Kingussie High pupils take up a leadership challenge

The head boy, head girl and house captains from Kingussie High School travelled to Loch Eil this November to participate in a themed course designed to equip them for their roles and enable them to be ambassadors back at school.

The weather was giving its worst but that didn’t dampen spirits – and neither did a chilly dip in the Loch. The group quickly proved to be well motivated and extremely capable. The nightline was a good platform for exploring the fact that leadership is who you are, not where you are and the group followed this up the next morning by listing all the traits they consider a good leader should have.

We used a variety of problem solving challenges and team tasks, both mental and physical, to get the group working together on day two and to see some leadership in action. They learned the importance of planning and of leaning from their mistakes. Boy George (our famous big tree climb) was a huge challenge and saw many of the young people facing their fear of heights head on. Despite the nerves everyone completed the climb.

Wednesday was expedition day and we delayed our departure to allow time for Hamish to rejoin the group after sitting his driving test (he passed! Well done Hamish). After jumping off the parachute jump, completing the spider’s web challenge and packing our bags we were ready to head off.  The wire bridge was the last challenge of the day and the only way to reach the hut across the River Nevis.

We headed home via a different route and the group had to work together to build their own bridge to get back across the river. That evening the youngsters enjoyed a blast on the zip wire as a just reward for all the effort of the expedition.

Friday morning saw the team working together to build a raft which they tested around a course – in the cold water again, we’re back to where we started!  All the young people said that the week had pushed them hard, that they had been surprised by what they had been able to achieve and that they had learned more about what they are capable of. They felt that the experience would prove useful back in their roles at school and I hope this proves to be true. Best wishes for the future!

Lisa Diggins, Senior Instructor, Loch Eil

NLC go back to nature!

Working with a group of pupils from North Lanarkshire last week proved to be one of my favourite groups of the year – good listeners, keen to develop themselves, hungry for learning, fun to be with and they didn’t even complain when I talked their ears off about nature!

I soon realised that they all had a healthy interest in the environment and began to introduce each area of the John Muir Award.  Here’s how it went:

To discover a wild place, I introduced them to everything from the forest and woodlands, the seas and lochs to Glen Nevis and its surrounding crags.  Along the way they encountered bogs, sphagnum, wood sorrel and even some old man’s beard! For those of you not in the know, it’s a type of flower!

As part of our exploration of a wild place, we began in the centre grounds and later ventured out into the wild Lochans, Glenfinnan and the spectacular Loch Shiel.  We also saw the new hydro-electric development at Lochaber to try and better understand environmentally friendly energy generation.  Each of these places gave us the opportunity to see and understand a new type of environment.  And to try and conserve these environments, we took part in a litter pick and spent a session constructing bird feeders in Glen Duhlie. I expect to see some rather fat birdies in Glen Duhlie on my next visit – the feeders were enormous!  We also spent time learning about and discussing the theory of conservation, including energy and waste reduction, recycling, supermarket packaging and invasive species of plants.

To wrap up the week, the pupils delivered an impressive presentation on their environmental knowledge.  A thoroughly outstanding week!

Rich Hill, Senior Instructor, Loch Eil