4th-10th January 2021
I am afraid I have not had a moment to write for a while. Christmas has been and gone and I was leading a staff Inset on the first day back on Eco-schools which my school is currently working on. This took up a lot of time during the holidays preparing but the inset went well, and it was lovely to share all that has already been done and our next steps as a school. Then we had another national lockdown so have had to put together lots of work for that.
Today however, I have had the chance to work again on my Lever 3 course work and filmed some knots. I will continue with this work this week and hope that I can get more videos done as I am worried now about how much I still have to cover. I have to keep telling myself I can only do my best and take one step at a time.
10th -19th January 2021
Ok, I am slowly getting through my knots-filming seems to take so long but am feeling that this process is really helping me to learn them. I can feel the four stages of learning happening. I think it is taking me so long because I am out of my comfort zone and am really having to learn them from scratch. Practice, practice, practice and then familiarising myself enough to be able to talk about them which is quite nerve racking and feel a bit silly.
I now feel that I am at a stage where I would now like to start using these knots in everyday Forest School activities and I will be experimenting and using them more and more in the next few weeks. I have also been looking at children’s books that could be used to support rope and knot work and “Super Worm”, “String is a wonderful thing” and “Charlottes Web” are some favourite ones I have found. Another area I have been researching is how to make natural rope and I would also like to try a few of these.
20th-24th January 2021
Yesterday my family and I coppiced some hazel trees at the Forest School site. We had a lovely day out and the winter sun was shining. We have coppiced several hazel trees in Stage 1 and the wood that we cut will be used as bean poles and pea sticks as well as material for den building and arts and craft.
It was good to be actively starting the sustainability management plan for this site and to be putting to good use some of the skills I have recently learnt about tool use and tool management. My husband used to work for Dorset Wildlife Trust and has his Chainsaw qualifications which meant the job was a little bit faster than just having to use a Bowsaw. I did however get to use my Bow saw and Loppers to cut down the timber in smaller pieces. The left-over wood has been placed in a wood pile which will be a great habitat for a range of wildlife.
I have nearly completed my knot videos but grading a free moment without my little boy not photo bombing the film is tricky and once he is in bed it always seems to dark to film……but I will get it done this week.
24th-31st January 2021
I have finally completed my knots videos however I have also discovered this week that I have made several errors while making these videos. Firstly, I need to say my name course and assignment that I am studying at the start of each video which I have not done and secondly, they all need to be filmed in real time with no editing. This means that I will have to record them all again which at first sent me into a panic as I am so worried about the time then I thought it through, and I have decided that I am going to move on and come back and record these videos later. The summer months will also be better as there will be more sunlight hours and more opportunities to film in fine weather.
So, I have decided to work on and practice these skills as I write and continue with the essay side of things. This I hope will help me feel like I am moving forward instead of having this overriding dread that I am just not getting enough done. I am going to move onto Unit 3 in February which will take me back to Forest School theories and help me work towards putting a Forest School Program in place and a handbook. I am glad that I have made this decision and I will use the practical activities as a welcome break between essay writing.
