S3 Geography pupils from Tobermory High School recently braved the cold weather to complete a river study. This involved taking measurements on a local section of river and using calculations to work out the river’s speed. Pupils measured the width of the river, the speed of the river, angle of slope and used Powers’ scale of roundness to examine the bedload. They will now use the raw data they collected out in the field, back in class, to enhance their processing and information handling techniques. Continue reading Tobermory High River Study
Category Archives: Outdoor Learning
Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park offer Travel Grant Scheme for schools.
Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park has launched a new pilot scheme to help schools and outreach groups experience the great outdoors in the Park by offering an Educational Travel Grant. With forests to explore, landscapes to walk and climb, lochs and rivers to sail on and rich wildlife and history to discover, Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park provides the perfect outdoor classroom for schools and groups. Continue reading Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park offer Travel Grant Scheme for schools.
Dunoon Primary create 3D Artwork in Bishop’s Glen
Two P7 boys from Dunoon Primary visited Bishop’s Glen on the final day of October 2012. They went to create artwork from natural materials gathered from the forest floor. They enjoyed creating 3D sculptures. While collecting their leaves, seeds, moss, twigs, stones and berries they discovered some felled trees and learned how to work out the age of a tree by counting the rings. They were between 24 and 28 years old. It was fantastic to be outdoors even on quite a wet day! Continue reading Dunoon Primary create 3D Artwork in Bishop’s Glen
Beach Clean
On Friday 26th October, Park Primary became the first school in Argyll & Bute to gain the 5th Green Flag from Eco School Scotland. The inspectors were delighted with the school’s continued commitment to environmental education. During the past 2 years, we have concentrated on Litter, School Grounds and Sustaining our World topics. Alison Kennedy led out work on fair-trade and we were the first primary in Argyll & Bute to gain accreditation as a Fairtrade School. Ilona MacLaurin led the project to create a School Orchard which is thriving in an area at the front of the school. Other areas of work which were commended was the school Gardening Club, run by Barbara Macfarlane. The club grew a wide range of fruit and vegetables and have also made a deluxe bug hotel. We are very proud of our 5th flag!
S3 French Poetry
S3 French in Tobermory have been studying French poetry, mainly the works of Jacques Prévert. They took advantage of the sunshine and beautiful autumn colours to go to Aros Park and take photos to illustrate one of Préverts most famous poems “les feuilles mortes” as well as a couple of other autumnal poems. Two groups chose to take images to represent “les feuilles mortes” in which the sight of the dead leaves prompts memories of a time in a man’s (or a woman’s!)life when they were in a happy relationship which is now over. Other groups took photos of the autumn colours to represent the poem “les saisons”. The colours and scenery are stunning and the class have brought the poems to life with some images which demonstrate understanding of the poems and are now working on displaying their work as poetic posters. Continue reading S3 French Poetry
Smarties Nursery
The children and staff at Smarties Nursery, Oban, recently enjoyed two outdoor learning days; one at Ganavan beach and the other at Dunstaffnage Castle. The children had a fantastic time working as a team and exploring the area. At Dunstaffnage Castle, the children found monsters and caves and tree swings. When they returned to nursery the children used their imagination along with photos that they had taken to come up with a fantastic story called “Bears, Monsters, Ponies, Trees and Leaves at Dunstaffnage Castle” Continue reading Smarties Nursery
Lochnell pupils travel back in time!
As part of their project about Crofting, Lochnell pupils from Primary five, six and seven enjoyed a great experience travelling back in time at the Auchindrain Township on Wednesday 24th October. The children who have been running their very own ‘virtual’ crofts in class have been comparing crofting in the past to modern day.
The children enjoyed a day learning about farming life, agricultural improvements and change with lots of hands on activities which included; making dolls, a mystery object quiz, traditional remedies, dressing up in period clothes and cooking delicious scones on an open fire inside one of the houses.
Tree Felling at Innellan
On Tuesday we had the amazing experience of watching the Scottish and Southern Energy workmen cutting down a really big tree! We all walked along to watch while the tree surgeons scaled the trunk to cut all the branches before felling the tree. The tree made a very loud thud as it hit the ground. It was very exciting but a bit sad too because it had been there for a very long time and perhaps birds and animals had made their home in it. The tree was 26 metres high at least! We are going to measure out 26 metres in our playground to see if it would fit. Continue reading Tree Felling at Innellan
S2 Outward Bound 2013 at LHS
On Wednesday 24 October thirteen of the Lochgilphead High S2 pupils that will be attending Outward Bound took up the opportunity to walk from the school to Bellanoch Bridge (on the Crinan Canal) and back. The walk which was a total of 11.5 miles (18.6 km) was arranged so that the pupils could raise funds towards their trip via sponsorship.
The walk was challenging and lasted from 9.30am until 3.15pm with stops at Cairnbaan for refreshments and Bellanoch Bridge for lunch. Continue reading S2 Outward Bound 2013 at LHS
Dunoon Grammar School Pupils go Eco-friendly
Over the past 6 months, a range of DGS pupils and staff have been gathering old plastic bottles to make their very own greenhouse. The greenhouse was made for two reasons: one simply because the DGS garden needed one; furthermore, it was a beneficial scheme which allowed recycled material, that would have otherwise gone to landfill, to be used in a productive way. Some materials were given in by some pupils, but also Bogleha (a recycling centre) installed bins to collect additional plastic bottles. Mr Crofts and Mr Davie, of DGS’s Technical department along with Mr Crofts’ S4 practical craft skills class took 3 days to construct the frame for the greenhouse. Dunoon Grammar School’s Eco-group and Mr McClement, PT of Science, took two afternoons to assemble the plastic bottles and to add the finishing touches to complete our new greenhouse. Continue reading Dunoon Grammar School Pupils go Eco-friendly
Success at Barcaldine Primary
Barcaldine Primary School successfully applied for a Heart of the Community Grant from Scottish Sea Farms. We are going to use the £1750 to purchase and build a polytunnel within our school grounds.
