Category: Outdoor Journeys

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.

 

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.

The John Muir Award

In the outdoor team we are passionate about encouraging everyone to  appreciate what is around us. We believe the John Muir Award is one very effective way of becoming connected with the place we live and making the learning place based. There is not a set syllabus, it is up to you how you meet the criteria, and it is open to all (families can get involved, and individuals generally from an upper primary level). If you would like to talk about the John Muir Award and how you can take part in it or use it Contact the Team

There are four challenges at the heart of the Award:

Discover a wild place:

This can be the school grounds, an area near your school or something further afield?

Explore it:

Do things which will help you understand and become more aware of your wild place. Experience it.

Conserve it:

Do something practical and take personal responsibility for making it better

Share your Experiences:

Let others know about your wild place, what you have done and what you have learnt.

The Levels

There are three levels of award – Discovery, Explorer and Conserver. There is a time commitment to each and it should be seen as a minimum and the majority of the time should be spent outdoors. There is no upper limit but time can’t be carried forwards to the next award.

Discovery Award – 4 days (or equivalent) minimum time commitment

Explorer Award – 8 days (or equivalent) minimum time commitment

Conserver Award – 20 days (or equivalent) time commitment, over at least 6 months

The Thinking

The Award uses the Head-Heart-Hand Model from Patrick Geddes:

 

There is a downloadable John Muir Award Information Handbook

 

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.

 

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.

 

Exploring the Castle Grounds with Stornoway Playgroup

On a slightly wet morning Andrew (who has just started work as the Outdoor Learning team on a modern apprenticeship) and Tim met the young people of Stornoway Playgroup at the Golf Club for an adventure exploring the Castle Grounds. They enjoyed the cover of the trees to shelter from the showers.

All the young people were given a magnifying glass and we explained how to use it. This caused great amusement when they realised they could make other peoples eyes much, much bigger. Quickly they discovered they could use them to look at things and for small things.

Although the waterwheel wasn’t working they enjoyed looking it and it will give us an opportunity to visit again.

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