As part of the Year 8 Technology rotation pupils will spend 8 sessions, approximately 20 hours with homework, being introduced to, and working toward their John Muir Discovery Award.
John Muir is a world-renowned environmental campaigner, widely considered to be the father of the National Parks movement which started in America with the designation of the Yellowstone as the first National Park and spread worldwide. The Trust operated in his name offers the Discovery Award to young people, the aim of which is to raise their awareness of nature and wild places.
The Award is spilt into four challenges.
- Discover a wild place
- Explore it
- Do something to Conserve it
- Share your experiences
To complete the award pupils must.
- Complete all four challenges
- Complete the required time commitment
- Show enthusiasm and commitment
- Have an awareness of John Muir
The link here explains a little more about the Award and its aims.
In school we aim to facilitate all four challenges. Over three sessions we introduce the Award and Discover and Explore the Princethorpe site and a local nature reserve, observing and researching the fauna and flora to understand the landscape and how it is managed. There follow three more Conserve sessions when we work with and are supervised by the Princethorpe Foundation Grounds Team working on season dependent conservation and countryside management projects. In the final two sessions we complete a poster project to Share experiences and communicate with others what we have found out.
It is essential if we are to make the most of the Discover, Explore and Conserve sessions, when we spend most of the time outside, that pupils wear weather appropriate clothing and footwear that will keep them warm and dry or cool and safe from the sun depending on the season. In autumn and winter waterproofs and wellies, with hats and gloves, are the best option over warm layers. In spring and summer lighter clothes that still cover the skin and a hat if warm. Legs and arms are best covered to prevent scratches and scrapes from the undergrowth. Princethorpe sports kit can be used but does not have to be. Pupils will be expected to be in uniform prior to and after sessions and we have access to the changing rooms to facilitate this. As we will be using a variety of hand tools PPE and full training will be provided.
The time allocation of lessons with homework equates to approximately 20 hours, five hours short of the required time stipulated by the John Muir Trust. Therefore, to facilitate Year 8 pupils completing the John Muir Discovery Award we ask that families consider how they may voluntarily spend five hours fulfilling the aims of the Award in their own local area. This may include.
- Explore walk on the local footpaths around where you live
- Visit and explore a National Park on holiday
- Go orienteering or geocaching
- Ride a bike at a Forestry Commission Centre
- Create some sketches of plants in your garden
- Write a poem about nature, you could use Robert MacFarlane’s The Lost Words as inspiration
- Create an area in your garden for birds, bees or insects
- Build a bat or bird box and put it up in your garden
- Record the sounds of nature: the wind in the trees, birds and animals
- Volunteer to help with a work party at a local Wildlife Trust site
- Visit a Warwickshire Wildlife Trust woodland
- Go birdwatching, complete a plant or wildlife survey
The list is not exhaustive, and completion is not compulsory, but we hope that you may find it something fun to do to achieve this nationally recognised Award. All that we require to show how you have spent your five family hours is some form of documented evidence that can be shared with us at school digitally. All Year 8 students have been added to a Team, John Muir Award 2022-23 where your collected evidence can be uploaded. The deadline for completion is Friday 30 June 2023.
I hope many of you will join us so that we can raise awareness of the importance of wild places to us all, something John Muir was aware of nearly 150 years ago.
'Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity.
Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn'.
John Muir
Simon Robertson - Teacher of Outdoor Education
Will Bower - Outdoor Education Coordinator