We are pictured here with Mr Calum MacAlpine from Scottish Sea Farms who came along to visit the school and talk to the children about their plans. We hope to be adventurous and grow as many things as we can – peaches, grapes and even sweetcorn – we are going to give everything a BASH!!!
Luing Fire Pit
There was great excitement on Thursday when the children of Luing Primary used their fire pit for the first time. The pit has been a major project worked on by all of the children, Clare the early level worker, with Jon and Watson two members of the Luing community. The wood for the fire pit area was donated and prepared by the Forestry Commission. The whole school community have been involved in a full risk assessment process before the fire was ignited. Continue reading Luing Fire Pit
Innellan Gardening Club – 1st Birthday!
Innellan Gardening Club celebrated its First Birthday with a party and a beautifully made cake last Friday afternoon. Family and friends joined staff and pupils to enjoy the cake and wish the Gardening Club many more happy years. To date the children have grown delicious vegetables in pots and raised beds and have enhanced the appearance of the school grounds with beautiful flowers. Last session they planted and nurtured lovely plants, which they used to fill large pots in the village for the enjoyment of the community. A huge thank you to the children and helpers, Mrs Stephenson, Miss Stevenson and Mrs Walkingshaw, of Innellan Gardening Club, for all their hard work! Continue reading Innellan Gardening Club – 1st Birthday!
The Flower Garden at Rothesay Primary Pre-5
Rothesay Primary and Pre-5, along with parents, carers and friends, celebrated the ‘Grand Opening’ of our new outdoor area on Wednesday 3rd October. The area was planned, almost 2 years ago, by our present P2 when they were in the nursery and it has taken a lot of hard work and determination for it to develop into the challenging, exciting and beautiful space it is today. The children decided they wanted a workers area, a secret hide-out, a quiet place, a place to plant flowers and vegetables, a slide and a tunnel, a huge sandpit and lots of music… and a place to find creepy crawlies and to fly with butterflies. Continue reading The Flower Garden at Rothesay Primary Pre-5
Rothesay Primary Wins the Cup!
The pupils at Rothesay Primary were delighted to win the James McMillan Trophy at their local Horticultural Show. The pupils had entered their tomatoes along with growers from all over the island and were amazed to win the best exhibit in section 7! They also managed to scoop a first for their cooking apples, dessert apples, rhubarb and sweet peas. We’d love to share the secret of success that our Young Green Fingers achieved – but we think it was mostly down to luck!
KILCHRENAN SPLASHES OUT
Kilchrenan Primary took to the waters this week, making plenty of waves. The pupils had chosen a coasteering event with Stramash as an adventurous outdoor challenge, which they met with great success.
With everybody safely equipped,and squeezed into wetsuits, they took to the rocks at Ganavan Sands, by Oban and, led by Andrew from Stramash, set out to explore and to have an adventure. They sat watching an otter, swam in a sea taxi, scrambled across rocks, jumped from the cliffs into the sea and, all agreed, had a fantastic time. Continue reading KILCHRENAN SPLASHES OUT
Croft visit
As part of their crofting topic P5,6,7 pupils from Bunessan Primary enjoyed a very informative visit to two local crofts. On the croft they learned about cutting peat and how to look after different kinds of animals.
They especially enjoyed comparing crofting methods from the past with the present eg the horse with the quad and the scythe with the binder.
Harvest at Port Charlotte
We had an amazing day in Port Charlotte Primary School recently when we held a Harvest Lunch for our parents, friends and family. We had been busy all summer in the garden; growing vegetables like potatoes, turnips, carrots and leeks and had gathered them all in this term.
As part of our Crofting Connections project we also had a go at growing barley, oats, rye and wheat. It took us ages to mill the wheat and oats to make flour!
We used the flour to bake bread and we also made soup from our vegetables and cheese scones and shortbread.
Continue reading Harvest at Port Charlotte
Ulva Potato Harvest
Last May we had planted potatoes in big yellow tubs in our school garden. We watched the plants grow … and then die down. After the summer holidays we decided to wait a few weeks and then harvest our potatoes on a sunny day.
We had to tip the tubs up to empty out the soil and then hunt for the potatoes. We collected lots of potatoes. We counted them, ordered them according to their size and weighed them. We had collected nearly 2 kilograms of lovely potatoes.
Next week we will make some lunch dishes with our potatoes. We hope they taste good!!
Continue reading Ulva Potato Harvest
P5 visit to the beautiful Castle Gardens
On Wednesday 26th September, Dunoon Primary P5 pupils (as part of their Interdisciplinary Topic ‘Our Local Area’) visited the Castle Gardens.
The sun was shining brightly and each group, clipboards in hand investigated the various areas of the gardens to find out as much as they could about the history surrounding this central area of Dunoon. They took rubbings of plaques,sketched any monuments found in the garden and completed worksheets. A superb time was had by all and lots of interesting information was collected to make a collage of the facts they found. Continue reading P5 visit to the beautiful Castle Gardens
