April 2018 – Outdoor Learning in the the Outer Hebrides

Tong School Orienteering

At this time of year with the good weather is when the outdoor team are in demand. Tim was in Tong School to do the Bronze Youth Navigator Award.

The session started with some time in classroom (it can be done outside but needs good weather otherwise the paper disintegrates) the young people created an ‘island’ on the classroom floor using a rope as the shore and then populated it with buildings and features. They then drew their own map of the island. This give the opportunity to talk about scale, how to denote features with symbols and the importance of the key.

This lead to talking about how important it is to orientate the map and touching on North, South, East and West.

The class were then given a map of the school grounds where Tim had already set out twenty orienteering clippers. With a score card, a map and a quick refresher on orientating the map outside the class set off to navigate around the course around the school.

At the end of the session there was a recap of the essential point of orientating the map and the whole class had completed their Bronze award.

Orienteering Transition Event

In the last week of last term we ran our annual Orienteering Transition Event, aimed at bringing together all the young people currently in P7 who will be moving up to the Nicolson Institute together in August. The theory is that by mixing the teams up, so the children have to work with people they don’t know from other schools, they will have some more familiar faces in the crowd when they go for their transition days.

The event starts with three structured activities, with an adult leading each one. One activity looks at map memory and communication, another at using compasses (and a bit of mental maths!), and the final one at making good decisions on the move – the core skills of orienteering. Because they have a structure and specific tasks, this helps young people who are a bit shy to talk to their new team mates as well as learning some new things.

After a brief water stop, the teams are sent out orienteering in a small section of the Castle Grounds. Parents need not worry too much – they are given a safety briefing first, and there are adults around the course to supervise and form a ‘human perimeter’ should anyone decide to get lost! It’s always a joy to see the faces of their teachers though, when we blow the hooter and send over 200 children off into the woods…

The whole of the Active Schools & Sports Development team come together to make this event happen each year, along with assistance from Scaladale, and of course the teaching and other school staff who come along. Thanks everyone, see you all next year!

Young Navigator Award Scheme

The first term of 2018 has seen a few school groups braving the cold weather to get outside and complete their Young Navigator Bronze Awards. P5 & 6 at Tong Primary had some classes with their teacher Mrs Emmott, and then Andrew and Isi went in to finish up with an orienteering challenge around the school grounds. Whilst they were out and about, we asked them to point out where they were on the map, orientate it correctly to North, and show us the route they were planning to take. They also looked at symbols, scale and compasses. They are now well on their way to being able to navigate themselves around the great outdoors, so parents if you’re planning to take them out feel free to get them practicing!

The Owl Who Was Afraid Of The Dark

On the 20th February, before the evenings got too long, Mrs Mackinnon and her P1-4 class from Sir E Scott Primary came out for a night walk with Isi. They had been reading The Owl Who Was Afraid Of The Dark as the basis for their project for the term, and wanted to experience the darkness for themselves – away from lights and buildings. We walked from the playground area in the Aline woodlands, down to the shores of Loch Seaforth and back again – a long way for little legs!

It was a very cold but calm evening, and the sun had just set as we left the carpark. We found lots of interesting things to talk about on the way, and the children especially liked seeing the snow on the Cliseam and other hills being lit up by the sunset. We spent a few minutes being very quiet to see what we could hear. We didn’t find any owls, but they were all surprised at just how quiet it was. When we got to the picnic bench by the loch, Isi gave everyone hot chocolate or juice, and a biscuit to keep them going for the return leg.

We looked out across the loch, which was very calm and looked like glass. On the way back, we turned off our torches and spent some time looking at the stars. We managed to find the Plough, Cassiopeia, Orion’s Belt, and some pictures the children made up themselves. Isi also had to remember some of her physics from school on the rest of the walk as the children had lots of questions about everything from the moon to black holes!

There were lots of smiling faces when we got back, although I suspect that they all slept well that night.

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