Essex Schools Food & Farming Day 2026 – a big success!
Our event was held on Tuesday 23rd June 2026 at ARU Writtle and it was another record year with hugely positive feedback from schools, exhibitors and stewards alike!
Below you will be able to see the official photos taken from the day, and the new video is already uploaded on our ‘about’ page.
We would like to take the opportunity to thank all of the schools, exhibitors, farmer stewards, ARU volunteers and everyone involved in bringing this event together and helping it to make it a great success once again.
We have a date of Tuesday 22nd June 2027, so please pencil that into your diary and keep an eye our for emails when the 2027 event officially launches on 28th September!
It was a wonderful experience for both the children and the staff who attended and I would like to express our heartfelt thanks for such an interesting and informative experience.
Thank you for another wonderful trip, the staff and children from my school came back with so much excitement and clearly loved the day. They would definitely like to come again next year, so thank you for inspiring them so much with food and farming.
Hi Rebecca,
I just wanted to email to say thank you to yourself and everyone that helped put together today’s event. Although we all felt the heat, our children got a lot out of it, from trying venison for the first time to seeing baby turkeys.
We appreciated our Steward Rosie for her accomodating nature when we changed our leaving time after lunch, she was most helpful throughout our time there.
We will be signing up for the ballot again.
Kind regards,
Lexden Primary School, Colchester
I just wanted to say thank you again for organising the fab farming day.
We absolutely loved it!
Thank you again; see you next year!
Thank you for another wonderful trip, the staff and children from my school came back with so much excitement and clearly loved the day. They would definitely like to come again next year, so thank you for inspiring them so much with food and farming.
Robert is a legend- please thank him for his hard work on the day. Very well organised, and appreciated being asked if we wanted water throughout the day and the bacon bap. Whilst it was full on it was a pleasurable experience and had some lovely children that were very interested in what we are all about. The competition went down well too. All good. Thankyou for the invite.
Another successful year, information provided was perfect and the children behaved well and engaged with the team. Zone manager was on hand if needed (he wasn’t), a steady flow of schools worked well, looking forward to next year
We thoroughly enjoyed the day and we were welcomed with a big smile and a very nice bacon roll, which was followed by a regular supply of cold water (Thank you). Considering the extreme heat of the day, the marque stayed relatively comfortable for the time we were there. All the zones were expertly laid out and managed with everyone’s interests in mind. We were very impressed with the level of interest shown in what we do and why we do what we do. lots of children asking what happens to the waste wood which we don’t use for making cricket bat willow clefts, as well as questions about how long each process takes, most were surprised by how the weight of the wood changed after the drying process had been completed, and how quickly the trees grew from planting to maturity. Thank you for a fantastic event, we are looking forward to next year and long may it continue, it’s a wonderful day for children to have fun and education in a world that some don’t get to see or understand.
The day was really well organised, all the stewards were very helpful and visible all day. We had regular water deliveries which were greatly appreciated. Well done for a great event!
Well done on all your hard work to make today such a success
Really appreciated the cover provided by the tents to watch the tractors etc
Hope you can relax now
I just wanted to say that I thought today was absolutely brilliant. Everything seemed to be well laid out, lots of particularly engaging/interactive things for the children and I only had positive feedback from everyone. Purleigh School come every year and they commented on how good it was. Well done to you, Annabelle and all the team.
I have just returned home from stewarding at this year’s Schools Food and Farming Day and despite the very warm weather it had the same buzz from all the children who descended on what I still call Writtle College.
Through you just wished to say thank you to all those volunteers who have made today another resounding success and one that was organised brilliantly. It is almost impossible to realise the amazing amount of personnel and logistics to make the day a wonderful experience for the thousands of children attending. The logistics must be mind boggling!
I believe that all participants will sleep soundly tonight.
Just wanted to say today was great.
Our school loved it and how you keep all the plates spinning is incredible. Well done.
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