Outdoor Woodland Learning

Scotland (OWLS)Annual Networking Event23rd - 25th February 2018Kindrogan Field Studies Centre

OWL Scotland Networking Event 2018

The annual 3-day Outdoor Woodland Learning Networking event ran from late afternoon on Friday 23rd February to lunchtime on Sunday 25th February 2018. The event was returning to the beautiful venue of Kindrogan Field Studies Centre near Pitlochry, Perthshire, for another year. The warm welcome awaiting the 70 delegates, workshop leaders, event co-ordinators and volunteers attending the weekend was in

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delightful contrast to the wintery,

snowy weather outside.

Workshops: (Clockwise from top left) Numeracy Outdoors, Make & Play ’Kubb’, Archaeological Outdoor Learning, ‘Nothing to Do’ Wands, Tool Maintenance, String Theory, Loose Parts Play in the Curriculum for Excellence, The Physics of Fire.

The Kindrogan residential centre staff accommodated and catered for the event, allowing everyone to settle into their first evening feeling wonderfully well-fed and looked after. After dinner, the event opened with a welcome from organiser Bonnie Maggio (OWL Scotland Manager) assisted by Sally York (FCS) and Kate Walters (freelance event coordinator). Bonnie had organised a fiendishly tricky quiz aimed to test everyone’s knowledge of Outdoor Woodland Learning, spurred on by some fantastic prizes kindly donated by ‘Muddy Faces’, suppliers of Outdoor Play & Learning resources.

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“This is one of the regular highlights of my year. Fantastic

workshops, well-led, interesting and

enjoyable. A great opportunity to

network, and share skills and

information.”- OWLS member

On Saturday morning, after a hearty cooked breakfast, everyone came together again for presentations by Bonnie and Sally about the wider context of the work happening in Outdoor Woodland Learning and the Forestry Commission in Scotland. Kevin Lafferty (FCS) followed this by providing some up-to-date information and resources relating to Tick Awareness.

The whole delegation then headed outside to take part in two of the five workshops being offered. These were all focused around ‘Supporting the Curriculum Outdoors’, designed to inspire new ways and means to meet the needs of educators. The workshops on offer this year were numeracy, archaeology, fire, loose parts play and the Kubb game (photos on page 2). These predominantly hands-on workshops covered a broad spectrum of curriculum areas including numeracy, science, social studies, technologies and taking a cross-curricula approach to learning.

After warming up with tea and cake, everyone reconvened to listen to updates by representatives from each of the local OWLS groups present, about what they been doing in their region and any forthcoming events. There was also a beautiful short film shown about ‘Nature of the North East’. Some people then joined Julie Mackay to input ideas and feedback into the ‘Campfire Cooking Hygiene Guidance’ notes that are currently being developed as a new OWL Scotland resource.

The evening’s optional activity was a ‘Kubb’ tournament. People involved in the ‘Make & Play Kubb’ workshop during the day had each made a set of the wooden kit required to play this game. The championship was fiercely battled out between the eight teams (in a friendly and fun way!) before Team 1 emerged victorious in a thrilling final.

Sunday morning saw the ‘Practical Skills’ workshops where there was a choice to create a ‘nothing to do’ wand, make natural cordage or learn some tool maintenance skills (photos on page 2). The event finished with some ‘Acorn’ awards being presented to those who had made a significant contribution to outdoor woodland learning in Scotland. And finally, everyone said their goodbyes to like-minded friends, new and old, before waving a fond farewell to the OWLS Networking event for another year.

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People said they went away inspired, re-energised, more knowledgeable, with new skills, and looking forward to the local networking and skills-sharing events that will be taking place across Scotland during 2018.

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Evaluation of Event

There was a very high level of response to the request for evaluation and the feedback was very positive. Scores for the event as a whole averaged 3.8 out of 4 (wth 4 being excellent), meaning that people felt it almost

entirely met their objectives for attending. The administration process

for booking onto the event scored the same and the venue itself very similar at 3.7 out of 4, with many comments being made about the excellence of the food (including the vegan and gluten-free options) in particular.

Presentations by staff from Forestry Commission / OWLS team, as well as updates by local OWLS groups, were well received and valued by most participants. People commented upon how important it was to them to hear about things that other OWL groups were doing and to find out more about the ‘bigger picture’ of Outdoor Woodland Learning across Scotland.

The workshops were all rated either excellent or good. Specific feedback included:

• Archaeological Outdoor Learning: New, useful knowledge gained.

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“Most useful part? Making and

strengthening contacts. Re-lighting

passion and interests. Learning skills to share and new information to

pass on.”- OWLS member

• Physics of Fire: Good to watch and learn different methods of firelighting.

• Make & Play Kubb: Great fun and learned new, easily transferable skill.

• Loose Parts Play and the Curriculum for Excellence: Increased knowledge, understanding & confidence with loose parts play.

• Numeracy Outdoors: Useful, lot of ideas and helped gain confidence.

• String Theory: Wonderful and fantastic fun.

• Tool Maintenance: Really useful and helped feel more confident to do it.

