DUMFRIES AND GALLOWAY

FOREST EDUCATION INITIATIVE CLUSTER GROUP

Annual General Meeting of Monday 8th October 2012

Castle Douglas Community Centre

Present

Cecilia Franklin, Phoebe Marshall, Lesley Smith, Tom Henry, Caroline Uchima, Jessica Shackleton, Robin Fuller, Susanna Salthammer, Nora Bucher, Sissy Stavridi

Apologies

Jenny Stephenson, Hilary Parke, Karen Slattery, Alice Campbell, Elizabeth Tindall,

Irwin Van D’Hoff, Naomi Wight

Welcomes

The group welcomed Sissy back to the group who has just completed her Level 2 Forest School leader portfolio. Susanna and Nora work at the Camphill Community at Loch Arthur, Beeswing and want to develop FS activities along with their colleague Phoebe.

Minutes of Previous Meeting

Approved

Election of Post holders

Chair: Robin Fuller. Nominated by: Phoebe Marshall. Seconded by: Caroline Uchima

Secretary: Caroline Uchima/Jessica Shackleton. Nominated by: Robin Fuller. Seconded by: Cecilia Franklin.

Treasurer: Phoebe Marshall. Nominated by: Lesley Smith. Seconded by: Tom Henry.

Website support: Cecilia Franklin. Nominated by: Phoebe Marshall. Seconded by: Robin Fuller.

Treasurers Report

Current balance: £839.56, Phoebe will ask David Gibson if he would kindly audit the books again for us this year. Our year ended on Sept 30th.

Direction of D&G FEI group

Attendees were asked to offer their views on what they do and don’t want from the group (see summary at end of minutes). It was clear that most people wanted meetings to be short and to the point, and that there should be more focus on strategic projects that support the wider objectives of FEI. Smaller individual projects should not take up agenda time – proposals can be raised for recording in the minutes but detailed projects only brought to committee meetings when approval is sought for funding applications.

Priorities for future committee meetings will be:

(1) strategic projects and planning

(2) co-ordination of forest education providers

(3) forest education developments relevant to the whole group

(4) smaller project proposals

Planned Projects

There was much discussion on how best to promote the group’s objectives in the coming year. Building on Phoebe’s project proposal for a hands-on CPD event, the idea for a two-part project took shape.

(1) Rural schools. Use existing schools with Forest School sites to champion their work by inviting teachers and pupils from other local schools to join them for a hands-on experience. Some time can be given to presenting the teachers with the curriculum links and planning considerations, but it would largely be about ‘doing’. After this inspiration, the D&G FEI group can then support the new schools in setting up their own forest classrooms. It is envisaged that the ‘champion schools’ would represent as many areas of the region as possible.

(2) Urban schools. It should be part of the D&G FEI group’s role to help schools identify suitable sites for forest education. Urban schools often have difficulty with this, so we should identify and develop a network of formalised sites within walking distance of several schools. This would develop robust sites with the capacity to host high numbers of visitors. The knowledge exchange model for developing rural schools can then be rolled out to encourage shared working between urban schools.

It is vital that the Education Department supports this work, as we would need their buy-in to make it happen.

Clarification of membership rules

Membership for individuals will be £5, and for organisations £30. This will be paid annually at the time of the AGM. Members will be eligible to vote on issues such as constitution changes, election of post holders, approval of projects and funding applications. The money will be used for room hire and other running costs.

Supporters will be anyone else who wants to keep in touch with the group’s work and receive information about relevant projects and wider forest education issues.

AOB

Cecilia is putting together a project to work with breast feeding mums called ‘Babes in the Wood’. She is investigating various funding sources and will report progress back to the group.

Tom’s FS Glow Meet with Holywood Primary went very well although only Closeburn Primary joined in. Any ideas for future Meets should be raised with Tom who would also welcome any videos, pictures, or project work that could be placed on the Glow Forest School page.

‘Learning from Experience’ conference. Cecilia reported back on her attendance at this recent partnership event between Galloway and Southern Ayrshire Biosphere; Dumfries and Galloway, East and South Ayrshire Education Services; Scottish Natural Heritage; and others. The conference’s aim was to bring together teaching staff and environmental practitioners to identify the opportunities that the new UNESCO Biosphere designation offers for Sustainable Development Education (SDE) and Curriculum for Excellence in South West Scotland, and the benefits this could bring to the region. Tom also attended the event. It was felt that although there was much enthusiasm, it might prove challenging turning ideas into reality. For more information on the Biosphere, see: www.gallowayandsouthernayrshirebiosphere.co.uk.

7th European Forest Pedagogics Conference 2012.

Lesley, Cecilia and Robin attended this event. Inspirational presentations from practitioners across Europe were complemented with a series of workshops designed to share and explore examples of best practice of Successful Partnership Working for Sustainable Development. The feedback from attendees was very positive and there were great opportunities for networking. An interesting thread that came out over the two days was the common challenges faced by forest education practitioners across all countries, e.g. resistance/worry from teachers and parents, transport issues, funding. For more information, see: www.forestpedagogics.eu.

Format and date of next meetings

Committee meetings will be open to all but will focus on strategic planning – they will be the best forum for inviting representatives from business, education etc.

Next meeting: date in December to be confirmed after Doodle poll.

Skills Share meets will be informal, practical, outdoor get-togethers where people can chat about experiences and share their knowledge – they will be the best forum for inviting anyone wanting to learn more about the hands-on delivery of forest education.

Next meeting: Monday 29th October. Auchenroddan Forest Classroom (near Lockerbie). Forestry Commission mini-bus pick up from Comet car park, Dumfries at 9.30am.

Forest Education Initiative website: http://www.foresteducation.org/

See below for group comments…

Things I do want from the group:

General knowledge about what’s happening locally – initiatives etc.

Skills share

Mainly as a way of drawing down money

Open to new people coming and new ideas

Support. Networking. Ideas

Ideas for funding support

Involvement

Visits to other Forest Schools. Partnership opportunities

Opportunity to work with other groups other than children, e.g. vulnerable adults

Concentration on a few specific projects which are agreed with the group at the beginning of the year

Helping each other with projects and ideas

Tool borrowing

Enthusiasm

Planning projects as a group for the bigger picture of FEI and outdoor education

Delivery of projects that utilise strengths of group partners and that are efficient in delivering the aims of FEI

Clear aims for the coming year

Achievable number of projects

Things I don’t want from the group:

Detail

Not too much chat in meetings

Talking about each project at meetings

Long meetings

The meetings to last for hours with maximum input from only one or two members

Too much information about everyone’s individual projects during the meetings. All very interesting but not enough time. Emails with information great, or at end of meeting over tea.

Trying to do bits and pieces as they arise

Focus on projects that don’t deliver the group’s wider regional objectives