Tune in to Blue Peter on Friday 20th February to see the Rare Breeds Centre in the spotlight! Special guest JB Gill from JLS will be joining us with his family as they try their hand at being farmers on our farm, alongside Blue Peter’s very own Abby Cook!

How did you find the process of becoming an apprentice here at COT?

I found the process of becoming an apprentice at COT to be clear and supportive. Throughout the application and interview stages, my line manager and HR took the time to explain the different options and training providers available to me. Once I was successful, I was given a shortlist of both in-person and online providers with different start dates, which allowed me to choose what suited me best. Everyone I spoke to during the process was friendly, approachable, and happy to help.

How do you feel now you have started?

Since starting my apprenticeship, I feel much more confident. Spending a few weeks working within the finance department before beginning my AAT qualification really helped me settle in. It allowed me to understand my role better and made me feel more comfortable when I started my first online classroom sessions.

What kind of support have you found most helpful since joining?

The support from my line manager and colleagues has been extremely helpful. Knowing that I can ask questions at any time and have things explained clearly has made a big difference. Being surrounded by people with a wide range of experience has helped me learn and develop my understanding much faster.

What skills are you hoping to develop as part of this apprenticeship?

Through this apprenticeship, I hope to build my knowledge of finance and gain a better understanding of financial terminology. I also want to improve my confidence in the workplace, gain practical experience, and develop professional skills that will support me in my future career in finance.

What motivated you to choose an apprenticeship here at COT?

I chose an apprenticeship at COT because it offered the opportunity to learn while working towards a qualification. I was also drawn to the supportive environment and the chance to gain real, hands-on experience while developing both personally and professionally.

Save this January and beyond at the Rare Breeds Centre! Scroll down to find all the amazing offers waiting for you. Make sure to check out the terms and conditions.

Planning a trip to the Rare Breeds Centre this festive season for our Truly Magical Christmas event? Make it a day to remember with a delicious family meal at The Woolpack Inn, located in Warehorne, just a short drive away.

From Thursday 18th December – Sunday 4th January, The Woolpack Inn is offering for kids to eat free including a main and dessert in an exclusive offer to all Rare Breeds Centre visitors. We think it’s the perfect way to wind down after a festive day on the farm!

For every full-paying adult, one child can enjoy an 2 course evening meal for FREE, offering fantastic value for families this autumn.

• Available Wednesday to Sunday during dinner service (offer excludes lunch and breakfast visits)
• Offer valid 18th December – 4th January 2025 (subject to opening times and excludes 24th – 26th December)
• To Redeem: Just show your Rare Breeds Centre receipt, booking confirmation or annual membership pass on arrival at The Woolpack Inn.

Having now settled into his new role, we have been chatting with Mark, our Environmental Conservation Officer, who has been busy exploring the farm and woodland. Here are some updates on his work focused on sustainable practices that work in harmony with the landscape at the Rare Breeds Centre.

Meadow restoration with the help of our rare breed sheep

As a first step in addressing the issue, Mark decided to let the farm’s rare breed sheep graze the meadow for a month over late summer. The sheep, with their natural preferences, expertly avoided the knapweed but they did consume a lot of grass. As a result, by late summer, there was far less grass to cut – just 7 bales compared to the usual 35!

This change made the cutting and baling faster, cheaper, and better for the environment. A traditional summer hay cut is essentially mimicking what grazing animals do naturally, and since we already have animals on the farm (which need to eat) this approach allows for a much more natural and sustainable way to care for the land and help it thrive.

Why using sheep is a much better choice

Less reliance on machinery is a good thing for many reasons, not just the most obvious ones like noise, pollution and fuel consumption. In this case, soil compaction, which is where heavy machinery “squashes” the soil. This is something we would like to avoid as much as possible as it means rainwater is more likely to just run off the soil rather than be absorbed. With our drier summers, due to climate change, it’s important we encourage what rainfall there is to be absorbed and to make good use of it.

After cutting the meadow, the sheep were brought back to graze again. Their grazing will mean we don’t have to cut the grass by machine again this year. Their gentle disturbance of the ground will also expose small patches of earth, and this will encourage some of the wildflowers that have been outcompeted by knapweed in recent years to flourish once more. A diverse pool of seeds is waiting patiently in the soil; they simply need a bit of light to be given a chance to thrive.

