“No such thing as bad weather – just the wrong clothing”

 Never has this statement been more apt on a geography trip. Torrential rain and high winds might have stopped the fun but not for our awesome geographers! Over the 4th – 7th November, 34 students and 5 staff braved the elements for a  weekend of outdoor activities to complete their John Muir Conservation Award, and had a thoroughly enjoyable time!

The John Muir award is an environmental award scheme which encourages persons of all ages to connect with, enjoy and care for wild places. Four challenges are at the heart of each John Muir Award.  Each participant must discover a wild place, explore its wildness, conserve by taking personal responsibility and share their experiences with others; evidence to gain the award is collected by staff throughout the trip.

Students and staff had fun exploring the wild spaces of the New Forest through night time walks, high ropes, low ropes and scavenger hunts. As well as learning how to survive through shelter building, bush craft, campfire and archery. Most importantly, they learnt how to conserve the environment while still enjoying their surroundings. To this end each group helped the New Forest by clearing brambles, silver birch and Rhododendron to help the area get back to a natural heathland. Throughout the weekend students completed their conservation booklets which helped them to consolidate how each activity met the criteria of the award.

As always the students were great ambassadors for the school with all activities leaders commenting on how polite and enthusiastic our students were, and the progress they made as groups over the course of the trip was exceptional. Remember team work is key to everyone achieving!

The geography team would like to publicly thank Miss Williams, Lucy McLeod and Ms Lord for giving up their weekend to support the team; we would also like to thank our Sixth formers, who although were there to complete the award themselves, were an immense help to staff; showing excellent leadership qualities and producing an entertaining conservation song.

Thank you to everyone involved it really was a lovely trip. Let’s do it all again next year!

Mrs Moore, Head of Humanities