Early years pupils at a Staffordshire Moorlands village school were treated to a very special visitor as part of a project to learn about farming in the local community.

A JCB Fastrac tractor made the short journey from the JCB Landpower factory at Cheadle to be put through its paces on the playground of Hutchinson Memorial C of E First School, Checkley.

JCB Agriculture Product and Marketing Manager David Timmis took along the machine and invited children from the school’s Early Years Owls class to sit at the wheel of the revolutionary machine along with a question and answer session with the youngsters.

The 12 children, aged between three and five were eager to learn more about the role of farmers in the local community as part of their Understanding the World curriculum.

Teacher Gemma Grady explained:

“As a rural school many of the children come from farming backgrounds and a number of our children’s parents work at JCB so this visit really brought the children’s learning to life and made it real for them."

“They heard about the JCB Farm and learned about what the machines do on the farm then each of them got to sit in the Fastrac and see it in action, which they loved.”

JCB Agriculture Product and Marketing Manager David Timmis added:

“We were delighted to be invited to the school to talk about the importance of farming, explain where food comes from and the part we play in the world of agriculture. The children were very knowledgeable and had lots of great questions about the Fastrac and our Backing British Farmers campaign."

“It was fantastic to explain to the children world famous tractors are made just down the road, show them the machine and give them the chance to sit in the driving seat too.”