SCHOOL children in the Wheatbelt will be able to learn more about the importance of bees for pollination and crop growing if a Northam apiarist is successful in the AgriFutures Rural Women’s award.

Named a finalist in this year’s award Jay Page wants to expand school education to raise awareness of sustainable bee production.

As a bee lover and educator, Mrs Page is passionate about teaching children the importance of bees, their role for our planet, the plight they are facing and what we can do to help.

In 2022, she saw a need for bee education for primary school children that was relevant, inspiring and age appropriate.

She used her 16 years of early childhood teaching experience to deliver a series of bee education-themed incursions throughout the Perth area including Hills Outside and School Care in Darlington and Kalamunda Out of School Centre in Walliston.

Mrs Page from Messines Bee Farm has aspirations to expand her business into the Wheatbelt by offering school incursions to the 71 public and private schools in the region – schools that often miss out on these opportunities due to their distance from Perth.

For more than two decades, the Rural Women’s award has celebrated and empowered women in Australia’s rural and emerging industries, businesses and communities.

Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development director general Heather Brayford congratulated the WA finalists and paid tribute to the role of rural women.