The challenges and joys of Outdoor learning in the North West highlands.

It can be challenging matching the weather with a suitable location and delivering the theme that schools are currently working on – here’s why? We had an interesting time last week at the Outdoor and Woodland Learning Project here in the CALL corner of the North West Highlands.  Working with Achiltibuie Nursery and Primary Schools on their woodland life cycles

Mindfulness in the Woods

Mindfulness is a word that is becoming more common to hear and a practice that is growing and benefitting many people from all walks of life in our society. Simply put, it is a mental state achieved by focusing awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting feelings, thoughts, and physical sensations. We recently concluded an 8-week Mindfulness

A hill walk celebration

The P7 John Muir Award finale involved a hill walk up Quinag today. We were guided safely up the mountain by several mountain leaders, including the head teacher of Ullapool High School, Robbie McFedries who joined us to spend some quality time with next academic year’s S1s. It was wonderful seeing how the P7s from the area’s primary schools have

Twenty-nine teens, four days, and an Island

Early last Tuesday morning, twenty-nine Ullapool High School S1 students arrived on Isle Martin and set up camp for a four-day residential trip. During this time, they took part in various activities including kayaking, den-building, bird-spotting, seashore exploration, woodland immersion, and a mini-expedition to another part of the island. And there was plenty of time in the mornings and evenings

Getting to Know Isle Martin with the John Muir Award

Ullapool Primary P7s were lucky with the weather today! They were hosting their John Muir Award Share day on Isle Martin for the P7s from Achiltibuie, Lochinver & Scoraig. In the morning artist Julia Barton led a CSI style investigation into several “crime scenes” found on the beach. All pupils were involved in collecting the evidence to try and determine

Battle of the seasons above, hedgerow jelly planting below

As winter and summer battled it out last Friday (3rd May) alternating between the former throwing down bitingly-cold hail showers and the latter retaliating with bright warm sunshine, eight Achiltibuie P5-7s and three nursery children were also alternating between hurrying indoors and strolling back outside as they dodged the weather extremes for the sake of warm fingers and toes, and

John Muir Award “spring”-ing back into action

As the daffodils bloom, buds emerge on trees and the mornings are increasingly filled with the poetic profanities of birds beginning to stake their claim on nesting sites and seek mates, so too our John Muir Award is springing into action after a brief winter hibernation. Kicking off with a whole year group session on 6th March, the P7s reflected

Hill to Grill 2019 finale: “The Apprentice meets The Great British Bake Off”

For the finale of this year’s Hill to Grill programme we were invited by Ullapool High School to come and sample the venison burger recipes designed and prepared by the pupils. The pupils spent a day creating a recipe, cooking, making packaging and designing a marketing campaign for their burgers. All their hard work was presented to a panel of

How did the Flounder get its mouth?

P5s and P6s from Lochinver and Achiltibuie Primary Schools paid a visit to Achmelvich to meet author Ian Stephen for a literacy morning. Ian is an author and storyteller and had come over from the Isle of Lewis as part of a Scottish Book Trust scheme. The pupils walked with Ian along Achmelvich beach hearing stories about how the flounder

Ullapool High School Students Survive The Iron Age!

Ullapool High School S2s stepped back in time on a windy, autumnal day at Clachtoll Broch earlier this month. Three main tasks had been prepared for the pupils, enabling them to delve further into their exploration of the local history as they work towards their Archaeology Scotland Heritage Hero Awards. The tepee was set up as a “Mock Broch” for

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