Outdoor Learning in the the Outer Hebrides
The work of the Outdoor Learning Team in the Outer Hebrides; developing Learning for Sustainability and helping soften the classroom walls
Juliet Robertson makes some great recommendations for being outside with early years and primary school pupils in this video.
The comment we like is ‘weather is an adult’s perception not child’s perception’ (8’50”). From the comfort of your desk it looks like a terrible day but when you are out it is rarely wet all day. Preparing to be outside is the important thing.
Hopefully you find her comments as useful as we did. For more information on Juliet her web site is Creative Star
The class were doing a project on black houses and wanted to look at and explore the moor behind the school. Tim first looked round the village to see if there were the remains of any black houses on the crofts but sadly in Tong he couldn’t find any, so the decision was to have a walk out onto the moor, look at how it was different to the rest of the village and how the land might be being used.
The class used the Outdoor Journeys model developed by Simon Beames at Edinburgh University as a start point to prepare. Tim went into the class and they looked at the map and discussed the potential hazards, wrote this out before completing their journey plan to be left a the school before they set off. (Here are the CnES versions of the documents; Journey Plan, Hazard Assessment)
The walk went out of the school up the road, left out towards Craignish and the followed the peat tracks past the fank to the 42m high point. Then before turning to head for the wind turbine and then back down Barraidmhicille Mhoire to the school.
It was a very frosty afternoon so frozen puddles were a great source of interest with everyone looking at the ice and then jumping on it to smash it.
As part of the project to look at how people lived in black houses the class learnt the song Eilean Fraoich, they thought it would be good if they stood on top of some peat banks and sang the song.
On the way round the moor the class looked at the plants and birds they saw, it was so cold they came to the conclusion that was why they didn’t see many birds apart from seagulls.
The cold wasn’t bothering the cattle we saw near to the end of the journey.
The journey ended back a the school and the inevitable ‘wellies off scrum’ and lots of smiling faces.
Just before the end of the school term, as part of the project on the wars and into the Iolaire disaster, a trip to the gun emplacements at Arish Point was organised by Tong School. Tim went along to help and tell a few stories.
The bus dropped the classes at the carpark below the Bonny Prince Charlie cairn and they walked along to the emplacements.
The ruins of the emplacements gave a great opportunity to explore and to talk about what it must have been like to be based there on a wild winter night. We also looked across at the Beasts of Holm and talked about the Iolaire disaster.
The gun emplacements housed two 6 inch coast guns, had a watch tower and two search lights in smaller enclosures. How effective the guns would have been is questionable; when the Dutch Submarine Zeehond failed to respond to the challenges one of the guns was fired, it missed and the shell bounced over the water, embedding itself in the wall of Sandwickhill Cemetery. Much to the embarrassment of the Navy but to the huge amusement of the young people form Tong School when they heard the story.
Although the daylight at this time of year is short it does allow for some amazing skies which we took the chance to enjoy before boarding the bus to go to the museum for a visit.
For the last few years the Outdoor Team have worked with the Scaladale Centre to deliver RYA Youth Sailing Scheme Stage 1 and 2 in Harris so this year with the new marina facilities it ran in Tarbert. The new pontoons in East Loch Tarbert Marina made it very easy to run and the facilities are excellent.
In July the CnES Sailing school ran a week of sailing in Stornoway to get the young people to RYA Stage 1 and 2 of the Youth Sailing Scheme. The weather was very favourable with a lovely breeze and sunshine. All the young people achieved the awards.
Tim went to Breasclete School to explore the croft land next to the school, there were plenty of invertebrates including a spider who was ‘snacking’ on a fly. The young people used the Field Studies Council fold out charts to identify the species and plants they found and collated the information using cameras and drawing.
Tim was asked by Tong School to show them how they could use the moorland, a short walk from the school, to look at the fauna and flora they could find there.
The class wrote their own journey plan to get out to the moor and they organised the class to get there. When they arrived at the moor using the Outdoor Team’s environmental box they researched the plants and invertebrates they found documenting them with photographs and drawings.
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