FEI North-East Scotland, Doig-Scott Building , Craibstone Estate, Bucksburn, Aberdeen, AB21 9TR

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Forest Education Initiative North-East Cluster

Newsletter January

2012

Welcome to the newsletter of the North East F.E.I. Cluster:

The N.E Cluster, started in 1997, includes foresters, rangers, environmentalists, people involved in education and organisations such as Aberdeenshire Council, Forest Enterprise, Aberdeen City, National Trust for Scotland and Scottish Natural Heritage. The 2012 AGM will be held on Monday 2 April 2012, at Lochinch Farm Countryside Interpretation Centre, Redmoss Rd, Aberdeen.The meeting will begin at 11.00, and will be followed by our regular Cluster Group meeting. Coffee & tea provided, bring your own lunch — everyone welcome!

FEI Chair’s Report for 2011 It has been a busy year for us in the NE FEI. We said goodbye to our Development Officer, Antonia Dunwoody, who had done so much hard work, along with Katy Leitch and Lizzie Bacon, to develop FEI in the North East. We wish her, George and Heidi well for the future. We’ve appointed a new Development Officer – more of this later!

The Forest School leaders’ training has gone well, and there is a separate article about that in the newsletter, together with articles about some of the other events we have organised.

We continue to hold quarterly meetings of the committee, to which all interested people are very welcome. At our meeting in June we welcomed Neil Morrison who is chair of the Aberdeenshire Outdoor Learning Strategy Group. It was clear that there are overlapping areas of interest between the FEI and the Strategy Group and we are looking forward to working closely with them in the future. FEI are working hard to develop teacher’s confidence and skills in teaching outdoors which will help the group achieve its objectives.

FEI ran a successful stand at the Techfest Science festival in Aberdeen in September; our theme was International Year of Forests and we engaged children in building food webs in various forest ecosystems. Although our stand was very low tech, and we did not make explosions and funny noises like many of the other stands, we were very ‘hands on’ and were the only stand to get all the children actively participating at once !

As chair I attended the FEI Scottish Networking Event in Pitlochry in May. It was good to meet people from FEI groups in other parts of Scotland and there were some interesting workshops to attend. I learnt how to make bark baskets, and some very good activities for teaching about the impacts of climate change.

I also managed to join a Nature Exchange study tour to Finland in early May – details later in this issue!

In November I was appointed as the new Development Officer, so have stood down as Chairman, and at the same time our Treasurer Julia White left us to go to Australia for a couple of years! So it’s all change, and we welcome Katy Leitch as our new Chair, and Aileen Salway as Treasurer, and wish them

the very best in their new posts! Doug Gooday

FEI North-East Scotland, Doig-Scott Building , Craibstone Estate, Bucksburn, Aberdeen, AB21 9TR

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Forest School Leader Training

Since April this year, 15 people from Aberdeen city and shire, including nursery workers, teachers, education lecturers and rangers, have been taking part in a training course to become qualified Level 3 Forest School Leaders. The training has been funded by a grant from the Forestry Commission and is being delivered by Mindstretchers. The trainees are currently preparing a series of Forest School sessions, one of which will be assessed and are also working on their portfolios which are to be submitted for a final assessment in January 2012.

2011 Forest School Trainees at Craibstone

Mindstretchers will be again delivering the training next year and we have provisionally booked the following dates for the lectures and practical sessions: April 13, 14 &15 and August 24 & 25. We hope to run these sessions at the SAC Craibstone campus. We have planned sessions during the Easter holidays so that teaching staff can attend without incurring the costs of job cover. In

addition to the training days, trainees will need to do around 100 hours of individual study to cover the course. The qualification is at Level 3 of the English Qualifications Framework (roughly equivalent to an Advanced Higher). Applicants will also need a valid First Aid qualification and

have an enhanced disclosure certificate.

