Sailing in East Loch Tarbert with the Scaladale Centre

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.

Environmental Studies with Tong School

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.

Questions about Ticks and Lymes Disease

We are in the middle of the busy season, with the team out and about working with schools and young people in the outdoors. There are often questions about ticks and Lymes disease, we thought it would be useful to post some information about what to do if you are bitten by a tick and things you can do to prevent being bitten.

It is important ticks should not stop you going outside but to take a few sensible precautions to prevent being bitten and if you are, what to do about it.

See the source image

Lymes disease if carried by ticks which latch on and then take a blood meal. The Comhairle have produced a leaflet with information on the disease (CnES Tick leaflet). More information can be found on the Lymes Disease Action web site.

There is an excellent YouTube video produced by NHS highland on how to remove a tick with Dr James Douglas

There is also good advice from the NHS Scotland web site:

Be tick aware

Ticks in Scotland can carry the germ that causes Lyme disease

Ticks are small spider-like creatures that can be found on bushes and undergrowth in Scotland’s countryside, parks and gardens from spring through summer and well into autumn. Most ticks that bite people are unlikely to be carrying the germ that causes Lyme disease, but there’s no way of knowing at the time. So, it is best to:

  1. Try to avoid being bitten by ticks
  2. Remove any ticks that do bite as quickly as possible

How to prevent tick bites

You can reduce your chances of being bitten by ticks by:

  • covering skin which may come into contact with plants
  • wearing long trousers tucked into boots and long sleeves
  • using an insect repellent containing DEET
  • trying to stick to paths and avoid dense undergrowth
Hopefully this helps and if you have any questions contact your GP or if you need more information contact the Outdoor Team.

 

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.

 

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.

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