We can’t restore the meadow’s diversity overnight. But with a considered approach that benefits the farm in multiple ways, implemented consistently over time, we can encourage the many varied wildflowers to grow back naturally. Working in harmony with natural processes to help it do what it does best can create a wildflower meadow full of colour and life, providing food for our native species and habitats we can all enjoy.

Woodland management

We asked Mark about his approach to caring for woodland and he explained that even though our woods in the UK may look wild and natural, management of them has been an essential part of these environments for thousands of years. In many ways, we have “created” the woodlands around us over the centuries.

In the past, woodlands were managed carefully because people used the wood for things like tools, fencing, and fuel. But over the last 100–200 years, as people have stopped using these traditional products, many woodlands have been neglected. Unfortunately, without regular management to create a variety of habitats with a mixture of young and old plants, these “man-made” woodlands become overgrown and less diverse.

How we’re increasing our habitats

One of Mark’s plans is to make our main woodland paths, known as “rides”, more open. The additional space this creates with increased light reaching the woodland floor means various layers of vegetation can develop for all kinds of animals to inhabit. One of the important residents we have at the Rare Breeds Centre is the protected and elusive dormouse, shown below, who loves a bit of brambly scrub to scurry about in!

Woodland zones

The process of creating these rides starts with felling trees and cutting back vegetation to create several “zones”:

• First comes the path itself, which could be stone chip or simply a closely mown strip, that is easy to walk or drive down.
• Next comes what is called the herbaceous layer, which consists of grasses and small plants, and you may even spot the occasional wild orchid here.
• After this comes a shrub layer, small trees and, most likely, a decent amount of bramble.
• The final zone includes the taller trees that make up most of the woodland.

The woodland zone with the most biodiversity

Here’s an amazing fact: the number of species of plants and animals to be found in the first 10 metres of woodland, where there is a lot more light, is pretty much equal to the number you will find in the rest of the woodland put together! How’s that for biodiversity? It’s all down to that light and lots of different sizes and ages of plant. These sunny edges are great homes for butterflies, in particular. Although some butterflies prefer to be inside the woodland, you’ll see many more in the open spaces that surround or cut through it. By creating more of these bright, varied habitats, Mark can be sure to make the woodland an even better place for wildlife.

Woodland management is seasonal

Right now, Mark is working on something called “crown lifting,” which includes carefully removing the lower branches of some of the trees along the rides. This encourages the trees to put their energy into growing upwards into tall, healthy trees. This lets just a bit more sunlight reach the woodland floor, helping a few more flowers and smaller plants to grow. It’s like ride widening on a very small scale, but it all adds up.

Autumn and winter are the best times for this kind of work, as birds have finished nesting and the trees are resting for the season. Traditional woodland jobs, like coppicing (cutting some trees to encourage new shoots), have always been done in winter for the same reason, it keeps the wildlife safe and supports the trees’ natural cycle. By following the seasons and working with sympathy towards nature, Mark is helping the woodland be healthy, more diverse, and full of life.

How you can help and get involved

You can help us with these projects! If you would like to get involved with our conservation projects, either as an individual or part of a group, at the Rare Breeds Centre or Poulton Wood, please do get in contact with our volunteer coordinator. We’d love to hear from you!

Alternatively, if you’ve enjoyed visiting our woodland and would like to support our Accessibility Fundraiser, which helps fund improved signage across the farm and woodland, you can find out more and donate here!

Happy Wildlife Conservation Day! We caught up with Mark, our Conservation and Environment Officer, to hear about the exciting wildlife conservation projects he’s working on now and what he has planned for the future.

An important part of our Woodland Management Plan we are working on now will be its provision for one of our many species of furry friend we have at Rare Breeds Centre – the Hazel Dormouse. The name is a little misleading, as the important European Protected Species doesn’t rely specifically on hazel trees too much, but it comes from the fact the structure of hazel woodland that is coppiced on a relatively short rotation often makes for their ideal habitat.

When hazel is coppiced, which means to harvest it and encourage healthy new growth, more light is allowed to reach the woodland floor, and a diverse mosaic of trees, flowering plants, grasses and brambles springs to life. Throw a few native small trees into the mix, like the blackthorn, dogwood, field maple, guelder rose and spindle that thrive in many a Kent hedgerow, and you have a scrubby hotchpotch with plenty of the nuts, seeds, berries, flowers and insects that dormice love to eat. The important things here are plenty of cover and plenty of food.

