Farm School
An authentic multi-faceted learning experience
Tommerup’s Dairy Farm offers an authentic learning experience for your students as part of a school group excursion tour on our 6th generation family farm. We take pride in providing tailored curriculum-linked experiences that enhance your classroom units with our diverse outdoor classroom environment.
Our program facilitates genuine Q&A and natural inquiry processes, assisting with the development of critical and creative thinking as your students gain firsthand knowledge from real farmers and their lived experience.
Tommerup’s farm excursions provide immersive learning experiences well beyond just the paddock to plate and agricultural units you might expect from a working farm. Our diverse business model encompasses agriculture, tourism, on-farm value adding and direct to customer sales with a commitment to innovative, regenerative and future focussed practices.
With over 150 years of history on this family property, we’re perfectly placed to provide hands-on learning around historical artefacts, changes over the past 6 generations, and the important role history plays in our future.
Your school group visit can be as simple as immersing your students into a real working farm environment where they’ll see our cows being milked, explore sustainable production of vegetables, grain, dairy, eggs and meat, and get up close to our menagerie of farm animals, right through to the full farm to fork supply chain or business case study for secondary subjects.
Our farm is a multi-faceted, vertically integrated business developing and supplying into niche markets, and provides real-life examples of entrepreneurship and innovation whilst remaining true to traditional values. The farm is a learning environment where students can see the processes of growing, harvesting, and rearing, to the processing and packaging stages, right through to marketing, sales and distribution at the farm shop and beyond. With all of the main food groups produced here on the farm, Food and Nutrition real-world discussions and learning experiences don’t get any more authentic.
The farmers are your guides – Dave, Kay and Harry have a passion for educating young people about sustainable farming practices and how food is produced, the importance of agriculture in today’s society, our collective role in ensuring food security, animal welfare, as well as the value of individual agency in creating positive change for our environmental future.
Curriculum Links Secondary
FAQ's
What is the timing for a farm school visit?
We encourage school groups to arrive between 10 and 10.30am so the students can have some time to enjoy morning tea in the picnic paddock along with a chance to stretch their legs and use the bathroom after their bus trip. A break for lunch is included, with departure time generally between 1 and 1.30pm.
Is food included in the school group visit?
Our tour price doesn’t include food however, our Jersey Girl ice creams are available to purchase from the Farm Larder at the special school price of $5 each. These can be chosen as an added extra to the price per person should you wish for the school to organise full payment.
There are local caterers that can supply catered lunches should that be of interest. Generally we recommend simple lunches such as rolls, focaccias or sandwiches for this purpose. We can liaise with caterers and include this as an extra cost to the visit.
What do we need to bring on our Farm School visit?
First Aid kit (and trained first aid officer if this is a requirement of your school)
Drinking water (we don’t supply drinking water as we are on rain and river water here at the farm)
Enclosed shoes are essential for anyone visiting our farm. This is a requirement for entry and helps us to keep visitors safe
Hat, sunscreen, and insect repellent are always a good idea
All food and drinks unless you have organised for catering. There are no shops in Kerry – the nearest town is around 20 minutes drive from the farm.
Is a visit to Tommerup’s Dairy Farm suitable for all year levels?
Yes, we are adept at adapting the elements and our delivery of our Farm School program to suit all year levels from Prep through to Senior.
We have been offering the Farm School program on our farm since 2008 to all year levels and across the full curriculum.
Developing a working relationship with teaching staff is important to us and allows us to ensure that your visit to the farm is tailored specifically to your students
Are Farm School visits available across the full school year?
Our program runs from Term1 right through to the end of Term 4.
We do find that March to November is the best time to visit given the Summer conditions on the farm
Is Farm School suitable for vacation care groups?
We offer the Farm School program in school holidays for vacation and outside hours school care groups.
The program is easily modified to allow for a more relaxed group visit particularly suited to vacation care groups. Whilst the focus on adhering to the school curriculum is not there in these visits, it’s important to our family that a visit to our farm provides an enjoyable educational experience for our visitors.
Do children get the opportunity to feed and pat farm animals?
We have chickens, ducks, sheep, goats, calves, pigs and cows on the farm.
Whilst we may not get to feed all the animals during the visit, the children are able to feed and pat farm animals as part of the experience on the farm.
Visits to the dairy include watching some of our Jersey Girls being milked. For safety reasons and the welfare of our cows, children don’t have the opportunity to milk the cows but will see the whole process in our 100 year old dairy.
How many children can the visit cater for?
We prefer groups of up to 60 students at one time but will consider higher numbers on a case-by-case basis. We understand the challenges around transport costs and are happy to discuss group sizing to get the best outcome for everyone.
When should we book?
Term 2 and Term 3 are our busiest times for school group visits. We suggest making a tentative booking as soon as possible, then confirming once school approval has been obtained. Our Farm School visits are limited in number across the year to allow us to focus on our farm. Though we do have schools that book year on year, we’re always happy to welcome new schools and will try our best to find a date that suits your requirements.
What areas of the curriculum align with a Farm School visit to Tommerup’s
Dairy Farm School aligns with a broad range of curriculum areas across the Australian Curriculum V9 and QCAA Senior Syllabuses (2025). Our curriculum links documents assist in identifying these areas in detail.
Does Tommerup’s Dairy Farm have insurance?
Full public liability insurance cover is held by Tommerup’s Dairy Farm with regular risk assessments conducted to ensure the safety of our visitors. As part of our insurance cover, all visitors are required to complete a Consent to Attend form.
Get in touch
To find out more or book a visit, please complete our contact form.