regions and home nations iconRegions / Home Nations

Wales Home Nation : Cymru Cenedl

News : Newyddion

Wales Professional Development Events

Proposed CPD Events in Cymru/Wales

  • July - Development training in NLP. (venue/date/cost tbc)
  • LOOK OUT FOR MORE INFO ON ALL THESE FUTURE EVENTS.

Forum on Wild Camping - report of this event which took place on 12th March

The forum was convened by the Mountain Leader Training Association (MLTA), the British Mountaineering Council (BMC) Cymru, Sustainable Use of Snowdonia / Mwynhau Eryri’n Gall (SUS/MEG), and the Institute for Outdoor Learning (IOL).  It was designed primarily as an opportunity for their members to discuss the environmental impact of wild camping and any concerns they might have about specific sites, but was open for any other interested parties to attend.  The meeting was chaired by Mike Raine (BMC) and started with a short talk from Joe Roberts from the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW).

Topics covered were: Landowners’ concerns, Water contamination and Fires, Reaching a wider audience.

 

IOL Cymru/Wales ANNUAL CONFERENCE EVENT 2009 - REPORT

Held on November 14th at Plas y Brenin. Lun Roberts reports....

  • On a wet and windy day in November, when a caravan was blown over a wall into the river in the Llanberis Pass, it was gratifying that 35 people out of the 39 who had booked, managed to make their way from all parts of the principality to Plas-Y-Brenin, for IOL’s first regional conference in Wales.  Some even paddled the Llugwy to get there!!  Quite a few were Welsh speakers so I was sad not to be able to welcome them with more than a few words of Welsh.  Mae’n ddrwg gennyf.  Bydd pethau’n well tro nesaf.  Next time we hope that at least some of the written material will be bilingual.  It was also a shame that I hadn’t made sure that everyone knew one of the workshops was taking place outside!  Some participants were unprepared for being out in the wonderfully wild weather we experienced that day.  Luckily Plas-Y-Brenin came to our aid and they were able to step forth in borrowed gear.
  • In the morning, I attended John Cousins’ thought provoking talk on ’Surviving a Career in the Outdoors’.  He has that clever knack of involving people in a topic so that his talk quickly became a lively debate on the best way of helping people to look after themselves so they not only survive, but enjoy, a long and healthy working life in the outdoors.  So many people in our line of work suffer from joint problems and other injuries - there seems to be an epidemic of ruptured biceps in North Wales, for instance!  In many ways we are our own worst enemies.  We work all week and play at the weekend (often in the evenings too) so our bodies don’t have enough time to recover. Injuries ensue and how many of us bother to visit A and E never mind resting properly!  Having said that, we decided that more probably could and would be done by employers if they were given appropriate advice.  One suggestion was that they offer cheap health insurance so more people would get treated with physiotherapy and allied treatments.  We were all given a copy of ’Surviving a Career in Adventure Activities’ to take home, read and apply.  It’s full of good ideas and you can obtain a copy from Louise@outdoor-learning.org
  •        In the afternoon, I joined the group led by Jim Langley and headed out into the slightly less windy, but still chilly, outdoors to look at techniques for interpreting the environment.  Jim has worked in a variety of contexts including the Field Study Council and now runs his own business - Nature’s Work.  He is a great believer in experiential learning.  To start off with everyone was given a bit of plant.  We had to look at it, find out something new about it, and  share that with another person with a bit of the same plant (once we‘d found them).  This was a nice way of breaking the ice and also made us look hard at our specimen.  Jim was at pains to explain that the most important thing is to get people really looking and thinking about the environment; knowing the Latin names comes low down on his list of priorities.  However, he also recognises that science has its own jargon and to help us get to grips with this, he played another game, where we stood in a row and took a step forward  (or not) according to whether our plant met certain criteria.  This was quite easy to start off with - was our plant coniferous? Deciduous? Did it have flowers? Gradually they got more difficult until we found ourselves discussing all sorts of quite technical botanical processes with interest.  A variety of other games followed (including one on the geological history of North Wales).  Giggles and laughter indicated that people were enjoying themselves in addition to learning about the environment and how to enthuse others about it.  Jim is working with ER Outdoors and the Countryside Council for Wales to run a day-long course on how to engage people with the environment in a variety of ways (intellectual, emotional, and practical) on March 20th at Rhyd-Y-Creuau Centre.  For more information contact Jim at info@natureswork.co.uk

 

Courses

watch this space

Outdoor classes start in schools in Wales

The first generation of children to follow "ground-breaking" play-based learning in Wales is starting school. To see the full BBC News report click here.

