John Muir Award
Coming in 2024
You are welcome to sample our Nature’s Being Days throughout 2023 which serve to give a taste of what makes up The John Muir Award.
I am a John Muir Award leader. Through The John Muir Award there is the opportunity to further develop the skills mentioned above in children; to discover a place, explore it, conserve it and share what we have done for our world.
Please view this film by John Muir to discover the Essence of it’s Award:
Working through the 4 Challenges of the John Muir Award, we Discover, Explore, Conserve and Share our work. This programme delivers a nationally recognised certificate and encompasses a wide range of holistic, personal and social development opportunities.
Activities are tailored to the age group but will always include in the programme a selection of the following:
- Bushcraft
- Den Building
- Awakening senses games
- Insect/wildlife spotting knowledge and interest
- Making and following maps
- Safety in nature
- Team challenges
- Conservation project
A significant element of the Award is about being seen to be helping the environment. Children who attend and engage with the course will earn a John Muir Award.
Please do understand that if your child does not attend regularly or they do not engage, they will not earn the Award. As part of the learning, we must understand that “we get out of life something proportionate to what we put in.”
Discover a wild place
We discover a local environment or habitat within a 30mile radius around Inverness. This could be woodlands, neglected pieces of land, shoreline, open hill or parks. Some are places which are in need of some TLC and others are wilder, where we can learn much about how Nature does it best when left alone…Some example locations are: The Caledonian Canal, Loch Achilty, Clachnaharry, Ardersier, Glen Affric.
Explore a wild place
We will explore our chosen wild places. We will learn about the diverse wildlife which can be found here while we learn how to have fun and play in the outdoors safely. We merge the differentiation between learning and playing so that it becomes One. This has huge impact on other areas of children’s lives, particularly with regards to school work (or does it now become re-framed as ‘play’?)
Conservation of a wild place
We aim to help protect and maintain wild places. This could range from doing a litter pick and erecting signs to inform people that this area has been cleaned and please do not drop more rubbish, placing bins or benches, or it could be planting trees, undertaking wildlife surveys and placing bird or bat boxes, building bug hotels, chopping back undergrowth, clearing a stream of debris or testing the water quality of a pond.
Share a wild place
The most important aspect of a John Muir Award, is to tell others about our work and adventures so that more people become interested in conserving our wild places as opposed to damaging them. This could include having a discussion about our experiences and posting it on social media, writing to local services or conservation groups to make sure our work is continued, creating presentations and posters to show in our local community, or making a video about our work/play.
