We can make a difference!

Some news has reached us from TCV, together with OVO Energy who are on a mission to encourage thousands of volunteers and community groups to join in and make a difference to climate, to wildlife and to communities, by planting the I Dig Trees programmes’ one millionth tree by the end of the 2019-20 tree planting season.

These groups have 350,000 carbon busting trees to give away to community groups and volunteers for FREE! The sooner we plant them all, the sooner we will reach 1 million trees together, leaving a green legacy for future generations…

As the proverb states, the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is now.

To claim free trees for your school, class or group, follow the link below:

CLAIM YOUR FREE TREES

Please share your work with us and TCV by using the hashtag #IDigTrees

On Monday 21st October, LOST will be hosting CPD for teachers interested in becoming the Lead Teacher for Outdoor Learning in their establishment.

The course is a full day course at the Learning Outdoors Support Team base at St Joseph’s Academy in Kilmarnock.  The course aims to cover all aspects of outdoor learning for the classroom teacher, with practical elements running for the specific sectors: ECC, Primary, Secondary and ASN.  By the end of the course, the participants will feel equipped to take their pupils learning outdoors.  This course is based on training developed by Education Scotland and the Scottish Advisory Panel for Outdoor Education and will contribute towards your GTCS Professional Update.

Content covered includes: Barriers, Perceptions, Policy, Pedagogy, Risk and Safety, Ground audits, Improvement planning, sharing good practice, raising attainment and assessment and evaluation.

It is recognised that there is much diversity within the sectors, so we will aim to support you to use the resources to differentiate for your pupils.

This course is a mixture of indoor and outdoor work, so please come dressed appropriately.  Teachers working within East Ayrshire Council can sign up via Gateway.  Those interested who work outwith East Ayrshire, can sign up by emailing:

outdooreducation@east-ayrshire.gov.uk

There is a cost of £60 for teachers outside of East Ayrshire Council, not including lunch.

This week – Monday 30th September to Friday 4th October – is Scottish Maths Week.  What better way to celebrate than getting outside and experiencing the maths that is all around us?

LOST have created a resource which provides some quick and easy ideas to get outside with your class this week to bring maths learning to life.  Click on the link below to access this.

Maths Week Outdoor Activities

A few months ago, we worked alongside Learning through Landscapes Scotland and New Cumnock Primary School, one of our COACh schools from session 2019/20, to promote taking literacy lessons outdoors.  We had a brilliant morning with the children exploring the story of Harry Potter and the class went off to find their own wands.  You can see what we got up to and the impact it had on literacy learning in the video below.

Thank you to Learning through Landscapes Scotland for asking us to be involved and to New Cumnock Primary School for taking part.

A big welcome back to all East Ayrshire teachers and staff from all at LOST.  We hope that you all had a brilliant summer break and we look forward to another fantastic year of outdoor learning for our young people!

Mrs Mackie’s P6 class achieved their John Muir Discovery Award using STEM as a main focus.

They Discovered and Explored their school grounds and local community greenspaces such as The Mount and the local park. The class looked at the biodiversity in local greenspaces and found the biggest worms!!

Pupils researched John Muir’s life from when he was a boy growing up in Scotland to adulthood in America – one of the highlights was taking the American President camping!  After this trip John Muir became known as the Founder of National Parks.

When sharing what they had learned in a very innovative way using presentation, video, slideshow and role play to family and friends pupils also spoke about climate change and what everyday things we can do to help reduce our carbon footprints.

Mrs Mackie’s class enjoyed working towards achieving their John Muir Award so much they are planning to continue learning about nature and what can be done to help after the holidays.

Congratulations from everyone in the LOST Team to all pupils and Mrs Mackie for their hard work and much deserved Awards. We look forward to seeing you continue onto the next stage of your John Muir Award by working to an Explorer Award.

There’s a wild adventure waiting for you at Holyrood Park!

Join RSPB Scotland and Historic Scotland for a day of discovery as you learn more about the rugged landscape and the amazing wildlife living in the heart of Edinburgh.

As part of the Edinburgh Science Festival, RSPB Scotland and Historic Scotland will be running the Wild Day Out event for a third year running.
The family-friendly event is being held at the Holyrood Park Education Centre on Saturday 13 April 2019, from 10am to 4pm.

With face painting, worm charming, minibeast hunts, a nature science lab and lots of other hands-on activities, don’t miss the opportunity to discover your wild side at this drop-in family event taking place at the Holyrood Park Education Centre.

Experts will be on hand to help you get up close with nature and to show you how every member of the family can help the natural world in your own back garden.

Free to attend, we can’t wait to see you and your family!

Click on the link below to view this month’s bulletin update for Learning for Sustainability Scotland.

Learning for Sustainability February 2019 Bulletin

On Tuesday 19^th February 2019, LOST, in collaboration with Dumfries House and the Royal Highland Educational Trust (RHET) will host a Women in Wellies event. This event is being supported by Education Scotland’s Enhancing Professional Learning in STEM Grants Programme through the Scottish Government STEM Education and Training Strategy. The aim of the event is to inspire girls and young women to pursue careers in rural and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields. Hosted at Dumfries House, female pupils from S3 at Auchinleck, Doon and Cumnock Academy have all been offered space to attend.

There are significant differences in the participation of women in STEM and rural subjects, with gender imbalances seen across education, training and work sectors.

Scottish Government statistics:

• 74% of the rural workforce is predominately male, with the same being true for the STEM sector.
• Only 16% of entrants into Engineering and Technology higher education courses were female.
• Only 3% of Construction Modern Apprenticeships were taken up by women.
• Women in STEM tend to earn less than male colleagues,
• Girls are underrepresented in STEM subjects with 28% of Higher Physics entries, 16% of Higher Computing entries and 10% of Computing Science

The Scottish Government’s STEM strategy, highlights that gender segregation and imbalance is a loss of economic potential for Scotland.

The benefits of working and spending time in the outdoors particularly in natural or greenspace is increasingly acknowledged as one of the key factors in fighting stress, inactivity and poor overall physical and mental health. Encouraging more women into rural careers supports the National Performance Framework for creating a healthier, greener, smarter, safer, stronger and greener Scotland.

The event itself will allow girls to hear from a wide variety of female professionals working in a range of jobs across both sectors. They will hear inspiring key note speeches from Linda McAulay-Griffiths, Head of Education, East Ayrshire Council, Dr Liz Barron-Majerik MBE, Scotland Director at LANTRA Scotland and Helen Lightbody, Head of Fleet Technical Services at Babcock International. The pupils will then get the chance to speak with women in small groups, to hear more about their job and the journey that they have taken to get to where they are. The girls will also have the opportunity to get hands on experience through a selection of exciting workshops at locations across Dumfries House Estate. And, for all those who wear their wellies, the day will end with a ‘welly wang’!

Also attending the event will be Young Reporters from Loudoun Academy, who will be recording the day, interviewing the speakers and delegates and writing an article all about the day.

We, at LOST, are very excited about this event and we look forward to welcoming the schools and professionals on the 19^th February.