Schools: How To Book and FAQs

We offer both guided and self-guided educational visits.

Self-Guided Visits –  If you are looking for a great value, less structured day, you can enjoy the daily activities in the Farm Park, and enjoy our indoor and outdoor play with a self-guided visit. Click here for more information.

Upgraded Self-Guided Visits – these visits give you the added benefit of a base for your group, some free animal feed and your own scheduled tractor and trailer ride.

Fully Guided Themed Visits – These are our most popular visits, are curriculum linked, and the majority include a cookery workshop.  We can plan these days to link to your curriculum topic and suit individual needs. We offer a selection of cross-curricular days, which are facilitated by our Award-Winning Education Team. Please click here to view the options available.

We also offer a Farmer Tour for small groups of up to 10 people and bespoke days for our younger visitors with our Preschools packages.

We have prices to suit all pockets, full costs can be viewed here and are dependent on the type of visit you require.

We have a simple booking form which you can find here, once we have your information we will be in touch regarding dates and to discuss finer details.

We hold our LOtC Quality badge and have a visit information document that is sent to you with your booking confirmation. Copies of our Risk Assessments and useful information can be found on our on our Teacher’s Guide page.

We aim to make the booking process as simple as possible.  Filling out our online booking form ensures we have all the details we need to process your booking quickly.

Yes, you can! Once you have booked your visit and received a confirmation email, we offer free admission for up to two teachers to complete a risk assessment. (Please note our own risk assessments are sent to you with your confirmation. They are also available to download here). Pre visits must be pre arranged by e-mailing [email protected] with your preferred pre visit date.

Please bring a copy of your confirmation with you when you come for your pre visit to show to the Farm Park staff on the kiosk.  If you wish to bring any family with you, entry can be paid for online before you visit.  

Your confirmation e-mail generates an invoice from the accounts team.  Payment is due two weeks before the visit unless otherwise arranged.

Invoices can be paid by BACS, by cheque, or by phoning the accounts team on 01268 290219 and asking for Natalie Wren.

Cheques need to be made payable to HR Philpot (Barleylands) Ltd

BACS details:       Account No – 88407020     Sort Code:  60 02 30

We do ask for payment before you visit, unless otherwise arranged.

Our Self-Guided Visits are for registered groups of more than 15 paying customers (no minimum required for SEND groups) whilst our Guided Visits can be for anything from a class to a whole school!

Yes we do! We offer one free adult for every six playing children, and adults accompanying SEND children are also free of charge.

Every paying child booked on one of our visits, receives a ticket to return to the Farm Park free of charge at a later date and schools can ask for up to two free family of four gift vouchers to use as raffle prizes or for fund-raising.

Our Barleylands Membership cannot be used against school visits.  Our school visits are very different to a general visit to the farm with lots of additional benefits including a ticket for every paying child to return to the Farm Park at a later date free of charge and schools can ask for up to two free family of four gift vouchers to use as raffle prizes or for fund-raising.

You will have a guide with our fully guided themed educational days.  With upgraded self-guided visits, there will be a guide to show you to your base and facilitate your tractor ride.  We do however plan bespoke days, so we will always aim to meet your needs.

We suggest 4 hours for the visit.  Arriving at 10.00 a.m. when we will meet and greet you in our large coach park.  Visits usually finish around 2.00p.m. but we don’t throw you out, and should you be running late, we always aim to adjust the day to make sure we complete all the activities we have planned for your particular visit. We can however, where possible, tailor your start and finish time if it makes your coach cheaper, e.g. starting at 9.30 a.m. Please contact [email protected] if this is something you would like to speak to us about.

We have a large car park with ample free parking for coaches. Coach drivers receive a free hot drink at Tiptree Tea Rooms, located opposite the Farm Park entrance.

With all guided themed days and upgraded self-guided visits, we meet and greet you in our coach park.  We only ask if you are running late that you phone ahead and let us know so we can reorganise our plans for you.  The number to call will be on your booking confirmation e-mail.

Groups who have booked a fully guided visit will have a schedule in the visit information document attached to the booking confirmation.

With some groups we do send specific timetables, however we prefer to keep to the schedule outlined in the visit information document, which allows us to ensure you complete every activity we have planned without missing anything, if for example you are running late.

Groups who have booked a self-guided or upgraded-self guided visit will be sent a link to our daily activities in their booking confirmation, and if booking an upgraded self-guided visit, any times, e.g. tractor rides, will be given out on arrival to the farm.

You will have the team with you all day unless you are a self-guided visit and will receive first-class customer service.

Please see comments from other visiting schools below.

