Education
Outdoor instructor led courses
Ardroy Outdoor Education Centre (AOEC Trust Ltd.) uses Cormonachan Community Woodlands as an outdoor classroom for their primary school groups. The activities, which take place in the woodlands, are designed to support classroom teachers in their delivery of educational objectives, inherent in the “Curriculum for Excellence.”
Most groups visit the woodlands as part of a “John Muir Award” course – www.jmt.org
In 2016, 658 John Muir Awards were obtained by school pupils who undertook conservation tasks in Cormonachan Community Woodlands, that’s over a third of all John Muir Awards delivered in the National Park. Each year many new awards are delivered.
To achieve their “Discovery Level Award” each pupil participates in a range of activities that encompass four challenges: –
1) Discover – a wild place
This map was produced by Lochgoilhead Primary School after they visited Cormonachan Woodlands.
2) Explore an area including using your senses to appreciate the beauty and uniqueness of the place. The children are given the opportunity to see, feel, touch and smell the woodlands through a “sensory walk.”
3) Conservation and taking care of the wild place is an important part of the award. The pupils learn about the woodlands habitat, the traditional ways woodlands were used and are sustainability managed. They assist with implementing the woodlands management plan, which has been designed to enhance the biodiversity of the woodlands.
4) Sharing of the pupils experience with others is the final challenge of the John Muir Award.
Informal Education – Unaccompanied
A Red Squirrel interpretation trail has been designed for primary school aged pupils and of course their parents. It gives an over view of the life and loves of the endangered Red Squirrel and if you are really quiet you may be lucky enough to see one.
Look out for the five information signs about Red Squirrels along the Squirrel Trail. There is a Red Squirrel Hide close to Ardroy’s own resource centre ‘Jan’s Hideaway.