Going Wild about Scotland through May 2017

21/06/2017 in RZSS

May has been an incredible month for the Wild About Scotland team. The month started with a week in the central belt, followed by two weeks away in the very north of Scotland along the north coast and then onto Orkney. The week after was spent in Glasgow and the last few days of the month were in Oban.

The first few days were spent delivering some really good sessions at Sciennes Primary School in Edinburgh. We delivered Wildcat sessions and the children were very engaged and enjoyed the activities. Sunnyside Primary also received a visit during the first week of May. 

We then prepared for two weeks away heading to the most northerly point on the mainland. We spent the week travelling the north coast, part of the Route 500, enjoying the amazing landscapes as we went. We did have a major oops moment at one of the schools when we accidently left the car keys in the bus and didn’t realise until Dave had driven off. This was not a good situation to be in when we had limited phone signal so it resulted in us running after the bus down the road! What made it worse was the school bus drivers had seen the whole thing and just sat laughing at us! After our embarrassment, we set off and went exploring and did some sightseeing at John O’Groats and Dunnethead (the most northerly point on mainland).

The end of the week saw us head to Orkney which gave us a weekend to explore. We managed to get around the whole island seeing all the incredible wildlife as well as the historical sites. Rosie was in search of puffins and we were told we would have more chance of seeing them on one of the smaller islands but unfortunately we didn’t have time to go there. Luckily for us our perseverance paid off and we saw some while sat on a cliff on the mainland! Yeahh!! We also enjoyed being part of the RSPB’s Orkney Nature Festival on the Thursday afternoon of our week on Orkney. We parked the bus in the centre of Kirkwall and over 60 members of the public hopped on board the bus to find out about Scottish wildlife.

After driving from Thurso to Cupar we parked the bus ready for a fun day at the Fife Show. It rained for most of the day but that didn’t put off 901 visitors to the Wild about Scotland bus!

Glasgow Science Centre was the stop for the following week as we joined them for their Bug Count Week. This allowed younger primary schoool pupils to come on the bus and learn all about the lifecycle of a butterfly through a puppet show, then do practical activities to help minibeasts in their own garden or school grounds. We had a lot of fun and duirng the last day we offered a public drop in session as the Glasgow schools had a day off so people could just come on as they pleased.

During the last few days of the month we drove to Oban to visit schools in that area. Luckily the weather stayed dry for us and we got to enjoy the sights of Oban after teaching including a trip to Easdale, the island that holds the World Stone Skimming Championships, and has a bridge over the Atlantic Ocean!

Looking ahead, June is still full steam ahead with more school visits in Oban, Skye and then the Central Belt as we come to the end of the school year.

See you next month,

Kirsty and Rosie

Wild about Scotland Education Officers

 

Top comments from schools this month…

“Fantastic active and engaging session. The children all looking forward to this after we looked at your website.” St Andrews PS, Orkney

“Thank you for an enjoyable session - very informative.” Firth PS, Orkney

 

Top tweets from this month:

 

Stunning colours in the landscape along the north coast of #Scotland pic.twitter.com/T99zxVYCQc

— Wild about Scotland (@WildaboutScot) May 9, 2017

 

Lovely #sunset in #Orkney. Bus and car ready for the week ahead :) Keep an eye out for the bus around mainland Orkney #lovely #sky pic.twitter.com/fKaGWnoJdX

— Wild about Scotland (@WildaboutScot) May 15, 2017

 

The bus is all set up at the @gsc1 for the day. Come along and visit if you are out and about in #Glasgow today pic.twitter.com/EJLr5FmnJZ

— Wild about Scotland (@WildaboutScot) May 26, 2017