Field Notes: Young people and nature

Sandwood Conservation officer Lynn Munro reports on a fun community engagement programme working with local partners to engage young people in wild places and the John Muir Award.

This winter Romany Garnett (our Engagement Manager North) and I are encouraging young students from the age or four to 11 at Kinlochbervie Primary School to learn about wild places for their John Muir Award and RSPB Wild Challenge Award.

Working in collaboration with the local High Life Highland Countryside Ranger and the education team at the North West Highlands Geopark has been fantastic, brining a wealth of knowledge and skills in the remote North West together.

Our weekly sessions have included learning about the local wild places they live and learn in and why they are especially important and inspiring to grow up in. This has included playing a game to help understand food chains using string to link the interrelationships of producers to consumers. We also talked about the plants, animals, birds and insects that inhabit our wild places in North West Sutherland. Pupils visited a local croft as part of this phase, which involved tree planting and how to look after a new woodland (pictured above).

Everyone involved has brought excitement, questions, laughter and joy, while sharing time in all weather, winds, and habitats. Having as many sessions as possible outdoors has been great fun, adding to the experiences for the pupils. Despite the time of year, we have only had to find the warmth of the classroom a couple of times so far.

During the next phase, we will continue to follow the John Muir Award model and discover, explore and move into sharing our learning, excitement, and experiences with those around us. We will involve the incredible coastal environment in our care at Sandwood, that so many come north to experience. We will share ways to care for the coast, the machair and the wonders that the Atlantic brings to this coastal fishing village in the far North West.  

We are looking forward to what can be created. Although young in age, the wisdom the pupils show in knowing how important these wild places are gives us all a smile after each session.

Thanks so much for a super engaging and interesting lesson today, the kids loved it

Kinlochbervie Primary School teacher

Photo above courtesy of Kinlochbervie Primary School