For more details and an application form contact Douglas.Gooday@aberdeenshire.gov.uk or northeastfei@gmail.com The closing date for applications is 13 February.

FEI North-East Scotland, Doig-Scott Building , Craibstone Estate, Bucksburn, Aberdeen, AB21 9TR

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Friends of Durris Forests Bodger Event

On Friday 26th and Saturday 27th August 2011 Friends of Durris Forest (FDF) hosted a celebration of Pitcowdens Heritage Site and the International Year of the Forest (IYF) at Pitcowdens Heritage Site, Durris Forest. On Friday, pupils from Crathes & Durris primary schools and Crossroads nursery enjoyed a day making & playing wooden games and instruments with Kenny Grieve, Brotus Rural Crafts, and on the

Saturday visitors attended a free public event thanks to IYF funding, and the support of Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) and FDF volunteers.

FDF member Julia Mackay said “FCS very kindly felled 3 sycamore trees at Pitcowdens which the children were able to use to make their wooden games and musical instruments. Each of the schools will be able to enjoy the games in their own school grounds and the nursery will have the musical instruments positioned in their woodland”.

Visitors to the site on Saturday enjoyed exploring Pitcowdens for mini-beasts, supported by Aileen Salway from North East Nature, making wooden games under the watchful eye of Kenny Grieve Bodger from Brotus Rural Crafts, listening to tales from the distant past with storyteller David Brown, creating pieces of patchwork art with quilting artist Linzi Upton, and FDF volunteer members helped to construct a dry stane dyke which curves around our interpretation oak bench.

They were fortunate to have a dry day so visitors brought along their picnic and enjoyed the local views and peaceful location of Pitcowdens, which is a beautiful oasis within a commercial conifer plantation. If you would like to find out more about FDF

and the work they do please visit our

website www.friendsofdurrisforests.co.uk/

FEI North-East Scotland, Doig-Scott Building , Craibstone Estate, Bucksburn, Aberdeen, AB21 9TR

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How to run out of Nutella! Autumn is a great time of year to get outside with your new class. Here’s a tried and tested “woodland recipe”.

Divide children and adults into groups and leave to explore for 30 minutes. Bring together again to make fires and batter and leave for a further hour until tummies have doubled in size with pancakes. Then, marvel at the maths, science and pure fun that you’ve produced!

You will need:

42 Primary 1s

several enthusiastic adults – staff and

parents

blaeberries

eggs, flour, sugar and milk

fire

On Tuesday 20 September I met both Primary One classes from Albyn School at Countesswells Wood in Aberdeen for a morning of maths, science and much more. We set off to collect wild food, make fires and eat pancakes. Countesswells Wood has a lovely clearing, a ten minute walk in, covered in blaeberry bushes. Whilst most children know blueberry muffins it was nice to show them our native version and they quickly became engrossed in finding and collecting berries by the handful.

We then swapped foraging for stick collecting, dragging huge logs and branches through the spruce trees to our camp area. This involved good communication and awareness of others to keep us all safe. Arriving at our camp we sat down to do some maths – breaking sticks to three sizes for our fires.

FEI North-East Scotland, Doig-Scott Building , Craibstone Estate, Bucksburn, Aberdeen, AB21 9TR

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It was then time for some kitchen chemistry. Making pancakes with lots of children seated on the forest floor is possibly one of the surrealist things I have done this year but the results were delicious! A disposable plastic cup (the usual white type found in every school, 180ml) makes a perfect measurer. The order doesn’t matter - mix the following to a thick paste:

1 cup of self-raising flour a third of a cup of sugar half a cup of milk one egg a pinch of salt

By this point the fires were hot enough to cook on. And it was the Dads who were the heroes, producing the most delicious scotch pancakes. These were finished off with the blaeberries and jam and yes, we did nearly run out of Nutella – the most popular topping by far!

