The Four Cornerstones

Brymore Academy has a 32 Hectare farm, making it one of the largest school farms in the country. The livestock on the farm includes a dairy herd, beef animals, pig herd including pedigree rare breeds, poultry and a flock of ewes with lambs. Cropping is mainly designed for the dairy herd, but as many other crops as possible are grown on a small scale on the farm.

The Farm Manager, Ellie Wakeman, oversees the management of the farm whilst supervising the students during their farm duties. Every student is expected to complete duties for one week per term, starting at 6.30am every morning and again after school at 4pm, led by senior students known as Heads of Department. Duties include a range of husbandry duties across the livestock enterprises.

Students are taught to meet industry level competencies. We ensure our practice provides a safe learning environment, whilst maintaining financial autonomy on the farm. Our milk is sold through Barbers cheese, and our meat and eggs are sold through our ‘farm shop’. The farm is one of the ‘four cornerstones’ of Brymore, supporting the schools aim of instilling responsibility within the students to prepare them for the world of work, both within the land-based sector and beyond.

The school has a one acre walled garden and is one of only a handful nationally to be awarded RHS level 5 status. Students are taught to the highest possible standards.

The beds and borders throughout the school are maintained, and often designed, by the students themselves, through taking cuttings, potting on, raising seedlings and eventually stocking our gardens and pruning when required. The school grows its own vegetables, which occasionally stock the kitchens, as well as being available for sale alongside bedding plants, fruit, hanging baskets, apple juice and honey. Students are taught sustainability through making their own compost, propagation, recycling of materials and making the best use of the school’s natural habitats such as the ponds and woodlands. We also provide plants for Cannington in Bloom, which has been awarded a gold for two years and the school has also been awarded separate awards in recognition of the work done by the boys in the community.

The workshop complex is situated in the middle of the school site in the old stableyard and comprises of a number of workshops, offices and store areas. It benefits from a large wood shop giving the boys a chance to experience how timber can be manipulated into quality products.

There is a multimedia workshop where the boys have an opportunity to use plastics and to learn the value of modelling and testing designs before actual manufacture.

The Metal workshop is very well equipped and allows us to not only teach GCSE materials but also to run our Engineering Level 2 course.

The CAD suite has recently been refurbished to allow students better access to the modern ICT that is a critical part of any modern designers’ skills.

Within the courtyard we also have the capacity for students to undertake courses run during after school curriculum time such as blacksmithing, copper smithing, welding, engineering and wood classes.

Brymore has a proud tradition in both rugby and athletics. Rugby, cross-country and hockey are the main winter sports, with athletics and cricket in the summer term. Other sports such as volleyball, tennis, table tennis, sailing, mountain biking, using our purpose built track and swimming in our own outdoor pool are enjoyed by many.

Sports form a major feature of life for many boys at Brymore and the Academy has achieved great success in competitions against schools many times its size. Apart from timetabled PE and games periods, participation in sports is voluntary. Nevertheless, most boys are active in at least one sport and regularly attend evening fitness training. In all sports the emphasis is on team effort rather than reliance on ‘stars’, and the sense of competition is tempered by an emphasis on good conduct and acceptance of rules. A vast majority of the pupils represent the School at one sport or other during their time at Brymore.  A key tradition is the school run – “Chads Hill” –which is a three kilometre route and all boys are expected to run it once a week.

Brymore has a long history of boys who have gone on to represent Somerset at rugby and athletics with many going to achieve national recognition.

With the KS4 OCR Sports Studies course, boys are now activity encouraged to volunteer to support and lead in sporting opportunities across the school.