• ‘Nothing to Do’ Wands: New, easily transferable skills and helped feel more confident in knife work with a group.

One of the highlights for many people was the Kubb Championship as it mixed an informal, fun, team-building opportunity with some friendly competition and a new game idea for many. The kit required to play the game was simple to make and something that people felt could easily be integrated into their own existing outdoor learning practice.

RecommendationsImprovements and additions to the programme had been made this year based upon last year’s feedback. The event co-ordinator was on-hand to ensure everyone found their workshops more easily and there was more information available about the site through the map that Kindrogan Field Centre now provide. The option to share contact details (to facilitate car-sharing) and the option to indicate which nights people wanted to stay (to facilitate room bookings) were also provided.

Suggested improvements from this year’s event were:

• To ensure outdoor workshops are active to help keep people warm during cold weather.

• More free time in the programme for people to explore the beautiful site and for informal networking. (This is something that has been raised before and which is a constant challenge for event organisers trying to achieved the right balance of structured and free time.)

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• Use of a specific Facebook page to enable lift-sharing prior to the event and other information / skills sharing post-event.

• Handouts for workshops where there were a lot of ideas and information.

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‘Wordle’ Evaluation SummariesWordles are a way to visually represent feedback; the more times a word appears in the evaluations, the larger that word is shows up on the wordle. The following visualisations are summaries of the written evaluations of the event:

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Fig 1:

Benefits of the networking event

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Fig 2: Part of the event that was most useful

Fig 3: Suggestions for workshops at future events

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Contacts

Workshop Leaders

Joni Mackay (Loose Parts Play): www.facebook.com/jonimackayforestschool/

Kim Craigie (Make & Play Kubb): Woodland Edventures

Ruaraidh Milne (Physics of Fire / Tool Maintenance): www.facebook.com/FlyAgaricPerformingArts/

Elizabeth Tindal (String Theory): www.freelanceranger.com/

Rebecca Barclay & Jennifer Thoms (Archaeological Outdoor Learning): archaeologyscotland.org.uk

Paul Cookson (‘Nothing to Do’ Wands): www.greenaspirationsscotland.co.uk

Sarah Walker (Numeracy Outdoors): www.rspb.org.uk

Event Co-ordination

Kate Walters: www.magenpie.co.uk/

Thanks

Huge thanks to the staff at Kindrogan Field Centre for all their care and support to help make us feel so at home for the weekend, and to Muddy Faces (suppliers of Outdoor Play & Learning resources) for the quiz and game prizes.

Outdoor Woodland Learning Scotland (OWLS)

Bonnie Maggio (OWLS Manager)

Email: bonnie.maggio@forestry.gsi.gov.uk

Website: www.owlscotland.org (resources, news, info, groups & OWLS newsletter)

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Facebook: www.facebook.com/foresteducationinitiative

Twitter: www.twitter.com/FCSed

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Feedback TablesQ. To what extent were your objective of the event met?

Responses: 81% = Entirely; 19% = Mostly

Q. Administration

Booking arrangements: 81% = Excellent; 17% = Good; 2% SatisfactoryInfo sent in advance: 83% = Excellent; 15% = Good; 2% SatisfactoryValue for Money: 100% Excellent

Q. Venue

Rooms & Equipment: 73% = Excellent; 25% = Good; 2% SatisfactoryCatering: 73% = Excellent; 25% = Good; 2% SatisfactoryAccommodation: 64% Excellent; 32% Good; 4% Satisfactory

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EntirelyMostly

SlightlyNot at all

0 25 50 75 100

ExcellentGood

SatisfactoryPoor

0 25 50 75 100 125

Value for money Info sent in advance Booking arrangements

Excellent

Good

Satisfactory

Poor

0 25 50 75 100

Accommodation Catering Rooms & equipment

Q. Presentations

Bonnie Maggio - OWLS Update: 75% = Excellent; 23% = Good; 2% SatisfactorySally York - Update: 75% = Excellent; 23% = Good; 2% SatisfactoryKeven Lafferty - Tick Awareness: 66% Excellent; 23% = Good; 11% = Satisfactory

Q. Workshops

Make & Play Kubb: 100% = ExcellentNumeracy Outdoors: 71% = Excellent; 29% = GoodLoose Parts Play: 25% Excellent; 50% = Good; 20% = Satisfactory; 5% Poor

Physics of Fire: 35% Excellent; 35 = Good; 30 = SatisfactoryArchaeological Outdoor Learning: 40% Excellent; 27%= Good; 33% = Satisfactory‘Nothing to Do’ Wands: 100% ExcellentTool Maintenance: 80% Excellent; 20% = GoodString Theory: 72% Excellent; 21% = Good; 7% = Satisfactory

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Excellent

Good

Satisfactory

Poor

0 25 50 75 100

Kevin Lafferty Sally York Bonnie Maggio

Make & Play KubbNumeracy Outdoors

Loose Parts PlayPhysics of Fire

Archaeological Outdoor LearningNothing to Do Wands

Tool MaintenanceString Theory

0 25 50 75 100 125