Rocky View Schools will be taking on a unique challenge in the 2019 school year. 

A new school is in the process of being created in Airdrie in hopes of creating a different learning environment for those that fail to learn in a traditional four-walled classroom. 

"The Farm"  is a school that's courses will take place outside of the classroom on a real farm with all the core curriculum being taught there. 

The school will use agricultural studies and entrepreneurial skills to meet core requirements set out by the government. 

Mark Turner with the program says students will learn a variety of essential skills.

"In three years time, in grades 7 to 12, around twenty kids per grade on a fourteen, fifteen-acre farm doing small projects such as raising chickens, growing items in greenhouses and running their own farmers markets and becoming entrepreneurs. On top of that, we will be connecting with different farms in our community to learn these skills and visit functioning farms.  The point of this is to do things differently."

The school will consist of a variety of buildings including a greenhouse, community farmers market, chicken coops, barns, and maintenance shops. Each of these building will be a place to hold different real-life practical skill classes as well as provide the students and the school an opportunity to become a working farm and self-sustainable business and education centre essentially run by students and teachers. 

Turner also says he has seen first hand the need for these kinds of unique schooling systems.

"Schools have cared for a certain type of learner for a long time and we need to change that, in my time in the building futures program I have seen first hand that there are a lot of students out there that need to learn hands-on and not between four walls and this project is the best example of what that can look like."

The hope is that the school will become completely self-sufficient in the future. 

"Without question, the goal is that this will run itself,  Not only with materials but financially it can be self-sustainable by the work students are putting into the farm and are able to sell the items from their projects and develop entrepreneurial skills."

Students will apply for the program to be selected, the educators are looking for students that want to learn differently and they will be selecting students not based on academics but on who they think will be the best fit for the program. 

The program is currently chasing down grants through various sectors in Alberta such as agriculture and green energy grants as well as educational grants. 

The land will be located just outside of Airdrie and has been donated by the Hansen family. 

The program will be holding a reverse silent auction on December 17 at Main Street BBQ in hopes to raise enough money for a school bus, farm equipment, building sponsorship, seed and feed, and cash donations. 

If you would like to become involved in the program or have materials you can donate or time and skills you can teach please contact Lindsey Morrison at morrisonlindsey7@gmail.com

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