“Our year 2s visited your farm yesterday… The day was amazing! Well organised, incredible staff and full of fantastic opportunities for the children. “

Stanway Fiveways Primary – May 2021

“Great fun, lovely staff, well organised. AMAZING!”

Oaklands School – November 2019

“We always love it here. Staff are excellent and co-operative. We come every year!”

Bishops Stortford College – October 2019

“We had an excellent and informative visit. The staff were fantastic. Thank you!”

Parsloes Primary – February 2020

If you have booked a fully guided themed day, you will have the classroom you are based in for the day, and can eat lunch in here.  We always hope the weather will be kind enough for you to enjoy our lovely large Farm Park and eat outside.

We have lots of areas around the Farm Park for self-guided visitors to enjoy a picnic lunch.

There is an option to upgrade your self-guided visit, and for a small additional cost will have a base for the day, a personal, timed tractor and trailer ride for your group, and some free animal feed.

We have some shaded areas outside.  We generally plan somewhere for you to eat out of the sun, however if you book a self-guided visit without an upgrade, we do not offer a base.

We have large lunchbox trollies where you can store your lunch and take them to other areas of the park to picnic.

Lunch box trollies must be returned to the area they were collected from at the end of the day.

We have drinking fountains and water taps to fill your bottles with.  We use “What3Words” at Barleylands, and you will find fountains and taps at “alone.trap.camp”, “scope.secret.client”, “vision.gitz.buyers” and “appeal.live.just”.

We also have Tiptree Tea Rooms based just opposite the Farm Park that sells hot drinks and food. Tiptree also have a small kiosk within the Farm Park Indoor Play Barn, which sells hot/cold drinks and snacks.

We have toilets in various parts of the farm, and encourage schools to come for a complimentary pre-visit to familiarise themselves with the Farm Park.  We will however let you know where the toilets are during your health and safety talk at the start of your day. You can also view our recently updated map of the Farm Park, by clicking here.

The Farm Park is open to the public, but we have plenty of space, and our themed educational visits are planned in such a way that you have your own classroom, and will be in areas of the park where the public don’t have access.   We have capacity to accommodate up to three schools on any one day, all separate from one another.

If booking a fully guided experience which includes cooking, we always aim to adapt what we are cooking to cater for everyone’s needs.  There is a comprehensive section attached to our visit information documents regarding allergies. Please see our Risk Assessments for further details.

We do not use nuts at Barleylands, but cannot guarantee there has been no cross contamination in the manufacturing process.  Please see information in our comprehensive Risk Assessments by clicking here.

Yes, we do!  We have several SEND groups who regularly visit throughout the year.  We generally suggest you book a self–guided visit and enjoy the many activities set out by the Farm Park, but there is an option to book a ‘Farmer Tour’ giving you an hour with one of our qualified team. To see our full accessibility guide click here.
If you are a SEND group who regularly bring up to 15 children, you can purchase a minimum of 30 tickets at a reduced cost of £10.00 per ticket. Find out more on our SEND School Visit page.

We offer a group rate for registered groups of home schooled children.  You must be a group of 15 or more paying customers to qualify for the group rate.

If you wish to visit as a family or small group, there is an option to book a ‘Farmer Tour’ giving you an hour with one of our qualified team, click here for more information.

Schools and Groups can now take advantage of our chick hatching programme, offering the chance to interact, care and learn about chickens. See new life emerge before your eyes. This is a unique opportunity for your class and truly memorable for pupils. Click here to find out more. You can download a risk assessment here.

Our guided visits, are staff led themed days,  so you will have education assistants assigned to your group. We have a range of different themed days to choose from.

Our self-guided visits, offer you the flexibility to enjoy the daily activities in the farm park, and time to enjoy some indoor or outdoor play (these are particularly suited to pre-schools and nurseries, or groups bringing a large number of adults.   They are also particularly popular with small SEND groups for who there is no minimum number of children.   Small groups of up to 10 people can add a one hour Farmer Tour to their booking.

At Barleylands, we want all our guests to have the best experience we can offer and want to make it accessible for all.  Click here to view our accessibility guide.

We can plan and facilitate workshops for all Key stages.  These can be an adaptation of what we already offer, or a bespoke day to suit your needs.  These visits start at £15 per student excluding vat. There is a section on our booking form where you can outline your requirements.

Learning objectives that can be met on a visit to Barleylands…

• Enjoyment
• Confidence
• Social Awareness
• Environmental Awareness
• Activity skills
• Personal qualities
• Key skills
• Health and fitness
• Increased motivation
• Broadened horizons
• Mental health