A NEW role has been created to forge stronger ties between school children and the countryside.

Farming and Countryside Education has appointed Brian Hainsworth as its first regional education co-ordinator for the West Midlands, covering Worcestershire and Herefordshire.

FACE is the merged educational initiative run jointly by the National Farmers' Union and the Royal Agricultural Society of England

Mr Hainsworth joins FACE from Oakridge Primary School, Hillcroft Park, Stafford, where he was deputy head.

He has also worked at Harper Adams College, in Shropshire, as an agricultural technologist in the crop science department.

"I'm really looking forward to the challenge of helping to reconnect inner city school children with the countryside and I think it's a post which offers massive opportunities," said Mr Hainsworth.