Exclusive:Gordonstoun school offers 'life-changing' new course in ... sheep shearing
The rapidly changing post-school landscape has seen Gordonstoun pupils want to take to the land
Sheep shearing, tractor driving and rifle practice might not immediately come to mind as traditional school subjects.
But rising student debt and a rapidly changing graduate employment landscape has seen teenagers at a top private school veer away from university to vocational routes.
Now Gordonstoun School is offering a BETCH - a practical alternative to a GCSE - in Countryside Management for its students.
Senior staff at King Charles’s former school say an increasing number of pupils are choosing apprenticeships or going straight into the workforce.
So the boarding school, where fees reach £69,000 a year for senior phase, has introduced courses in agriculture.
This included the introduction of the British Wool Board Blue Seal qualification in sheep shearing.
The course was launched by John Georgeson, Gordonstoun head of PE, whose family has a farm.
Three students – two girls and a boy – recently completed the course.
Mr Georgeson said: “It’s a physically challenging course and a really tricky skill to master, having to hold the sheep with one hand and two feet, while using the other hand to do the shearing.
“The instructors gave the students a pattern to do and through brute strength and skill they each managed to successfully shear several sheep.
“The farmer and instructor were both very complimentary and said they would be proud to have a flock of sheep sheared to such a high standard.”
One of those taking part is Cassie Pirie who first introduced her two pet orphan lambs at the family farm in Drummuir, Moray, at just nine-years-old.
Since then she has raised over 300 sheep.
The 18-year-old said: “I did the sheep shearing course because I wanted to push myself out my comfort zone to learn a unique traditional skill that I can use in my life.”
She said the course was tough but praised it as teaching “resilience, hard work and respect for the sheep”.
“Shearing develops compassion, as it is purely done for welfare purposes to prevent flystrike and heatstroke, not for profit,” she added.
Cassie said the work of sheep shearing is undervalued as a full day of shearing 250 to 300 sheep is the physical equivalent of a marathon.
“Anyone who works with sheep knows it definitely isn’t easy but the love and care for the animals motivates us,” she said.
Cassie now plans to shear her own sheep this summer and do a more advanced course to enhance her skill.
She then aims to learn different shearing traditions and differences in New Zealand, South America and Europe.
Eva Wroe grew up on a small farm in Moray with sheep, cows, and horses and said: “Coming from a rural upbringing, I wondered if sheep shearing was something I was able to do.”
The 18-year-old also said the course is incredibly physically demanding.
“You must flip the sheep, drag it out of the pen, shear it, and then replace it back into the pen, without losing control,” she said.
“The set up helped with this though because none of us were ‘shearing fit’ because we are not at that level yet so the instructors had us working in pairs so we could switch each time and keep shearing all day.”
Eva now plans to use the qualification to travel to New Zealand to work on a farm as part of a gap year.
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Rowan Christie also plans to use the qualification as an impetus to travel - but he plans to eventually return home to the Falklands.
Sheep shearing skills will be particularly useful given the country has 3,500 humans and 500,000 sheep.
“When I was young, I spent every weekend and school holiday visiting a farm in the northern section of East Falkland, where I learned everything I know about farming and found my passion for the industry,” the 16-year-old said.
“I admired the work ethic and skill of the shearers, and the ability to travel the world to shear while still being based in the Falklands really appealed to me.
“After picking up a hand piece and shearing last sides with a farmer, who in his day represented the Falkland Islands on the shearing world stage, I was pretty sure that it was a path which I wanted to follow.”
Rowan’s ambition is to attend Lincoln University in New Zealand to take a degree in farm management.
After that the plan is to move between the shearing seasons in Scotland, Cumbria, or the USA and the southern hemisphere seasons in New Zealand or Australia.
Winters will be spent back home in the Falklands.
“Ultimately, the dream is to be able to become the best shearer I can be and represent my country on the world stage,” Rowan added.
“When my shearing days are over, the plan at the moment is to manage a sheep farm on West Falkland.”
Gordonstoun, renowned already for its outdoor education programme, is also offering a Deer Management qualification for those over 16 as part of Field Sports and Conservation.
The DSC1 qualification gives stalkers, gamekeepers, rangers and land managers with the knowledge needed to manage deer populations humanely, legally and sustainably.
There’s also LANTRA-accredited Tractor and Chainsaw Courses are for a small number of students who need to acquire the skills necessary to earn money in the agriculture, forestry or rural estate/land management sectors in the UK or abroad.
Three boys and one girl completed the two-day chainsaw course.
Seven boys and one girl completed the Deer Management course and three boys and one girl completed the tractor course.
William Adam, 18, grew up in rural South Wales surrounded by a farm and hopes to find a job or apprenticeship in welding or blacksmithing.
“I have always been interested in shooting and recently started shooting with a friend who is a fairly regular deer stalker, and so I decided to take the course so I could potentially go along with him.”
Christian Collett, Head of Field Sports at Gordonstoun, said: “My 17-year-old son gained his tractor qualification last year and recently completed a challenging six-month contract on a 19,000-acre cotton farm in New South Wales.
“It’s been life changing for him.
“This gave me the idea to bring the tractor course and the other courses to Gordonstoun
and the response from the students and fellow staff has been so positive that we will be
looking at how we can run these types of course more regularly.”
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