MENTER ADDYSG Y GOEDWIG

FOREST EDUCATION INITIATIVE

Patron: His Royal Highness The Duke of Gloucester KG, GCVO, RIBA, FSA, FRSA

Swyddfa Rhanbarthol De Cymru / South Wales Area Office
Cwrt Centref, Heol Aberhonddu / Cantref Court, Brecon Road
Y Fenni / Abergavenny
Sir Fynwy / Monmouthshire
NP7 7AX

Carol Travers / Juliette Staples 0300 068 0300


Monmouthshire FEI Cluster Group Meeting

Meeting at Durand Primary

4pm Tuesday 11 January 2011

Present: Juliette Staples (Forestry Commission), Mark Langley (MCC Countryside Service), Sally Jones (MCC - Early Years), Simon Giles (Pembroke Primary School), Carol Davies (Raglan Primary), Kathy Barclay (GWT), Kerry Combstock/Jean Howe/ Lene Collins (Durand Primary, Mostyn Jones (Castle Park Primary), Paul Gibbins (Operative Learning)

  1. Apologies – Sarah Jones/ Anney Thornton-Wood (Cambium/MCC), Francesca Bell (BBNP), Carol Travers (FC), Lizzie Peckham (The Dell Primary), Tim Bennett (National Trust), Caroline Harvey (Pembroke Primary School), Sharron Burridge (MCC - Early Years)

2. Minutes of Last Meeting – agreed

  1. Treasurer’s report – Balance of £21.95

Juliette gave Mark the cheque for the large grant to be paid in to the account.

Simon & Caroline have had several trips to the bank verifying ID etc to confirm their posts as treasurers, now awaiting confirmation from bank.

  1. Updates/ New members
  • Gwent Wildlife Trust

Having a quiet spell at the moment. Before Christmas, Paul Gibbins did some workshops at Magor Marsh with Reception, yr 1 & yr 2 children, which were very much enjoyed and received excellent feedback. Paul will shortly be doing a teacher training session for head teachers at Magor Marsh.

Kathy is currently involved in: developing a home education course; trialling a wildlife quiz for 12 schools; doing an open day; running and seeking funding for the wildlife warriors group on Tuesday nights (11-16 yr olds).

  • Pembroke Primary

Forest School sessions are ongoing in the school. Carol & Simon have carried out some clearance work on the FS area to open up pathways etc. Mark confirmed that somebody will be laying the overgrown hawthorn hedge in March/April and it will be done as par of a training project. Simon is looking forward to being involved in the FEI sculpture project.

  • Woodlands for Learning Team

Despite the snow, Juliette ran nine Christmas visits at Goytre Wharf, children enjoyed the trail through the woods and meeting Santa. Visits should be running again next Christmas.

Juliette has a few dates for Jan and Feb if anybody would like to arrange a free Woodland Visit at Whitestone or Goytre Wharf.

Carol will be doing a full report on the Conference celebrating 10 years of Forest School when feeling better. It went very well with 44 delegates booked onto day one, doing a variety workshops in forests and schools around S E Wales. The second day based at St Mellons hotel had 76 delegates attending workshops and talks. Overall excellent feedback.

  • Castle Park Primary

Mostyn has been finishing off his file for the FS level 3 course and doing a dissertation on the subject. He’s been developing the FS area, which will become easier when a problem with the gates has been resolved. He has done FS sessions at Caldicot Castle and in the freezing weather at Slade Woods.

Mostyn will be away travelling for a few months – the group wishes him all the best.

  • Durand Primary

Staff from Durand were FS level 3 trained a few years ago and they have a FS area on site. They are very fortunate to have volunteers to re-vamp the log circle and have never had any vandalism problems.

  • MCC Early Years

No updates.

