David Clelland, one of our graduate placements, tells us about his involvement with outdoor learning in the year ahead.

David at our Battleby office. © Suzanne Downey/SNH

My placement at SNH started in the middle of August working in the Clydebank office. Here’s a little bit of what I’ve been up to recently.

Over the next year I will be working on the Learning in Local Greenspace Project (LiLG). The project is aiming to facilitate access to quality Greenspace for outdoor learning in 100 schools across Scotland. Part of my role is to help develop a sharing learning and practice strategy. To ensure that good practice from the project is shared across our schools and partners as part of the wider legacy of the project.

Learning outdoors in Glenboig Village Park. ©George Logan/SNH

Lots of work had already been done on LiLG when I started, so my first job was to catch up. Don’t worry though, before I got too comfy in an office chair, on my second day I had the chance to go meet one of our project partners, Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) at one of their sites. The meeting was at Cardowan Moss in the East End of Glasgow. This wasn’t your traditional meeting though. We met with the FCS Community Rangers in a clearing in the middle of Cardowan Moss. No tables or chairs this time, just a tarp, a fire and a friendly dog. I would recommend it if you’re looking to shake up your meetings a bit. It was great to get out and meet the partners and see some real enthusiasm for the project.

The following week I got the chance to visit Battleby for a project meeting. It was good to see another of SNH’s offices and I’ll be visiting again next month for the graduate induction day.

Brainstorming with the rest of the team. © Suzanne Downey/SNH

Having the chance to meet the rest of the project team and discussing some ideas for the project was a great way to put everything I had read up on over the previous weeks into context. This is the biggest project I have ever been a part of and the enthusiasm of the team left me very excited to be involved.

One of the most exciting discussions coming out of that meeting was the launch of our schools resource: Beyond your Boundary: easy steps to learning in local greenspace which is available online for everyone now.

Beyond your Boundary, our new schools resource. © Suzanne Downey/SNH

My placement is giving me the chance to do a little bit of everything within the project. Over the next few months I’ll be visiting schools; helping with drafting action plans; developing our school resources and doing some event planning for our annual workshop next February among other things. So there’s plenty to be getting on with!

There will be lots of exciting things going on with the LiLG project in the near future. Search #beyondyourboundary on twitter to see what is happening with the project or go to the website.

You can download a copy of Beyond your Boundary here.