A SPECIAL Easter delivery of nine lambs arrived for students at a school with an on-site farm.

Mowbray School, in Bedale, is the largest school of its kind in North Yorkshire and works with 140 students with special educational needs, aged from three to 16.

The lambs are the latest addition to the school’s growing collection of livestock which now includes rare breed sheep, pigs, poultry, goats, ponies and a brace of donkeys who are over-wintering in the Dales before returning to Scarborough for a summer season on the beach.

The farm was set up six years ago and has now expanded to cover five-and-a-half acres.

All pupils help in the daily running of the farm as part of the scheme started by Mowbray, the only one of its kind in the country.

Headteacher, Jonathan Tearle said: “What you immediately notice by observing the children working on the farm is their calmness, interest, active participation and, above all, sheer enjoyment.

“Farm activities provide them with relief from formal lessons, allowing them to shine, develop communication skills, thinking skills and ability to work with others.

“The farm has to pay for itself of course so our produce is sold locally. We have built this operation into the school enterprise curriculum which contributed towards our school being awarded the National Standard for Enterprise Education.

"What better way to develop numeracy and literacy than through the skills needed to market and sell produce."