  • MCC Countryside Service

Caldicot Castle has been given to the Countryside Service now. Mark is putting together a learning strategy to link to the castle and the old site at Tintern, this will be a big project. Mark is looking at events and activities. He’s helping schools with conservation projects including a wildflower meadow at Durand and pond projects at Llanfoist and Osbaston. The bird boxes have been a success with 20 in place: results for last year – 12 succeeded in chicks fledging, 4 had nests only and 4 had nothing. The website will be moved to the MCC website with a new link for schools to enter and share information about their bird boxes, eg who has the first egg etc.

  • Raglan Primary

Carol is a TA currently doing FS level 3 and is hoping to set up a FS area at School, but as there is the possibility of new building work being done, it affects where the FS area could be developed.

  • Paul Gibbins – Operative Learning

Contact details: 01873 890340 / 07773 435130

Paul came along to the meeting to tell us about the ‘mantle of the expert’ workshops he does with children, teachers and trainee teachers. He explained that his sessions use the outdoors and can cover every area of the curriculum. Paul shared several entertaining anecdotes, showed us some inspiring pictures of his recent work and gave out info packs. The Caerphilly FEI cluster group recently used the large FEI grant to fund a project with Paul which was very successful and included running a number of sessions with different schools at a variety of woodland sites around the county. This group may like to consider using the small FEI grant for a workshop – to be discussed. For further info, see contact details above.

  1. Funding
  • Small grant

Query about dates for small grant – Juliette to follow up.

It was suggested that Paul could run a workshop at Magor Marsh for children from a nearby school with Cluster members invited to come and observe. Sally suggested May would be the best time. Juliette to follow up and email out further info.

  • Large grant

FEI project ‘His-Tree in the making’: A very large Blue Cedar tree had to be taken down in sections at a cemetery in Chepstow and the wood is very suitable for sculpting. The project involves children from local schools creating their own designs based on local history and working with a local wood sculptor. (Mounton House, Pembroke Primary, Chepstow Comprehensive, Thornwell Primary and The Dell)

Mark updated us on the project and showed us some pictures from start to finish of the first sculpture done with Mounton House children. Pictures to be uploaded to new website. Chepstow Comp are putting designs together and Pembroke Primary will be next, which we will hopefully be able to see at the next FEI meeting.

If/when further funds can be found, then Thornwell and The Dell will get to work with the wood sculptor, until then the wood can be stored as it will be useable for some time yet.

Mark to check with Kim, the timescales for the final report.

  1. AOB
  • New FEI website
  • Kerry asked the group for advice on getting willow cuttings – Carol suggested contacting Goytre Primary as they may have enough there.
  • Info passed on from Sarah Jones – Cambium:

Forest School Courses –leaflets handed out

Level Three – Forest School Practitioner7th, 8th,18th,21st & 22nd March

Rockwool, BridgendPractical – 11th & 12thApril

Level Three – Forest School Practitioner14th, 15th, 25th, 4th, 5th April

Henbury, West BristolPractical – 3rd & 4th May

Level One - Introduction to Forest School17th & 18th February

Raglan Primary School

  • Info passed on from Brecon Beacons National Park – Francesca Bell

They have funding for their Art Trails until end March so these are currently free (there may be some free transport-to be confirmed).

Suitable for Y6 or above .

The East Trail starts/finishes at Cadogan Car park half way along Gwyne Fawr near(ish) Abergavenny:

Beacons Way Art Trail — East / This walk traverses part of the Beacons Way Art Trail through forestry and across open moorland and combines artistic activities and stunning scenery to develop appreciation and understanding of the landscape. KS2/3 / Meet at Grid ref:
SO 266252 / 4-6 hours

If anyone is interested best to contact Linda Harley here on 01874 620463

  1. Next meeting

Tue 10 May 2011, 4pm at Pembroke Primary

The Forest Education Initiative is a partnership between the Forestry Commission, the Timber Trade Federation, CONFOR, the Tree Council, BTCV, Groundwork, the Field Studies Council, England’s Community Forests and the Woodland Trust.