Dunedin School has a long relationship with the Edinburgh based charity The Green Team, whose purpose, connecting young people to nature, we wholeheartedly subscribe to. But, circumstances have meant that we have not worked with The Green Team for a year or two so it has been a pleasure to re-engage a group of our pupils with them over the last couple of months. Vogrie Park, just to the south east of Edinburgh, has been the location for a number of full-day visits by pupils, working under the guidance of Millie from The Green Team, and in conjunction with local rangers, to undertake a range of woodland conservation projects in the park. It’s not just about hard work though, pupils have very much enjoyed learning about other aspects of being outdoors, how to safely light fires, and to cook on them, how to safely use a range of tools, using natural materials to make Christmas wreaths, leaf sculptures, bark imprints, and have been introduced to a range of fun team games in the woods. The biggest challenge at this time of year of course can be the weather, and pupils have run the full gamut of autumnal/wintery weather, from the benign to the (near) extreme, dry and mild to windy and wet, to frosty and very cold, but they have persevered, stuck in there, kept at it, (if not necessarily fully embracing all the joys that the weather can throw at us at times!).
