TOP Gear host-turned-farmer Jeremy Clarkson wrote last year on X/Twitter: “Here’s an idea. Instead of national service, which is obviously idiotic, how about kids working on farms.”

But one charity is ahead of the game.

They hand in their phones and live and work on the farm, taking on tasks such as moving livestock and mending fences, as well as cooking for each other and spending time in the countryside.

With persistent school absences — defined as missing more than ten per cent of lessons — remaining high since the pandemic and secondary pupils increasingly finding school “exhausting” and “overly rigid”, it is an approach that is working.

Ninety-one per cent of teachers have reported seeing an improvement in student behaviour while they are on the farm, and almost half of those pupils at risk of ­exclusion before visiting are no longer at risk six months on.

The charity, of which Queen ­Camilla is a proud patron, was co-founded by Jamie Feilden and his mum Tish, a psychotherapist, in 2009.

Build resilience

Jamie was working as a history teacher in a South London comprehensive and, realising some of his pupils had never seen a sheep, he brought some lambs into a pen in the playground from his family’s smallholding in Bath.

When he noticed ­students who usually struggled with attendance and behaviour were turning up early to school to look after the animals, he hit upon the idea of bringing small groups of pupils and their teachers to his family farm.

The project was a success and Jamie left teaching to launch Jamie’s Farm.

Over the past 16 years more than 17,000 young people have benefited from visiting one of its farms, from Skipton in North Yorks to Lewes in East Sussex.

And in July the Queen officially opened the charity’s latest holding, Lower Shockerwick, situated in the ­beautiful Box Valley near Bath.

The first students will stay there later this month, visiting from a South London comprehensive.

Jamie said: “We are very fortunate to have HM the Queen as our patron. Every time she visits it’s clear that she believes in what we do and knows the transformational power of being connected to the countryside and nature.

“Lower Shockerwick will be our seventh farm and it’s a real milestone for us. We’ll host 500 children a year there, and they will work hard to look after the animals.

“As we have seen week in and week out, these children will leave boosted and more confident to deal with challenges life throws at them.”

Tish, a mum-of-three and grandmother-of-nine, has noticed youngsters find the transition from the summer holidays to the classroom tricky.

She said: “At home their routine might have been based around screens. Going back into a school environment, which requires a lot of social interaction, can make them feel worried and anxious.

“At the farm we concentrate on building their confidence by focusing on what they can do, not on what they can’t do, and that works at home, too.

“It can feel very frustrating as a parent when a child struggles to go to school, as you need to work and it can feel like they are doing this deliberately. But taking time to really listen helps a lot.

“At Jamie’s Farm we like to go out on a walk with the dog when we chat with young people, or we’ll have a conversation while cooking, for example. Any kind of parallel activity makes the young person feel less like they are under interrogation, and more relaxed.

“Having a sense of purpose and feeling that you matter are both essential for young people. Asking a child to be a buddy for a younger pupil, or to walk with a younger sibling or friend to school, can help build their sense of purpose.

Going back into a school environment, which requires a lot of social interaction, can make them feel worried and anxious

Tish Feilden

“That is what we build on the farm and that then helps a young person to build their resilience and better manage transitions.”

Young people who have been to Jamie’s Farm are introduced not only to farm jobs, they may also have their first experience of living in the countryside.

Applications for the Royal Agricultural University’s land ­management degree course with a farm placement have risen 18 per cent year on year — credited largely to shows like ­Clarkson’s Farm.

Jack Carter, 24, will be one of the new team working at Lower Shockerwick, supporting young people with tasks across the farm.

Jack, who grew up in care, first visited Jamie’s Farm aged 12 and went on to become an apprentice with the charity, completing a qualification in outdoor learning and working as an estate manager.

Jack said: “Jamie’s Farm has been transformative in my life. I was put into care when I was ten, and moved in with my foster parents shortly after.

Jamie’s Farm has been transformative in my life. I was put into care when I was ten, and moved in with my foster parents shortly after

Jack Carter

“I was very antisocial. I didn’t want to speak to anyone and I was very much in my own head.

“I didn’t want to come to the farm, but once I arrived I found that being in the countryside helped me to feel calmer, and the emotional space was really ­helpful. My visits boosted my confidence, self-esteem and gave me hope.”

When Queen Camilla visited Shockerwick she brought vegetable and flower seedlings from her own ­garden for young people to plant at the farm.

She told the team: “I can’t tell you proud I am to be a patron of Jamie’s Farm.

“I look forward to ­seeing these seeds thriving alongside the schoolchildren.”