Category: Outdoor Learning

Year of Young People 2018 – Bliadhna na H-òigridh 2018

The Year of Young People 2018 in Scotland is an opportunity to celebrate the amazing young personalities, talents and achievers which make up Scotland. It’s about inspiring our nation through its young people’s ideas, attitudes and ambitions.

The aim of YOYP 2018 is to inspire Scotland through its young people, celebrating their achievements, valuing their contribution to communities and creating new opportunities for them to shine locally, nationally and globally.

Our team hopes to contribute by:

  •  Giving our Apprentice and young volunteers the opportunity to have an input in what we are doing throughout the year, this includes working with young people who are doing their Duke of Edinburgh Award expedition
  • Give young people the opportunity to achieve through various schemes such as Youth Navigator Star Awards (YNSA), British Canoeing’s Paddlepower schemes and other awards
  • Recognising their efforts through our blog, for instance Lews Castle Grounds Trail Maintenance
  • Asking young people for feedback on our work
  • Giving young people the chance to develop their confidence through developing their outdoor skills
  • Providing courses for volunteers and young people in the Outer Hebrides so they can have the same opportunities which are available to people on the Mainland

For more information about YOYP 2018 visit their site

And for more information about YOYP in The Outer Hebrides

National Navigation Awards Scheme – On Going Staff Training

Just before Christmas we were lucky to have a member of the National Navigation Awards team come to Harris to deliver a train the trainer course for us, Dorothy Breckenridge from C-n-Do Scotland was visiting Harris and offered to provide the course.  Adam Johnson from Sir E Scott School in Tarbert joined us.

Looking at how a three dimensional object can be shown in two dimensions

The National Navigation Award Scheme is a great way to introduce people to the skills of navigation in a non threatening way. It takes a stepped approached to navigation pioneered by Nigel Williams of Glenmore Lodge. By breaking the training down into easy manageable stages which can be easily related to the real world is a key component.

It is not a leading award but a recognition of your ability to navigate and there are three different levels bronze, silver and gold.

If you would like us to come and do some training with you so you can deliver the award in a school or group we would be very happy to do this just contact Isi or Tim.

Opportunity to study Learning for Sustainability

In our quest to share the resources we receive, we received an e-mail from Learning for Sustainability Scotland and the fully funded courses in Learning for Sustainability (LfS) they are offering.

The courses are being run by the British Council, University of Edinburgh and Learning for Sustainability Scotland and they are accredited by the General Teaching Council of Scotland (GTCS) and Scottish College for Educational Leadership.

They are offering a great opportunity to consider the difficulties of what Learning for Sustainability means and how do you integrate it into your practice.

Link to Fully Funded courses in Learning for Sustainability

Opportunity to study Learning for Sustainability

To look into the background of this the University web site and the Learning for Sustainability Scotland sites are both excellent resources.

If you are struggling for time, Tim can to come to schools and deliver twilight sessions on LfS as it is part of his Masters Degree.

 

Training and Development

At this time of year we are a little quieter so there is time to pause and take breath. Andrew is going to be working with an S2 elective in the Nicolson Institute and he is planning to do a session on outdoor cooking. When he was working in America they made chocolate oranges on the fire, so to make sure it fitted with our operating procedures he set up the fire pan near the office and set about practicing.

With the fire lit, he mixed the chocolate cake batter. Carefully cut the top of the orange and scooped out the inside of the orange. He spooned the batter into the hollowed out orange until it was just over half full. Put the top back on the orange and wrapped it in tin foil to make a nice parcel. This was then put into the embers of the fire for about fifteen minutes to cook.

With care the parcel it taken out and opened, it is hot! and the delicious chocolate sponge flavoured with orange is devoured.

Next time we think bigger oranges would be good so we get more sponge.

Please come and talk to us about coming and doing some cooking over a fire which can be connected to among others Health and Wellbeing experiences and outcomes.

Resources – John Muir Award

Various resources arrive in our in-tray, here in our hidden office, some of them we think are worth sharing. So occasionally we will put up short posts on things we think are worth a look at.

We received an email from the John Muir Trust about their Literacy and Nature Resource Guide. It is a file with some good links out to other sites and files, what we think useful to teaching staff here in the Outer Hebrides, is the John Muir Award and the CfE document which has details of how the John Muir Award can be linked to the Curriculum for Excellence.

There is their promotional film explaining the Trust and the Award:

If you would like to use the John Muir Award please contact the Isi or Tim and we can help you to set it up and deliver it.

The Trail Trolls

Working with Bespoke Bikes and the Stornoway Trust there is a group of mountain bikers who are helping to maintain and improve the trails in the Castle Grounds. They decided the name they would like is the Trail Trolls.

The Outdoor Team have been working with a group of young people on Saturday mornings with Gavin Earon From the Hebridean Cycling Club, to improve their riding skills. they have been working on the Go Mountain biking awards. The long term aim is to help the Hebridean Cycling Club to develop its junior section. The young people have been away as part of the club to race in the Scottish Mountain Bike series.

On a chilly November Saturday morning the ‘Trolls’ gathered at The Hub for coffee and a very welcome bacon roll before heading out into the Castle Grounds to work on the trail. The Stornoway Trust had kindly delivered a few tons track stone to the top of the trail and with the help of barrows, shovels and a mini digger it was moved down to where it was needed.

The Trolls decided there was an opportunity to not just repair the trail but to make it a bit more ‘bike friendly’. The steps were cleared and then the edge was filled to make them easy to walk down but also to create a ridable line.

There was also the chance to make some bumps for the riders but being careful to ensure the path was still a good path of walkers. This created a good talking point with the young people on multiple users of the same place and looking after your own environment.

Once it was completed there was an opportunity to try it out:

Thanks to Ali Glover from the Hub for organising the morning and the Trolls for a lot of hard work.

Stornoway Playgroup go on a Gruffalo Journey

Stornoway Playgroup took the opportunity to visit the Waterwheel building out in the Castle Grounds to use the building as a different space for story time. The story they enjoyed when they were there was the Gruffalo written by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler.

They took a leisurely stroll exploring the things they found on the way and when they arrived they had an illustrated story time.

This was made even better because they had taken the Gruffalo with them …

After the story it was a nice walk back into town.

The Outdoor Team and the Stornoway Trust are really pleased the building is being used and if there are other groups who would like to use it contact either Tim or Isi on the Outdoor Team to book it.

 

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