School farm visits: planning, hygiene around animals and agreeing terms with the school

A school that brings a class to your farm follows a rulebook of the Ministarstvo prosvjete i kulture (Ministry of Education and Culture), while you are responsible for conditions on the farm itself. The rules below apply to primary schools and schools for children with developmental difficulties. Secondary schools have a separate rulebook, not covered here.

In short

• A trip (izlet) is a one-day or half-day activity outside school. A school may organise it for pupils of any grade, at most twice per school year.
• The trip goes ahead if at least 50% of the pupils of the same class take part, with written parental consent. Taking part is voluntary.
• If no transport is needed to reach the destination, the school does not have to hire a travel agency or a transport company.
• The rulebook does not cover insurance for pupils or for the farm, so this is agreed separately.
• The main health risk on a farm is germs from animal faeces: the bacterium E. coli O157 and the parasite Cryptosporidium. Hand-washing with soap and water and a ban on food and drink where animals are touched reduce it.

Who it applies to

Primary schools and schools for children with developmental difficulties in Republika Srpska, and the farms, households and caterers that host them. A farm visit can also be part of a multi-day excursion (pupils of grade 8 or 9, up to five days) or a škola u prirodi (school in nature, grade 5, up to five days). For those two forms the Republički pedagoški zavod (Republic Pedagogical Institute) must give written consent first. For a one-day trip the rulebook does not require that consent.

What to do

1. Contact the school early. A trip has to be included in the school's annual work programme, so schools set dates well ahead. Your contact is the school director or the school's expert team, which organises the trip. The school takes a class to one destination with the same content for all pupils, so agree the programme for the whole class.
2. Ask how the school pays. If the trip is paid entirely from school funds, the school follows public procurement rules. If parents pay, a committee chooses the transport company or agency through a public call, posted on the school notice board and sent to at least three addresses. If no transport is needed, that step does not apply. Either way, agree the price and payment terms with the school in writing.
3. Agree numbers of children and adults. The rulebook sets no ratio of children to accompanying adults. Ask the school which ratio it uses, and plan supervision in the animal area according to its size and the number of children.
4. Send the school your rules before the visit. List what children must not do (eat, drink, kiss animals, enter pens, touch tools), what shoes and clothes to wear, and that cuts on hands must be covered with a waterproof dressing.
5. Arrange the site. Separate the area where animals are touched from the eating and play area. The hand-washing point must be on the route from the animals to the eating area.
6. Check insurance. Ask your insurer whether your policy covers visits by groups of children, and ask the school how its pupils are insured. Do not assume anything is covered until you have checked.

Hygiene and safety around animals

The clearest practical source for farm visits is the guidance of the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE). HSE has withdrawn its earlier sheet AIS23 and refers to the industry Code of Practice produced by the Access to Farms partnership, in consultation with HSE. None of this is binding in BiH, but the rules below come from the HSE guidance:

• Assume your animals carry E. coli O157, even when they look healthy. A small number of bacteria can make a child ill. Young children are most at risk because they put fingers and objects in their mouths, so supervise young children especially closely.
• Hand-washing needs running water (preferably warm), liquid soap and paper towels. Shared buckets or troughs of standing water are not acceptable. Alcohol gels and wipes do not replace hand-washing on a farm.
• There should be enough washing points for the expected number of visitors, and they should be cleaned at least once a day.
• Eating and drinking are banned where animals are touched. Place the eating area so that visitors reach it after washing their hands, away from the animals.
• Do not let visitors go into pens. Let them touch animals outside the pens, in a designated area and under supervision.
• Remove sick or stressed animals from the contact area at once, until they recover, and call the vet. Decide in advance how you handle pregnant animals in the contact area.
• Make an animal health plan with your vet. Keep manure and compost heaps away from areas where visitors walk, or fence them off.
• Agree with the teachers that they check that every child washes their hands. Ask the school to tell you if a child falls ill after the visit, for example with diarrhoea.

If you serve food, see the Hub articles on allergens and on food hygiene for small producers. For events and tastings, see the article on farm tastings and events.

Where to go

• The visiting school: the director and the expert team organising the trip.
• Republički pedagoški zavod: for consent when the visit is part of an excursion or a school in nature.
• Your insurer: for liability cover towards visitors.

Laws and sources

• Pravilnik o načinu organizovanja ekskurzija, izleta i škola u prirodi (Službeni glasnik Republike Srpske br. 83/24), text on the Ministry of Education and Culture of RS site, Articles 1 to 6, 11 and 12. The minister adopted it on 17 September 2024. It was published in the Službeni glasnik on 24 September 2024 and entered into force on the eighth day after publication (Article 18).
• HSE (UK): page on farm visitor attractions with animals
• HSE (UK): operational guidance OG 121 for inspectors on preventing ill health from animal contact at visitor farms
• HSE: Appendix 1 to OG 121, standards for hand-washing, pens, sick animals and manure heaps
• HSE: notice that sheet AIS23 has been withdrawn