Grasmere Residential with Carnegie GO, June 2014

I spent 3 days of mountain leadership and team development work with year 6 pupils from Toftwood Junior School, Dereham, Norfolk. One group climbed Helm Crag, the other Silver Howe and Blea Rigg. With other pupils we played team development games (rollerball and stepping stones) in a woodland setting in the grounds of Grasmere YHA.

While this is not explicitly Forest Schools work, and my role often (by necessity) leans closer to leadership than facilitation, I believe, in my approach, there are close parallels.

In this sort of work I generally have 3 objectives. Depending on the group and the requirements of the client these are usually negotiated to some degree or other -

1 - to help participants realise and develop personal capacity
2 - to help participants realise and develop group working skills
3 - to help participants develop awareness of and connection with and enjoyment of their surroundings

In hillwalking I attempt to develop these through, as much as possible -

1 - Involvement in decision making in the planning and carrying out of the journey.
2 - Deliberate briefing and debriefing of the activity and the pupils' participation and responses in it.
3 - Learning conversations during the activity and promoting "active noticing" of our surroundings, our activity and our feelings about these.

In this case, during the briefings, the group talked first about what equipment they might need. Afterwards we identified their levels of anxiety and confidence in relationship to the activity - holding fingers up to put a level on their confidence. This began a conversation about what might cause anxiety and how individuals and the group might act to reduce this.

During the activity I try to engage students in assisting one another, in navigational decisions and also "active noticing" generally by asking questions about features of the route and the activity itself.

In this case we -

- noticed Herdwick sheep and felt samples of their coarse wool, thinking about their hardiness.
- considered what was natural and man-made, noticing signs of quarrying and the drystone walls.
- identified carnivorous plants (butterwort and sundew) and how and why they were adapted to digest insects.
- identified oak, ash, beech, rowan and juniper.
- identified rushes (and their use in rush lights) and cotton grass, thinking about how it came to grow in the Lake District.
- Discussed and experienced how we might maintain our energy and comfort during a day long mountain journey.
- identified Wheatear, talked about their migration and the origin of their name.
- challenged ourselves physically and mentally on steep ascents and descents.
- identified and held click beetles while they showed their anti-predator adaptation.
- watched an Emperor dragonfly and damselflies hawking damp areas and dry paths.
- talked about the usefulness of cairns and why leaving litter is a bad idea.
- played Pooh sticks and stone dominoes.
- paddled our feet in mountain streams and tarns.
- had "moments" in the sunshine and on summits, thinking about our feelings about the place and our activity.