Lincolnshire primary school students learning all about the county

A Lincolnshire Day event has been taking place at the Showground today

Author: Charlotte LinnecarPublished 3rd Oct 2024
Last updated 3rd Oct 2024

Primary school children from across Lincolnshire are at the showground today - learning about the county's heritage and future potential.

They're getting hands-on experience with workshops about food, farming and sustainability.

The Showground say Lincolnshire Day began in 2006 and is usually celebrated on 1st October and even has its own flag, marking the anniversary of the Lincolnshire uprising. The uprising was a religious rebellion that began in 1536 when Henry VIII ordered the dissolution of the monasteries.

Each day of the two-day event, schools attend in groups of 15, completing an array of activities, with each workshop lasting 30 minutes. It can vary from cooking food, to checking eggs which'll go to shop shelves, to first aid, and archery. They also get a chance to try leather stamping and meeting and learning about the animals at a local farm.

Charlotte Powell, the Chief Executive of the Lincolnshire Agricultural Society at the Showground tells us more:

"We have over 900 young children coming along and learning the wonders of Lincolnshire, so making plum bread and cheese, to learning where our plants come from and playing football and netball too.

"I think it's important because when you live somewhere, you want to know the history, and the heritage of that place, so it's a great way for them to get their hands dirty and learn about Lincolnshire. Plus, it's just really great and all of the children are having a wonderful time, and they're getting to see all the opportunities, so when they're older they know what they potentially could be."

Our reporter also spotted she was in an apron - they asked her about how she was getting involved today:

"Me and the team, have been busy helping them make some plum bread, which is a local delicacy, and you'd normally have with some cheddar cheese!"

Charlotte Powell helping children to make plum bread

Our reporter's also been speaking to the children taking part about what they've been doing. One group said:

"We've been learning to weigh eggs, and how to sort them out, we've also been looking inside of them to see what's happening because some are unacceptable."

"We enjoyed looking at what's inside the eggs and seeing if it's suitable to eat or not."

"We've also been stamping leather to make a bookmark and we've made a bee out of nature with strings."

Another added:

"We've been doing some activities, some cooking and some scientific stuff and we've been learning so much about red tractors and all of that. It's really fun actually, it's really good."

"We've been trying to make windmills and we've tried to learn how to get one gear vertical and the other one horizontal, and we actually found that successful."

"We've been making flowerpots and we've been making cheese aswell. Making the cheese was really fun."

Kids playing with a model windmill


Lincolnshire primary school students learning all about the county
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There's also new exhibitors there this year, Laurence White runs the small business, Shedtime Handcrafted Leatherwork and tells us what he's been doing there:

"Being predominantly a farming community and having a long history of being one, we can talk about the historic aspects of how leather has been useful in helping that industry become established and also using all of the animal is quite a modern take on how we utilise materials so, we're encouraging the children to learn about the sustainability of leather and its usefulness by making a small bookmark."

Ruth Pigott is with Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Team and the International Bomber Command Centre:

"We've been playing pigeon post with the kids which is great fun. We're teaching them about aviation history, so it gives them an introduction into coding and a glimpse into the past."

Janine, a learning officer for the same stall, added that:

"Lincolnshire is bomber county, it has a rich history, so we had the highest concentration of bomber command stations here, and the pigeon was very key, because all aircraft had a pigeon inside it. That's because if they had to ditch, or they needed to send information, they would use the pigeons and put this coded messages on them, so they would send them back to Britain and hopefully deliver the message.

"The code we use is called 'pig-pen', it's a very nice simple code to use. They've all been having fun, they've been putting their names in the codes and then they design a pigeon - choosing which pigeon they want for their team and they race across a board using dice, and they've all really enjoyed it."

Jack Worthington, is there with RAF Coningsby:

"So we've been getting the children to build paper rockets and then firing them off. It's just a great way of allowing them to do something creative but educational at the same time and hopefully motivate children to enter the forces too."

This year, over the two days, there's 944 students taking part from 18 schools in the county, that's more than ever before.

In 2023, the Lincolnshire Agricultural Society's 6th annual celebration of Lincolnshire Day, there was 14 schools and 749 students visiting.

Lincolnshire Day became a day to not only teach the locals and visitors about the history of the county but to honour those that lost their lives.

As well as the history element to the day it has also become a day to celebrate the great county of Lincolnshire and all that it represents. From farming to the countryside, tourism, food and culture.

Fine out more about the event at the Showground here.

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