Lockdown Lift: How a farm is helping provide therapy for its young visitors
Video report by ITV News Meridian's Malcolm Shaw
A school in Sussex has been showing ITV News Meridian how its farm has been helping children with their therapy throughout lockdown.
The Chailey Heritage Foundation has its own farm within the grounds, complete with animals from donkeys to guinea pigs.
Helping to care for the livestock is an essential part of the therapy the children receive.
Holly is one of the students at Chailey Heritage Foundation and a frequent visitor to Patchwork Farm. She helps to look after Nic Nac the Shetland pony.
The 18-year-old told ITV Meridian how much she enjoys visiting the farm to groom Nic Nac and feed him carrots.
Many of the students at the school have complex needs, and so the farm has been specially designed to offer lots of ways for them to interact with the animals as much as they can.
Farm Manager Lesley Barcock
Farm Manager Lesley Barcock says: "We've got automatic feeders that the children can use, using switches, which means that they can press those and feed the animals.
"We do a lot of handling here. That one-to-one contact is really important as well. That can do anything from boosting social confidence, to being more confident around animals and therefore different environments."
Coronavirus restrictions have limited how much hands-on contact the children can have the livestock at present, however staff say it has still been a valuable resource during the lockdowns.
What is Ellie's favourite animal at the farm?
It was six years ago that the TV vet Christopher Timothy launched the fundraising drive to make the farm a reality.
It has since come on leaps and bounds, but still needs to find £65,000 a year to keep going.
Assistant Headteacher Paula Marten says: "We do need that help from the local people. I know that the farm has always attracted lots and lots of support, because I think you only have to look at the children here and how the experience it, and you can see how important it is to them. But we continue to need that income from the wider community."
The latest bit of kit is a merry-go-round making the pigs work for their apples.
Patchwork Farm enriches not just the lives of the young people, but the animals there too.