Tea Time for T-Pex
If you would like a career in veterinary science, or yearn to be a zookeeper or a biologist, here at St Augustine’s Priory we can certainly assist with your career choices by enabling you to have hands-on experience with some of our own livestock.
We now have a thriving farm with our own sheep, micro-pigs and chickens and interested senior girls are in training to be our Farm Managers. Mr Kane, Head of Science, is one of the members of staff in charge of our Priory Farm. Being a Farm Manager entails a high degree of dedication and our own managers come in during holiday times to tend to the animals. To say thank you, just before half term, on 7th February a tea was organised for the Priory Farm managers. Mr Kane takes up the story:
‘On Wednesday, we had a Priory Farm tea with our farm and senior farm managers. This was to reward the girls for their commitment in looking after the animals, particularly during the holidays. Lily Rai, Daisy Morris and Katie Jacks were awarded Amazon vouchers for their exceptional level of commitment and responsibility for the daily running of the farm. Special thanks were also given to Mr Raffray, Mr Mortimer and Mr Stylianou for stepping in when the girls are unable to come in and to Miss Burrell for ensuring girls arrive at meetings and for organising the Priory Farm tea. Then there’s me, I just cut through the red tape and make it all happen – this usually means apologising later to our Bursar, Mr Powell, a man with infinite patience! For example, to his horror, I purchased three micro-pigs which arrived on the first day of the Michaelmas Term, and we couldn’t send them back because they were so happy in their new home.
T-Pex our rooster, also came for tea and tucked into some chicken crumbs. He’s a massive hit with the girls and his own twitter page is now being set up.
We’ll be using him to breed more chickens and produce even more very free range eggs – the best eggs in town I should add!
In the summer, we should also be selling wool from our sheep, which suddenly appeared last term, thanks to Mr Raffray. They have also settled into their new home and are happy grazing the acres that our school is so fortunate to enjoy.’