It should then come as no surprise that dormice also love hedgerows, as the structure of these is very similar to coppiced woodland in many ways. A nice wide pathway or woodland glade also make for great dormouse habitat. The key to improving our dormouse population is to ensure we have plenty of all these habitats, and most importantly they all need to be joined up; connectivity is key. The reduction in traditional long-term woodland and hedgerow management is one of the main reasons why dormouse numbers in the UK have fallen by more than half over the last 15 years. We need to put this right!

On a walk-around with our resident dormouse expert towards the end of last summer I was encouraged to hear there is great potential for us to improve our dormouse numbers here at Rare Breeds Centre. Many aspects of our Woodland Management Plan that we hope we will have in place around this time next year, such as woodland thinning and traditional practices such as hedge laying, will in themselves be beneficial for dormice. If we go out of our way to ensure these things are all linked together in a dormouse-friendly way, with additional habitat creation thrown into the mix as well, then things look very promising. On that note, I’ll be planting a few native hedgerow trees this week, all the time daydreaming about how they may one day make a suitable home for some of our precious dormouse residents.

Last week we celebrated National Safeguarding Adults Week we used this opportunity to raise awareness and strengthen our commitment to safeguarding across COT and the Rare Breeds Centre. We hosted a series of events and activities for our staff, volunteers, supported people and Rare Breeds Centre visitors. These activities were all designed to help learn, share and stay informed about best practices in safeguarding.

Monday:

We kicked off the week with a visit from Angela from the Jigsaw Project within the Choice Support team. She led a great session on hate crimes with the people we support. Talking about what hate crimes are, reasons why someone may be targeted, where incidents could occur and who to turn to for support and advice. She then finished the session with a fun quiz to get everyone thinking about what they had just learnt.

Tuesday:

On Tuesday we had a busy day filled with insightful talks. The day started with welcoming a local police officer speaking with the people we support about personal safety and where to find help if needed. He shared practical tips on staying safe in different situations and knowing when and how to seek support.

Later in the day our Director of Quality and Change Katie, delivered a great session on Prevention in Practice to our staff and volunteers. Ensuring our team stays up to date with best safeguarding practices.

Wednesday:

On Wednesday we invited Edify Training to speak with our staff and volunteers about Creating Empowering Environments. Which involved teaching our team about promoting independence for our supported people with a strong emphasis on a person centered approach, discussing potential barriers and the importance of enabling choice, dignity and control in daily living. A really insightful session that our team found very helpful!

Thursday:

On this day, staff came together to help inform Rare Breeds Centre visitors about Safeguarding and National Safeguarding Adults Week. They spoke with the visitors and raised awareness of safeguarding for both adults and children highlighting the importance of speaking up if they have concerns about someone and who to contact for support.

Friday:

As the week came to an end we hosted a resources stand for staff that was filled with leaflets, posters and QR codes linked to further resources. It offered a round up of everything that had been learnt, discussed and put into practice over the week and more!

For more information on National Safeguarding Adults Week, you can visit the Ann Craft website: https://www.anncrafttrust.org/…/safeguarding-adults-week/

To celebrate Black Friday we are offering a Black Friday Special Offer with 15% off some of your favourite Rare Breeds experiences! Just use code BLACKFRIDAY15 at checkout!

But that’s not all! Enjoy 15% off Grotto Sessions and SEN Grotto Sessions too on selected dates! Just use code BLACKFRIDAY15 at the checkout!

As you step into the farm this season, Santa’s elves have already been hard at work, scattering their magic throughout the farm and filling every corner with twinkling lights and festive cheer. Overnight, the whole farm transforms into a winter wonderland sparkling with seasonal enchantment. Families can enjoy a full day of Christmas fun, including festive entertainment, a Plant Your Own Christmas Tree activity, and magical moments for all ages, all set in the charm of our Christmas themed farm.

And our cattle barn is transformed into a glittering Santa’s Grotto, where families can take part in daily shows featuring Father Christmas and his jolly team of elves.

T&C’s apply

• Subject to availability.
• Offer only valid for online purchases only.
• Offer available until Friday, 28th November

Don’t miss out, treat yourself or someone special this festive season!