Midhirst School pupils with the George the Farmer book sets they won through a nationwide competition run by Rabobank.
Midhirst School pupils with the George the Farmer book sets they won through a nationwide competition run by Rabobank.
One hundred primary schools across New Zealand have received George the Farmer book sets, after winning a recent competition run by Rabobank.
The winning schools were informed of their success in mid-August and the educational sets (made up of six George the Farmer books) were delivered earlier this month.
Rabobank New Zealand head of client councils Jeffrey Morrison said the bank developed the competition with its Client Council Network to improve knowledge about farming and food production among young Kiwis.
The competition ran in late July and early August and was open to all primary schools across New Zealand.
“We were really rapt with the response to the initial competition ... and, based on the huge volume of entries we received, it was pretty clear to us that there is strong demand from schools throughout the country for this type of agri-focused teaching resource.
“So we made the decision to run the competition again and this time around we decided to more than double the amount of book sets we gave away.”
Morrison said, as part of the competition entry process, entrants were asked to provide a brief explanation as to why their nominated school should receive a set of the books.
“As was the case last year, some of the explanations from schools and parents were incredible and it was really difficult to choose the winners.”
Books popular with winning schools
Te Miro Primary School pupils with their George the Farmer books.
Morrison said feedback from the winning schools was flowing in.
This included Midhirst School – a small primary school located 35km southeast of New Plymouth in Taranaki.
Morrison said Midhirst was entered into the competition by school parent Claire Bishop.
“In her entry, Claire said the books would ‘bring a bit of farming to the classroom’ and ‘help start a conversation about the important role farming plays in bringing kids their milk and Weetbix in the morning’.”
The school’s deputy principal Margaret Duynhoven said student feedback had been “really positive”.
“The children really like that the books are teaching them about farming and the colourful pictures.
“In particular, the book about Kev and Susan, two gun shearers from New Zealand, has proven popular.”
Meanwhile, Jennie Molloy from Te Miro Primary School, near Cambridge, said the books had also been a hit with students.
“The books have become a cherished part of their reading time and brought so much happiness to our little readers.”
George the Farmer is a fictional character featured in a series of books and educational resources.
His story began in 2012 when founder, South Australia-based farmer Simone Kain, was trawling the internet looking for farming books and apps for her farm-obsessed son, George.
Kain quickly discovered there wasn’t a human farming character globally who was telling sequential stories about life on the land for children.
In 2014, the George the Farmer book and educational resource series was officially born and over the past nine years, more than 100,000 Australian kids have connected to the earth, food and farm through the adventures of George the Farmer, his agronomist wife, Dr Ruby, and their twin children, Lucy and Jack.
With the help of the New Zealand Agribusiness in Schools programme, the learning resources connected to the George the Farmer books heading to New Zealand schools have recently been adapted and New Zealand-specific versions of these are now available.
