Going Wild about Scotland through June 2017

20/07/2017 in RZSS

That’s us come to the end of the 2016/17 school year!

We started June by heading to the Isle of Skye, passing through the atmospheric Glen Coe on the way and visiting schools in Kyle of Lochalsh, Kyleakin, Portree and Broadford on the island. All the schools were fantastic and the children were engaged with the lessons. We also took the chance to explore the island and its unusual geological features including the famous Old man of Storr and Kilt Rock. Hoping to spot some wildlife we headed over to Raasay looking out for sea eagles, whales and dolphins- Rosie got a little too distracted though and nearly got left behind on the ferry! We did manage to spot some jellyfish and a soaring golden eagle which was exciting.

Our final two weeks of term were spent visiting schools in the central belt across Falkirk, Edinburgh, Glasgow and North Lanarkshire. We made the most of the sunny weather taking parts of our lessons outside and finding a huge diversity of invertebrates during our mini-beast sessions.

Pupils from over 450 schools across Scotland have now taken part in Wild about Scotland sessions. In total, we have engaged over 60,000 children and adults, which is a huge achievement for the programme over the past three years! This last school year has been a great one with many highlights.

This month we also celebrated our second annual Wild about Scotland Community Day at RZSS Edinburgh Zoo. We invited 400 special guests from five Scottish charities; Children 1st, Children in Scotland, Aberlour, Circle, and Spina Bifida Hydrocephalus Scotland to take part in special Wild about Scotland activities taking place around the Zoo. We had such a fantastic day meeting all the families, performing our Bonnie Beasts of Scotland show, making bird feeders and mini-beast homes in our Wild about Scotland Garden, and of course welcoming visitors onto the bus. It was very rewarding to be a part of a memorable day out for these families. A huge thank you to our wonderful volunteers, Frog Life, Marine Conservation Society for taking part in the day, and to Clydesdale Bank for making the day possible and such a success.

The bus was also open during the final Zoo nights at RZSS Edinburgh Zoo, we had a lovely evening with lots of visitors on the bus.

To celebrate finishing the school year and to say a massive thank you to our volunteers we decided to hold a beach clean with Marine Conservation Society at Musselburgh beach at the end of the month. It was a nice chance for our volunteers, new and old, to catch up and have a get-together before the start of the summer events. It was a great day enjoyed by all, and luckily the rain stayed away! We were amazed we managed to collect 18.5kg of rubbish in the 100m section of beach we were surveying and were shocked that the main culprit was wet wipes! It made us all a bit more aware of the huge issue we face with pollution in our oceans.

We’ve now got some time to reflect on the success of the past year, and to look forward to a busy summer at events all over Scotland. Keep an eye out for us at:

Date	Where?
Saturday 1st July	Jupiter Urban Wildlife Centre, Grangemouth,
Sunday 2nd July	Scone Game Fair, Scone, Perth
Saturday 15th July	Scottish Deer Centre, Cupar
Monday 17th July	Friends of the Calder, Blantyre
Friday 21st July	Perth Museum, Perth
Tuesday 25th– Thursday 27th July	Highland Wildlife Park, Kingussie
Friday 28th July	James Hutton Institute BioBlitz, Aberdeen
Monday 31st July -Wednesday 2nd August	Deep Sea World, North Queensferry
Thursday 3rd August	National Museum of Rural Life, East Kilbride
Friday 4th August	Whitmuir Organic Farm, Lamancha
Sunday 13th August	Big Picnic, Helix Park, Falkirk

 

We hope to see some of you there!

Kirsty & Rosie

Wild about Scotland Education Officers

 

 

 

 

Top Comments from Schools this month:

“Children were well engaged with activities, Good opportunity for teamwork and collaboration” Slamannan Primary, Falkirk

“It was great being on the bus, the children enjoyed this much better than being in the classroom” Swinton Primary, Glasgow

 

Top Tweets this month:

We just had to stop at Glen Coe on our way to Skye today to celebrate #worldenvironmentday pic.twitter.com/JhyiWqcErI

— Wild about Scotland (@WildaboutScot) June 5, 2017

 

Thank you so much to all the families who attended #WaSD2017, the charities who made it such a success and @clydesdalebank for their support pic.twitter.com/vJW31369ue

— Wild about Scotland (@WildaboutScot) June 18, 2017

 

When you visit a place called Kilt Rock and find a man wearing a kilt #onlyinScotland #pleats #pillars #geology #Trotternish #bagpipes pic.twitter.com/BW80yCwHYN

— Wild about Scotland (@WildaboutScot) June 7, 2017