Stenton Seashore Detectives November 5, 2008
Posted by Bill in : A Curriculum for Excellence, Experiential Learning , add a commentAfter the wet day today it was hard to beleive how fantastic the weather was on Monday. I have never seen sharks, turtles, huge jellyfish or giant sea birds at Yellowcraig before - these ones were all created by the fantastically enthusiastic pupils from Stenton Primary School! The pupils were leaning all about the seashore through experiential activities that included rock-pooling and seahore sscavenger work to create these amazing sea creature sculptures.
More information and pics and the Stenton Primary School Blog.
Innerwick Make a Difference Day October 31, 2008
Posted by Bill in : Adult Education, Outdoor Learning, Volunteering , 2commentsA huge thank you to all the East Lothian Council staff and VDEL staff who came along to Innerwick last week. This was a employee supported volunteer day that brought together staff from East Lothian to help with our grounds project at Innerwick Outdoor Centre.
A tremendous amount was achieved due to the hard work of the group and of course all the “green finger” knowledge they brought to the event.
Future projects will include a herb garden, a community supported allotment and the Ranger team will be looking at ways of increasing bio-diversity. We also have a bid in for the grounds for awareness scheme. all of this will help with our Eco-Centre scheme as well as connecting our guests at Innerwick with the centre environment.
More information, as Elliot described as “the power of volunteering” can be seen at the Community Service Volunteer website and of course you can get in touch with the team at Volunteer Development East Lothian Centre in Haddington.
Learning all the Time..one journey finishes another begins.. October 22, 2008
Posted by Bill in : Outdoor Learning , 8comments
Great news this week as I received final marks for my MSc Dissertation. So I will now be awarded my MSc in Outdoor Management Development. Feels really good to have completed this journey. I’m not one for “bits of paper” but it has been a challenging and rewarding experience.
I have learnt so much from reflecting on how individuals, workng groups & teams(and myself ) learn from experiential activity in the outdoors. More importantly it has heightened my awareness of how the outdoors can be a powerful tool in enhancing Organisational learning. My jouney is not however over as I will continue to learn from my own practice when working with individuals, teams and organisations through my day to day work.
I have now registered on the Chartered Teacher scheme and look forward to embarking on this from an outdoor learning perspective, so another journey begins.
Echo Wall in a Nanny State October 7, 2008
Posted by Bill in : Climbing, Outdoor Learning , add a commentI have been following Dave Macleod’s blog for some time and am always amazed at the level of climbing and also dedication that goes into such projects as Echo Wall.
Inspiring and motivational images hard to beleive the words of Bob Sharp in the newspaper this weekend commenting on the nanny state culture;
..but the obsession with health and safety culture in Britain is threatening to wipe out the sport(rock-climbing in Scotland) within a decade, according to experts…
”By my calculation, within the next 10 years, climbing as we know it may well have ceased.”
Perhaps we need more inspirational Outdoor Education to stop the decline?
East Lothian Walking & Outdoor Festival 2009? October 6, 2008
Posted by Bill in : Outdoor Learning , 5comments
Recently I spotted adverts for other Scottish regions hosting Outdoor Festivals e.g. Arran.
It got me thinking that we could in addition to the East Lothian Walking Festival an East Lothian Walking and Outdoor Festival could offer many of the categories shown on the Arran festival i.e
This could be done with a range of public,voluntary, local clubs and private providers and could even co-incide with the other already existing festivals e,g. East Lothian food and Drink, Dunbar Folk Festival. Outdoor learning activities in addition to walking could include;
- Coasteering - Fantastic East Lothian Coastline
- Sea Kayaking- Access to some stunning trips
- Climbing- Traprain Law
- Sailing - Take your pick
- Surfing - Belhaven Bay
- Cycling - Anywhere!
Those of us living in East Lothian appreciate it has a lot to offer and this sort of joint festival could boost tourism and put east Lothian on the map along with other Outdoor festivals in Scotland.
Windy at the Whiteadder October 6, 2008
Posted by Bill in : Adult Education, Canoeing, Outdoor Learning , add a comment
Strong winds on Saturday provide great conditions for sailing the canoes on one of the many CPD courses run by East Lothian Council Outdoor Education. There are a whole range of courses run for East Lothian Council employees including this course which was the Canoe/Kayak 2 Star following the BCU Paddlesport Awards. As always we encourage participants to join the Scottish Canoe Association. There are also canoe clubs in the region such as the Edinburgh Kayak Club and the North Berwick Kayak Club.
