Calmsley Hill City Farm is a community farm that is a great experience for the community and beyond, particularly for students in their learning of humanities. Through engaging with the animals and environment surrounding instead of being restricted to the classroom alone. This location provides the opportunity for students to interact with the animals, feeding them, farming practices, and the interactions between people and the environment. This supports place based learning where students are able to develop geographical understanding through meaningful connections with certain places and their environments (Preston 2015). Cullen (2005) similarly highlights the educational value of excursions, as visits to community sites can provide students with interactive and experiential opportunities that extend classroom learning. Year 3 students are able to experience the excursion at Calmsley HIll City Farm and make connections between place, environment and sustainability and is a great for teachers in their delivery of the unit in making this connection. 

Calmsley Hill City Farm also supports the teaching of HaSS by providing a meaningful context for students to explore sustainability and the relationship between people and the environment. Sustainability is an important component of Humanities and Social Sciences because students can develop an understanding of how human actions affect environments and how people can make responsible choices for the future (Taylor et al., 2015). Reynolds (2019) emphasises the importance of using relevant teaching approaches and experiences to develop students’ knowledge and understanding within HaSS. At Calmsley Hill, students can observe how a working farm manages animals, land and natural resources and use these observations to consider how environments can be cared for. This provides a foundation for the learning experiences, where students apply their observations by planning and constructing their own sustainable farm.

The hands-on nature of the Calmsley Hill experience can also increase student engagement and deepen learning by allowing students to actively participate rather than simply receive information. De Beer (2023) describes excursions as an immersion pedagogy that can support active and self-directed learning, while Cullen (2005) highlights the value of interactive experiences in extending learning beyond the classroom. At Calmsley Hill, students can observe, question and interact with the farm environment, providing opportunities to connect new knowledge with their own experiences. This learning can then be extended through the sustainable farm design activity. By first developing a plan and then constructing a three-dimensional model, students are required to apply their understanding of sustainability to a new situation. Sharing their designs through Padlet further allows students to communicate their ideas, consider different approaches and reflect on their learning.

However, the effectiveness of Calmsley Hill as a HaSS learning resource depends on how the experience is planned and connected to purposeful learning. A community visit alone does not guarantee meaningful learning; students need opportunities to investigate questions, make connections and apply what they have observed. Clarke (2014) emphasises the importance of teachers carefully planning learning experiences to support purposeful and effective student learning. Additionally, Cullen (2005) emphasises the value of preparing students for excursions and connecting the experience with classroom learning, while De Beer (2023) highlights the importance of active participation during immersive learning experiences. The learning experiences developed for this resource address this by providing students with opportunities to investigate sustainability during the visit and then apply their observations through planning, constructing and explaining their own sustainable farms. This approach positions the community resource as a starting point for continued inquiry rather than an isolated excursion.

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