It has been a lean time for the students of the Natural Classroom recently due to the fantastic winter blanket that has been thrown over the country, but it has given the students a chance to go out and experience the outdoors in another way. Snowballing and sledging!
It is a great leveller the snow as it makes adults behave like children and children look at adults and cannot understand why grow ups find sliding down a slope on a mattress or serving tray so much fun. It is also interesting to see who has the biggest grin when the sledge has finally come to a stop after spinning its way down the icy snow.

The latest candidate to gain his Discovery Award was David O'Fee. He shared his experiences with members of his regular Thursday group on the 18/11/10. Despite his nervousness on the drive to the forest, he did very well speaking with a great deal of confidence about the work that he has been doing to complete his award.

On a recent trip to Grizedale Forest I was asking the candidates about John Muir, who he was and what his work was all about. It was morning that did not really know what to do with itself; wash us with the threatening rain or warm us with weak autumn sunshine. The group were gathered round the back of the mini bus trying to decide what combination of clothing they should wear.
"So who was John Muir?" I asked one of the group
He looked at me, then the sky then at the ground, and said:
"He was the chap that took two weeks to walk a mile."
Asking the same question of another student I found the answer to be equally truthful but different:
"He was the man who spent 2 hours looking at a leaf."

It did not rain and we spent 2 hours learning how to work together as a team.

Even though it has been a long time, the work in the wilderness continues. There have been many instances of learning that has happened over the years some of them have been small sparrow steps and some have been large strides. The best bit about the learning is that it has continued despite holidays, weekends, and leaving school. A big congratulations to all those who have achieved success in gaining their awards.

It has been a long time since the last entry on the site and a great deal has happened since January.
There has been a great deal of work done in the forest at Grizedale by all candidates, Discovery, Explorer and Conserver, on their journies of learning and self discovery.
Three candidates recieved their Discovery Award, Three candidates recieved their Explorer Award, and one candidate recieved his Conserver Award, the first to be presented this year and the first from the Witherslack group of schools.
For all the candidates it was a fantastic achieement to be able to undergo a prolonged period of study, sometimes in appalling weather, and then to go on and talk about it to a group of people, this in itself is a difficult task for many people.
To carry on with the journey to learn about the environment and themselves takes a great deal of courage as each progressive step makes more demands of a person; so for the Explorer recipients it marks a significant step to gaining a better understanding of the world around them. To want to go on and gain the Conserver Award is a notable achievement as it underscores the amount of dedication needed to gain this final certificate that the John Muir Trust offers.
As one of the candidates said:

"The certificate is a piece of paper. It's what the piece of paper represents that's the real prize."

Well done to all candidates for their achievements and a fantastically large thank you to Mary, Miranda, Mark and Brian for all their help in bringing about this success.

A return to work.

JANUARY 2010

A very happy New Year to all the John Muir students and a very successful year it may be for you all.
The current batch of inclement weather that has caused so much trouble all over the country was responsible for the delay in starting the work in the forest. Last week saw the two groups, Tuesday and Thursday, having to spend the day examining the structure of snow and ice crystals from the front of a speeding sledge! It was a great example of what an extreme environment was and what the consequences to adapting to life in such a climate could be. A real living lesson!
The second week of term when the snow cleared enough for the Tuesday group to get to Grizedale; unfortunately the snow still lay thick in the woods preventing us from doing any hard physical work but the opportunity was seized for the candidates to use the Log Cabin to have a natural classroom session.



The theme was native species of fauna that inhabit the woodland of Grizedale Forest. the group also learned about the differences between a temperate climate, a tropical climate, and polar climate. It was a good productive session, the animals the group chose were the red squirrel, a red deer and a mouse.

One of our students, Denver, is ready for his sharing so the other three, Holly, Ethan, and Jordan were helping him with this by offering advice about what to say and how to pass on the enthusiasm that he shows for the work that he has been doing. This is also part of the mentoring role that Holly and Ethan have adopted as part of their Explorer work.

The Bendrigg Trust group were also delayed in their return to work but they were thrown into the deep end when they did get back this Wednesday, 13th January. They were given the task of gritting 300 metres of hill to ensure their minibuses would not get stuck or slide off the road.





After their hard work on the 'hill' they were given the opportunity to rest and drink lots of tea before they were given the task of clearing the car park of the frozen snow.