Coasteering Team Day Sports Development. June 28, 2007
Posted by Bill in : Coasteering, Outdoor Learning, Sports Development Officers , 1 comment so far
Great day today coasteering with staff from the Sports Development Team. With a great deal of help from the MOBEX team (thanks guys). Coasteering is becoming more popular in the Scotland and its great to get it going in East Lothian. East Lothian has such a beautiful coastline for coasteering. The team today did so well at traversing, swimming and jumping. Good to see them getting used to the water and the movement of the sea.Lots of support and encouragement within the team and it was great to meet them all. Look forward to working with them again and doing more partnership work with MOBEX. Look forward to also rolling this activity out to schools. Mobex have already being do so with great success. A great activity in terms of developing self confidence ( Working with the 4 capacities in the Curriculum for Excellence…developing confident individuals, pursuing active and healthy lifestyles,)in water and on rock as well as the usual benefits from learning in the outdoors. There are often opportunities to see marine life so there are many curriculum links to science, geography and biology(Link and apply different kinds of learning in new situations)
There is now a Coasteering Federation and also a combined water and rock body which offers more information on the sport and they also over advise and training and we will be taking advantage of this further to our initial training recently.The HSE have also published a leaflet giving advise on the sport.
Yester Primary Blog June 23, 2007
Posted by Bill in : Berwick Law, Outdoor Learning, Scrambling, Yester Primary School , add a comment
I have been checking out the fantastic Yester Primary P7 Blog . They have an intesting blog on their visit to Benmore. Great to see schools blogging about their outdoor learning experiences. I was surprised to find the photographs that class teacher took with his phone on our scrambling days on Berwick Law with the P5’s a couple of weeks ago. These images are just fantastic, if there was ever pictures needed to advertise the use of outdoor learning to promote team cohesion and challenge these are the ones. As Mr Purves points out in the blog the P5’s day on Berwick Law is a great warm up for future Benmore trips but it also helps to build confident individuals who can see the value of working together to achieve in a fun way using the local East Lothian environment
A site to add to the blog roll and I will keep reading the blog with interest. Look forward to working with the P5’s next year.
Sunset on Loch Ard on the Longest Day. June 23, 2007
Posted by Bill in : Duke of Edinburgh Awards, Outdoor Learning, Preston Lodge High School , add a comment
Silver Duke of Edinburgh practice with a group from Preston Lodge High School involved Canoeing on Loch Ard in a variety of conditions . We had glorious sunshine and flat calm water followed by thunder and lightning in the evening (We hastily sheltered on a crannog to get out of the storm!). The day then finished with beautiful sunshine around 10′oclock followed by a superb sunset, all accompanied by the dreaded midge. Perfect conditions on the second day for canoeing included a trip to discover Rob Roy’s Cave on the paddle home. The PL pupils paddling is improving and with further training will complete an expedition in September. The expedition provided the pupils with an opportunity to brush up on their canoeing skills as well as campcraft required for wild camping. I look forward to helping the group plan their final expedition.
Trips like these remind me of the many beautiful spots that can be reached in relative ease from East Lothian. We are lucky to have such unlimited access to these areas and highlights the need for us to follow the access code. We found lots of evidence of poor camping and usage in the area (i.e. litter, inconsiderate use of fires, waste management). I think the group very much recognised the impact such of poor consideration has and the need for more sensitive use. I think they might have enjoyed the trip too- although they were not to keen on a photo opportunity after a night of wild camping and no facilities!
* Girls please leave your comments I will pass the rest of Photos to Mr Kiernan on disc - see you in September *
AALA and all that.. June 9, 2007
Posted by Bill in : AALA, Coasteering, Outdoor Learning , add a comment
During a D of E expedition this week with Dunbar Grammar I had a visit from our AALA inspector. It is always good to talk to him and it was reassuring to hear him point out that we need to get more adventure back in to outdoor education in East Lothian, The licence covers what East Lothian Outdoor Education staff deliver (to under 18 year olds) within East Lothian and not what schools do themselves (schools and colleges are exempt). Schools are advised only to “self assess” and follow any published guidelines relevant to that area.
When I first came to East Lothian nearly all the schools I was allocated were using their time to do problem solving or orienteering in the school grounds (Have to admit I was very disappointed!. Two Years on with the support of fantastic and enthusiastic staff within the schools - without which OE in East Lothian would not exist, they are nearly all using their allocations to get out for more adventurous days and using the “come and try it” days for orienteering. I still have one or two who I hope to convince this year to get out and about and the value and benefits of pupils having a quality outdoor experience rather than a “sausage factory big numbers” style experience. So the work continues.
Good new that I had time to clarify the opportunity and procedure for how to get coasteering on our licence. An exiting sea level traverse/coastline experience, which is a resource that East Lothian has lots of! Working in partnership with MOBEX to develop this it should be an activity we can offer soon. Hope to test it out on a group later this month and will post some more information soon.