Mount Pleasant School Farm
Charity 1159485
www.mountpleasantschoolfarm.com
Overview
Summary
Mount Pleasant School Farm appears to be a specialist educational bridge between urban children and a working rural environment. Its distinctive role is not simply farm-based learning: it translates food production, environmental stewardship and practical curriculum learning into a safeguarded, tailored experience for school groups, including pupils with special needs. Its continued existence also appears shaped by local civic rescue and philanthropic support, suggesting both strong community value and possible dependence on a relatively narrow support base.
Operational geography
Coverage: Regional
Operational areas:
Evidence and reasoning
Supporting evidence
Remaining uncertainties
- There is no direct evidence that Mount Pleasant School Farm delivers services from, or maintains a physical operational site within, any of the supplied Birmingham wards or the City Centre. Its current service is delivered through visits to a single farm site described by the organisation as being in North Worcestershire, near Wythall.
- The organisation's website states that children from many parts of England and Wales have benefited from visits, but this appears to be a cumulative historic statement. It does not identify the present-day geographic distribution of visiting schools or establish regular delivery in particular Birmingham wards.
- Although the organisation's address refers to Birmingham, the organisation's own farm description places Mount Pleasant in North Worcestershire. The available evidence therefore does not justify assigning the site to a Birmingham ward.
- The Worgan Trust's funding and Bournville Village Trust's land tenancy materially support the farm site, but the evidence does not show that either partnership creates additional service-delivery locations within Birmingham.
Additional evidence needed
- A current list or anonymised geographic breakdown of schools and groups visiting the farm, showing whether there is a sustained Birmingham-wide, district-level or more local catchment.
- Authoritative boundary data confirming the farm site's local-authority area.
- Current evidence of any outreach, school-based delivery, transport partnership, or regular programming undertaken away from the farm site in Birmingham.
Areas of work
- Education/training
- Environment/conservation/heritage
Who they help
- Children/young People
- People With Disabilities
How they help
- Provides Buildings/facilities/open Space
- Provides Services
Discoveries involving this organisation
The Atlas has not published any Discoveries involving this organisation yet.
Observations
A working farm functions as educational infrastructure
The organisation appears to use a live dairy-farm setting as more than a venue: it is the central teaching resource through which children encounter food systems, animals, rural work and environmental questions directly.
Why it matters
This helps distinguish the farm from classroom-only environmental education or visitor attractions. Its practical setting may enable forms of learning that are difficult for urban schools to reproduce independently.
Show evidence
“The working dairy farm has a purpose-built classroom where teaching focuses on animals and where food comes from.”
Source:Organisation“MPSF provides a unique opportunity for city children to gain an insight into Food and Farming.”
Source:Charity Commission
The organisation connects inclusion with environmental learning
Mount Pleasant School Farm appears to treat access to nature, farming and practical education as relevant to a broad range of learners, rather than as a specialist offer only for mainstream school groups.
Why it matters
This suggests its value may lie partly in making rural and environmental education more accessible to children who can be excluded from conventional outdoor-learning experiences.
Show evidence
“The charity helps children and young people and people with disabilities.”
Source:Charity Commission“Visits are adaptable from Foundation to KS4 and SEN groups, and an additional farm risk assessment is available for physical difficulties.”
Source:Organisation
Survival appears to rely on relationships beyond earned service delivery
The farm appears to have a hybrid support model: school visits are its visible activity, while continuity has depended on trustees, staff, a farmer and philanthropic funding after a threatened closure.
Why it matters
This points to a potentially important resilience question. The organisation's educational role may be valued enough to preserve, but its long-term security could depend on a small set of institutional and charitable relationships.
Show evidence
“Trustees, Staff and Farmer enabled the service to continue after BCC's OLS threatened its closure.”
Source:Charity Commission“The facility was founded in 1972 and is funded by The Worgan Trust.”
Source:Organisation
- How many schools and pupils currently use the farm, and which communities are reached.
- Whether school fees, grants or the Worgan Trust provide the largest share of income.
- What partnerships exist with schools, farms, environmental bodies or local authorities.
Remaining uncertainties
- Recent annual reports or accounts showing income sources, expenditure and visitor numbers.
- A current list of partner schools, referral routes and geographic reach.
- Feedback or outcome evidence on learning, inclusion and repeat school use.
Additional evidence needed
Charity Commission profile
Activities
MPSF provides a unique opportunity for city children to gain an insight into Food and Farming. The purpose built classroom, unique working farm facilities support teaching many aspects of the school curriculum in particular where our food comes from for age ranges up to KS4 and special needs. Trustees, Staff and Farmer have enabled to service to continue after BCC's OLS threatened its closure.
Charity objects
THE OBJECTS OF THE CIO ARE: (1) TO PROMOTE FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE PUBLIC GENERALLY THE CONSERVATION, PRESERVATION, PROTECTION AND IMPROVEMENT OF THE PHYSICAL AND NATURAL RURAL ENVIRONMENT. (2) TO ADVANCE THE EDUCATION OF THE PUBLIC GENERALLY IN THE UNDERSTANDING AND CONSERVATION, PROTECTION AND IMPROVEMENT OF THE PHYSICAL AND NATURAL RURAL ENVIRONMENT, INCLUDING FARMING. (3) TO ACT AS A RESOURCE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE BY PROVIDING EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES, ACTIVITIES AND FACILITIES (INCLUDING BUILDINGS, OPEN SPACE AND ANCILLARY FACILITIES) AS A MEANS OF:- (A) ADVANCING EDUCATION GENERALLY (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO SPECIAL NEEDS) AS THE TRUSTEES SHALL DETERMINE, AND; (B) ADVANCING IN LIFE AND HELPING YOUNG PEOPLE GENERALLY (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO SPECIAL NEEDS) BY DEVELOPING THEIR SKILLS, CAPACITIES AND CAPABILITIES TO ENABLE THEM TO PARTICIPATE IN SOCIETY AS INDEPENDENT, MATURE AND RESPONSIBLE INDIVIDUALS.