Links to some of the many useful websites;
Song of the paddle: Info for canadian Canoeing
Canoe & kayak : Online magazine
Scottish Sea Kayaking : Awesome sea kayaking guides & lInks from Simon Willis.
These are just some of the sites available out there and of course there are many more sites and further watersports courses available at a host of providers, many listed on the SCA website.
Fight or Flight? - Avoiding “Silo” Behaviour. October 2, 2008
Posted by Bill in : Learning Organisations, Outdoor Learning, Vision , 2comments
Recent study has given me an interest in several of the boundaries to organisations becoming Learning Organisations. I can understand that it’s hard to come to terms with efficiency savings in local goverment and still deliver statutory requirments, offer best value, provide quality services and embrace culture change whilst aligning the authority to wider govermental aims.
”A Smarter Scotland - Expand opportunities for people in Scotland to succeed from nurture through to life long learning, ensuring higher and more widely shared achievements.”
(Moving Scotland Forward: The Government’s Programme for Scotland 2008-09)
In my previous work in the private sector internal departments in organisations can often develop an “I’m alright Jack” lockdown or “silo effect” approach when budget cuts are introduced much like our own human fight or flight mode when threatened. Although I am not responsible for a budget, I can appreciate how difficult that can be having been a budget holder in the private sector. I think the natural fight of flight reaction will happen with an organisation,section, service or department etc, when it is trying to ensure it’s own survival. This does not help however when an organisation is trying to acheive culture change through impoving organisational learning. A sharing of resources and knowledge is difficult I guess when you are concentrating on providing services from a limited financial pot.
Providing high quality Outdoor Learning in East Lothian is an on-going partnership with community, schools and the support of internal departments of the authority and we continue to offer an excellent service at no cost (importantly) to school pupils and the wider community within East Lothian. Although non-statutory, it supports and enhances many statutory requirements through delivery of inspirational outdoor learning. I wonder if efficiency savings, as we look for new premises, will result in the Outdoor Education Service entering a “silo mode” and potentialy having to consider charging for Outdoor Learning in East Lothian? Or can a funding partnership between the silos be considered to fund new premises for the East Lothian Outdoor Education Service?
S4 Challenge 2008 September 29, 2008
Posted by Bill in : A Curriculum for Excellence, Challenges, Experiential Learning, Outdoor Learning , 2commentsDue to a reduced number of Schools available to join the event this year we ran a watersports based challenge at Levenhall Lagoons. Knox academy won the event with a fast run to claim the earth ball in the final event. The pupils as always were fantastic and once again support from the staff in the schools made the event a success. We hope that more teams will be able to make our next challenges and look forward to seeing all the schools at these and next years challenges. The challenges are a fantastic opportunity for pupils to take part in team based challenges and of course have fun and as with this challenge it illustrates that we do have many, skilled confident, enthusiastic, responsible and successful secondary pupils within East Lothian.
Leave No Trace Workshop Confirmed September 17, 2008
Posted by Bill in : AccessCode, Adult Education, Experiential Learning, Leave No Trace, Outdoor Learning , add a comment
The workshops are suitable for anyone working in the world of outdoor learning, outdoor education or adventure activities. They may also be relevant for some rangers and outdoor access officers.
Workshop participants will be expected to commit to a full day of training (9.00am – 5.00pm) which will further explore the Leave No Trace principles which are as follows:
- Plan Ahead and Prepare
- Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces
- Dispose of Waste Properly
- Leave What You Find
- Minimise Campfire Impacts
- Respect Wildlife
- Be Considerate of Other Visitors
The workshops are supported by Scottish Natural Heritage and organised by the Institute for Outdoor Learning (IOL) who are a partner organisation of the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics.The workshop leader will be Myles Farnbank.
Dunbar Sea Paddle September 14, 2008
Posted by Bill in : Outdoor Learning , 5comments
Really enjoyed an afternon paddle a couple of hours either side of high tide today from Belhaven Bay. Great conditions about a 5ft swell with a force 3/4, journey time around 3 hours. There were plenty of surfers out and I even managed to surf a wave too - a great run all the way to the beach. The route is shown above, but once again I forgot my camera! Have been intending to do more trips in and around the local area as you really can forget what’s in your on back yard.Hope to start posting theses routes at a new site soon - just need the time to develop it! Hope to paddle from Belhaven to Tynnighame tommorow- weather permitting.
