About 650 primary school children visited Duchy College's annual Countryside Day to learn all about the environment and to take part in a varied range of activities laid on by college students.

The whole event was organised by students on a Foundation Degree course in Rural Environmental Management. They had divided the college campus into nine different areas known as zones, and employed other students as guides conducting tours of the zones for school parties from Upton Cross, Coads Green, Bere Alston, Stoke Climsland, Pensilva, Trekenner, Plympton and Oakwood Primary Schools, as well as a party of home tutored children from the Home Grown School.

A number of guest organisations took part, including the Westcountry Rivers Trust, who helped with pond dipping activities, Cornwall Wildlife Trust, the National Trust from Lanhydrock, South West Water, the Women's Food and Farming Union and Flashpoint Lifeskills Centre. A number of craftspeople demonstrating their skills included a farrier, spinners, weavers and woodturners.

Sports were part of the itinerary, with golf, archery and other active games including a straw bale maze. In the sports hall a special sponsored event took place in aid of 'Kick for Children with Cancer'.

New attractions included charcoal burning, chainsaw carving, and a tour of a new bat barn to encourage bats to roost on campus. Another new initiative, the Forest School, saw children taking part in active group environmental games organised by skilled leaders. Also in the woodland zone, groups had to find a hidden student in army camouflage and had their own faces painted in camouflage colours. There were also mammal displays to seek amongst the trees.

Farm skills were not forgotten, with a tractor and trailer ride to a ploughing demonstration with an old tractor, and shire horses to meet. There were modern tractors to be explored in the yard, plus milking and sheep shearing demonstrations.

Tony Connell, Progra­mme Manager for Foundation Degrees in the Countryside said: "As usual the students have done a marvellous job in organising the event. They've been planning it since Christmas and it seems to get better every year."

Michael Day, one of the organisers stationed at the pond zone, said: "Every­thing's going really well. The children are loving it. They are always disappointed to be moved on after they've had their go at pond dipping."

There were positive comments from children, parents and teachers. Year 6 teacher Tom Lumby from Stoke Climsland School said of his class: "They really are enjoying themselves. The food chain bioaccumulation game was particularly good. It was really pleasing for me that they knew the answers."

Dave Linnell OBE, Principal of Cornwall College, of which Duchy College is part, said: "Countryside Day is a marvellous opportunity for our students to work together to organise and run a logistically complex major event, while providing an inspirational and educational day out for local primary school children."