"We believe that the pay-off of this radical new way of learning will be long-term and its impact will be felt for many years to come."

Jane Hutt AM, Education Minister

Coastal Access in Wales

Members may wish to join a BMC NorthWales campaign for better coastal access in Wales. All you have to do is take the text below and send it to jane.davidson@wales.gsi.gov.uk

Don’t forget to add her name at the top and yours at the bottom!

Welsh members should also send it to your Welsh Assembly members, go to www.assemblywales.org - type in your post code to find out who your members are. You can then go to contact members and cut and paste the text below into the appropriate box. Again don’t forget to add their name at the top and yours at the bottom. You can of course add or even write your own text. Campaigning has never been easier so please, take few seonds of your life and make your feelings about coastal access known to the people who make the decisions of your behalf.

  • “Dear.......
    As a member of the Institute for Outdoor Learning (IOL), I am writing to express my support for a legal right of access to the Welsh coastline. British Mountaineering Council (BMC), as the national representative body for climbers, hill walkers and mountaineers with over 65,000 members across Wales and England, believes that access to the coastal zone, including the foreshore, is essential both for recreational climbing as well as for walking. There is evidence to suggest that the vast majority of the public who visit the coast are in search of a full coastal experience.
  • Walkers and climbers require access to the foreshore and to sea cliffs and this can be managed without detriment to the interests of landowners or conservation organisations. I would like to see access to the coastal ‘zone’ including the foreshore, an area adjacent to the foreshore and a distance back from the cliff face or adjacent land. Access to the coast is essential for recreational climbing and the coastal crags provide a unique and essential landscape for the development of climbing and exploring.
  • The Welsh coast is particularly favoured for climbing sites all around the coast, some of these are of interest to locals only whilst others attract visitors from around the world. The sea cliffs of south Pembroke and the Gogarth cliffs on Anglesey are sites of international importance.
  • The onward journey via a linear route is too limited as an access option as it does not provide for a right of access to the shoreline and cliffs. Reliance on local authorities for implementation will also result in a patchy network of paths and will be difficult to manage with the public naturally wanting to explore further afield. This will result in further ill feeling between the public and the landowners. I would like to see Wales adopt a similar approach to that being proposed for England by Natural England, that is a right of access along a coastal path and access to the seaward side of this path giving a legal right of access to sea cliffs and the foreshore.
  • I feel this approach alone would meet with the approval of the majority of those who visit coastal areas at present and may even bring in more visitors to Wales, thereby helping to support the tourism industry. Not so long ago Wales was deemed one of the best Mountain Biking destinations in the world; with a better right of access to our coast, Wales could become one of the world's best destinations for rock climbing on sea cliffs. I very much hope you will consider this during the consultation period.”

    signed ...........................

Help needed by the WCA (Welsh Canoe Association) in their campaign for Land Reform in Wales.

The access difficulties faced by canoeists and other watersports enthusiasts are similar to those which existed prior to the mass trespass on Kinder and subsequent reform.  Sadly, neither that, nor the more recent 'CRoW' Act have addressed access to and along watercourses.  WCA, along with other organisations and governing bodies, is campaigning for 'Land Reform' i.e. a bill such as was recently passed in Scotland enshrining access rights, along with responsibilities.

We have support from MP's and AM's, and have prepared a manifesto.  To make this a reality we now need to demonstrate public support by delivering a petition along with the manifesto.

The petition can be signed on-line by following the link from copying and pasting inot your address bar the address:
http://petitionthem.com/default.asp?sect=detail&pet=2856

There is also a link from www.canoewales.com

Please sign the petition, and SEND IT TO AS MANY OTHER PEOPLE AS YOU CAN.  
Ask the people you send it to to send it to their friends and
colleagues.  You don't need to live in Wales to sign, or to be directly involved in outdoor activities.  You just need to support the aim of fair access for all to the natural heritage of Wales.

If you would like to discuss the campaign further, please contact my colleague Ashley Charlwood on 01341 422692 or Cwmbychan@aol.com

July 2009
VITAL Notice on Insurance for all IOL Events

 

If you have regional information please email it to regions@outdoor-learning.org stating which region it is for. We are keen to make these sections busy and useful for all members.

« top »

Regions /
Home Nations...