The new normal at Scotland’s one-of-a-kind ‘Farm School’

Up and down the country, amid Covid-19 teaching staff of SCIS member schools are finding themselves navigating unfamiliar waters and adapting to fulfil their roles in new and even unusual ways.

Lathallan School is an all-through school just outside Montrose in Angus, where life is anything but ordinary on a normal day! Occupying a 19th-century castle set amid a 60-acre wooded estate on the edge of the North Sea, it has a pebbled beach and a small farm, complete with farm animals and crops! Here, the lessons learned from the farm complement the school curriculum and its enduring focus on outdoor education and environmental science. 

Headteacher Richard Toley who lives onsite and who has run the one-of-a-kind ‘farm school’ for around 11 years ‘has seen it all’, however, he has never experienced such extraordinary times. 

In his own words, here are just some of the more unusual and surprising situations Toley has found himself in in the last few months.  

This material was originally authored by Richard Toley for TES where it is published in full here – SCIS has been permitted to repurpose it. 

Every day, I wake up to the "new normal" at Lathallan and I have done a few things I never thought I would have to do as a headmaster. Here are six that spring to mind:  

1. Sourcing hand sanitiser from gin distilleries 

Many companies have had to completely diversify their operations to meet the demand for products such as hand sanitiser. When our normal suppliers had run out, we had to look further afield and made contact with Arbikie distillery – which normally specialises in high-end gin, vodka and whisky. 

2. Checking alcohol percentages in hand sanitisers 

Distilleries such as Arbikie are well placed to provide the type of hand sanitisers required to combat Covid-19, as they can produce the right level of denatured alcohol. I never imagined that I’d be so keen to research the ingredients of a hand sanitiser bottle, to ensure the alcohol was both safe and effective. 

3. Researching 'fogging equipment' 

I could never have thought the words "fogging equipment" would appear high on my Google search history. However, as we prepare our school for its safe return, we need to look at new ways to disinfect the classrooms to protect pupils and staff. Fogging equipment, which can disinfect large areas in a quick space of time, will prove very useful. 

4. Teaching from my living room 

My home already played a bigger role in the day-to-day life of the school than you might imagine: the S6 common room is conveniently attached to my house, and I often have nursery classes round for storytime. However, I didn’t ever envisage teaching a class full of pupils using a laptop in my living room. As a school, we have tried to make lockdown learning as interactive as possible, with live lessons and video calls via Google Meet a pivotal part of our "Virtually Lathallan" effort. 

5. Measuring classrooms for physical distancing 

Lathallan is a small school of around 200 pupils. Our average class size is 12, but we still need to make adaptations to how we deliver lessons to meet new physical distancing requirements. I’ve measured classrooms to ensure our pupils can learn safely, but measuring our treehouse classroom posed an interesting question –does that count as inside or outside? 

6. Being responsible, in part, for the submission of pupils’ final grades 

There have been many people impacted by the sudden closure of school buildings, not least our pupils on certificated Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) courses. Getting the very best results for pupils who have worked so hard on their studies has always been a crucial part of my role, but I never expected that I would have to oversee their recommended certificated grades. The Class of 2020's time at Lathallan is not ending in the anticipated way, but we will celebrate their achievements virtually – and in the way we always do, back at school, when the time is right.