An 1.8ha farm on Kaikorai Valley College grounds opened in 2015.
The farm project was established through a Ministry of Education initiative, the Teacher-led Innovation Fund, aiming to engage students from the college and four Dunedin primary schools to increase engagement in science, technology and agriculture education.
"We are very proud of it," teacher Simon McMillan said.
A strength of the farm was its location and potential to bridge urban and rural communities.
"This farm sits in the cusp between the rural and city area and it is a strength we haven’t realised yet," Dr McMillan said.
The school was seeking funding for a dedicated educator to manage the farm so it could be available for more Dunedin schools to use.
"I’d love other schools to be here to learn how to use a chainsaw, put in a fence post and run wire and shear a sheep, you name it, it is cool stuff and plenty of kids will like it but getting access to it is hard," he said.
A possible solution for addressing staff shortages in rural communities could be exposing more students at city schools to potential careers in the primary industries.
The educator could arrange for people with skill in the primary sector to visit the farm and teach pupils from different Dunedin schools at the same time, he said.
An orchard allowed the teaching of a range of horticulture skills including plant propagation, grafting, pruning and selling the fruit.
Beehives allowed for the harvesting, processing and sale of honey.
Eggs and vegetable were also sold, he said.
"We are looking for a revenue stream wherever we can get it."
Kaikorai Stream and a tributary of it border the farm and the polluted stream was used to teach about water quality and monitoring of it showed how certain materials, such as sediment from excavation work in the catchment, could impact it.
"We are trying to change the mindsets of kids about the world around them and how we look after it," Dr McMillan said.
A storm increased water flow in the stream and highlighted the rubbish in it including a car door and bed.
Water quality was often highlighted as an issue facing rural communities but urban communities needed to "measure up" and be part of the conversation.
"We try to make urban dwellers aware this is their issue too and we could do more and we should do more," he said.
Dynes Transport had provided support to improve the farm including the use of a digger and gravel to create tracks.
The school was a member of local community trust Aroha Kaikorai Valley and students were trapping possums in the valley.
Dr McMillan, once the head of science at the college for 25 years, now teaches English to more than 20 international students at the school.
Those students trap rats by the stream and write about their understanding on how catching pests helps a conservation effort.
Farmers were due to deliver orphan lambs for the students to care for.
Sheep would be kept on the farm for up to 10 weeks and then returned to their owner.
A focus on the farm was to build farm infrastructure as cheaply and sustainably as possible.
Students built an animal hut from salvaged table tennis tables.
A barn built by the students, under the guidance of a teacher who was a qualified engineer, features a gym beam as structural support.
Other infrastructure the students built includes a chicken run and a shelter to cover blackcurrants, blueberries, grapes and raspberries.
Some of the fruit was used to make jam and dehydrated snacks.
"All of this takes time and that’s why you need paid time to have someone to make it work," Dr McMillan said.