Foraging for food is a wonderful activity to do with classes. It brings in so many aspects of the curriculum from managing risk to ID skills and healthy eating. Involve your kitchen staff and the Autumnal rasps, brambles or rowans you collect could be turned into jam and jellies to sell at the Christmas fair.

Fires, whilst initially seeming daunting, offer fantastic learning opportunities and you can make one from very little. We used a metal dustbin lid as a brazier and two breeze blocks as uprights on which we rested a sheet of metal that acted as the hot plate. From permanent fire pits or even pizza ovens in your school grounds to simple disposable bbqs (with sustainably sourced charcoal) on the tarmac – boil some water for hot chocolate or toast marshmallows. As for the pancakes? If you can make them with 40 children outside you can make them anywhere! The last comment goes to Lucy (5), “These are better than my Mum’s. I can’t believe we made them!” Thanks to the enthusiastic staff, Zibby Brown and Louise Torry, for taking their classes out just five weeks into the school year, to the children for their excellent social skills and to their parents for joining in on all the fun!

Mud Pies runs weekly nature classes for two to five year olds, birthday parties for two to ten year olds and visits for schools and nurseries.

Contact Mandy Tulloch on M: 07929 465680 or W: www.mudpieadventures.co.uk. Mandy Tulloch, Founder and Principal, Mud Pies December 2011

FEI North-East Scotland, Doig-Scott Building , Craibstone Estate, Bucksburn, Aberdeen, AB21 9TR

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Aberdeenshire Childcare Partnership Conference ‘Bright Futures’

On Saturday 10th September 2011 Doug Gooday (Countryside Ranger, Aberdeenshire Council Ranger

Service), Mandy Tulloch (Mud Pies) and Julia Mackay (Deeside Forest Schools) delivered a Forest Schools and outdoor learning workshop on behalf of NE Scotland FEI cluster group. The event was held in Kintore School and hosted by Aberdeenshire Council in association with Aberdeenshire Childcare Partnership.

The key aims of the event were to -

Share best practices and celebrate current success.

Develop new skills.

Integrate early years and the childcare sector.

Raise awareness of the changes and future challenges in the early years and childcare sector.

Doug Gooday delivered a powerpoint presentation which outlined the Forest School concept and its benefits, a brief summary about FEI, and how their local cluster group can support outdoor learning. Mandy Tulloch and Julia Mackay then delivered a hands-on, active learning session within Kintore School garden, which demonstrated how easy it is to use the natural environment as an inspiring resource for early years children. The feedback from the event was gathered by Caroline Hay-Crawford, Aberdeenshire Childcare Partnership, showed that the FEI representatives delivered an excellent performance in knowledge, delivery and workshop interaction.

FEI were one of ten workshops delivering three sessions throughout the day. Each of their sessions was very well attended from 16 to 23 participants.

FEI North-East Scotland, Doig-Scott Building , Craibstone Estate, Bucksburn, Aberdeen, AB21 9TR

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Doug’s trip to Finland

The theme of the visit was wildlife and nature management and was related to my work as a ranger rather than my FEI work. I came back deeply impressed with the outdoor education facilities that are provided in the Finnish National Parks for free use by schools and other groups. In Seitseminen National Park, log cabin shelters had been provided for groups and schools to use. The cabins were always left unlocked and had indoor fire places so that food could be cooked. Each cabin site also had a woodshed with a supply of free dry firewood and an axe for chopping it. There was no litter and no signs that these excellent facilities had been abused or damaged in any way.

The Finnish people have a deeply ingrained respect for the natural world and have a much higher level of ecological awareness than many people in Scotland and it was refreshing to learn that they feel they all owe a debt to nature for the services provided, such as clean air, water and soil. Unfortunately, I don’t think it would be possible to provide facilities like those pictured above, in Scotland at present, without their suffering from abuse and vandalism; which is a good reason for FEI to continue to work to raise environmental awareness amongst the next generation.

Log Cabin Classroom, Seitseminen National Park, Finland.

Interior of Cabin, with fire place.

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