lost newbie with Q's

Hello all,

I hope I'm posting this in the right place, apologies if not.

I have been reading about the wildlife action awards and wondering how it all works. I am looking at getting a group together of various ages to have a wildlife explorers club and would like to be able to incorporate the awards into some activities.

Can someone give me a run down of how it works please.

I see I need to buy an awards booklet but is it possible to do the activities without having a base, so to speak?

Thanks very much in advance for any help :-)

Edit: I knew I would forget something!

With the wildlife explorers club, I see that children get free access to nature reserves, but what about the adults, do they have to pay? Or does the group leader get in free but any other adults have to pay?

Thanks again!

  • That was a quick response, thank you!

    That is very handy. I saw the link on the right of that page with a list of the activities to do and it looks like I will be ok not having a base.

    Thanks very much for that :-)

  • hello,

    DITTO as we have 'Greenlink' around my way getting kids involved in the Great Outdoors. This sounds a great idea too.

    Regards David

  • I haven't heard of Greenlink, I will look it up. Anything that involves getting outside with the kiddies is always good though.

    I have just written a message to the group I belong to, to see who is interested so I will let you know if it gets off the ground and how it goes.

    It does seem like a great thing to be involved with and I can't wait!

    Thanks :-)

  • Hi Bones

    And a big hello and welcome from the Irish fraternity in Co Cavan Ireland

    Hope you enjoy your time on here with the rest of us ,good idea to get the kid's out and about ,when you get them out there, tell them to leave the I pad's, I phones , and let them enjoy it!!    LOL

    Regards Mick

  • Hello and thank you!

    I ban all the technology equipment in this house all week and it only comes out for a while at weekends, unless it involves education!

    I am not very knowledgeable in the great outdoors but I know I like it and nothing beats a stroll around the woods any time of the year and where I go, the kids go!

    We visit a local nature reserve once a month to do various activities and it's my favourite outing of the month and I even learn a little something too!

    Hello again,

    I can't seem to find a way of replying except to edit my existing post!

    I just wanted to say thank you David for the link, it looks fantastic. Lots of activities to get involved with.

    And thank you Ian for all the info. That is much more information than I received when I emailed. That covers all of my questions and more. Thanks very much for taking the time to do that, I do very much appreciate it.

    There are lots of interested families in my home education group to start a few clubs up all around the county.

    Thanks to you all, Mandy.

  • hello Bones,

    Check this website out. Scroll down the link until you come to a set

    of photos, the photo on the left of the link screen

    I'm sure was taken from our area.

    www.greenlinkscotland.org

    Regards

    David

  • Hello, I raised your query with our staff involved with the Wildlife Action Awards and they provided the following reply! Hope this helps.

    Anyone, anywhere can do the Wildlife Action Awards.  You can do the actions on your own, as a family group, if you are home educated, belong to an after school or community club, or even use the scheme as a set of activities for the whole school to do.  Many of the activities in the scheme can be adapted to become more challenging for older participants – how far an individual takes an action is entirely up to them.  

    Yes you can do the activities without having a base.  Some actions can be used as “take home” activities, whilst others will need to be done as a group.  For example, a group might choose to create a wildlife garden at the venue they meet at, or a group might decide to go pond dipping as part of one of their meetings or trip out.  Collecting litter could be done as a group in an area of their choice, whilst green shopping and composting might be actions they do as a ‘take home’ activity.

    For each award level you need to complete one activity from each of the four sections plus two other activities of your choice and you cannot repeat an activity unless it is for new children.  This means you need to do 6 activities for a Bronze award, a further 6 for Silver, and a further 6 at Gold, making 18 different activities in total.  Every child that takes part will receive a personalised certificate and set of exclusive stickers, and the Group would also receive a certificate.

    Every time you get a new child you can start the awards again.  So a school, for example, could continually roll the scheme so that Year 1 always did Bronze, Year 2 did Silver and Year 3 did Gold.

    With regards to free access to reserves, one leader of the club would get free access but any other adults would be required to pay.