyed it as the first farm visit I have organised.”