Wilder Woods

https://bookwhen.com/wilderwoods

2 year funding now secured! thanks to all who play the lottery- you’re enabling us to deliver our Wildlife and Wellbeing Project to benefit all ages and people from all backgrounds in our south Somerset community, for details of events and activities, check out our dedicated Facebook page ‘Drayton Wildlife and Wellbeing’ https://www.facebook.com/groups/1147537369670642

We are delighted to have received funding from the National Lottery Community Fund to run our Green Growth project of woodland wellbeing sessions and village wildlife activities, following on from the creation of a Drayton Wildlife Map in 2022. This funding has has enabled us to run successful programmes of Woods 4 Wellbeing, Wilderplay and Wildlife Awareness sessions through Autumn 2023 and continues in to 2024.

Participants have taken part in various woodland activities and celebrations of the seasons, including nettle awareness, bramble basketmaking, tree planting, tree care, rustic stool making, spoon making as well as mindfulness activities aimed at relieving anxiety, building confidence and a sense of community.

As we start our New Year Spring Season we have started sessions again although the ground is again very wet after a lot of rainfall in January. The Wellbeing group is running fortnightly and hedgerow basketmaking groups are very popular, as well as an indoor Mindfulness group ‘ Guidelines for Wellbeing’

Wilderplay (which is a family group for adults with pre-school age children) will start again after Easter, when hopefully the ground and the mud will have dried out somewhat.

We are aware of an increasing need for people to find a space to relax, play and find creativity around the campfire in the woodland environment. As well as feeling part of a group and being valued for just who you are, everyone is accepted and skills, ideas and smiles are shared.

Our wildlife activities continue to help people build a beneficial relationship with the natural environment, through building awareness, and knowledge of the local flora and fauna. Gaining an understanding of the complex web of our ecosystem is more important than ever as we see it being threatened more and more by human activity. We hope our activities engendered a desire care and preserve it. Wildlife events have included talks to local groups, a bat watch and a Wildlife Fair attended by over 80 people in our Drayton Village Hall.

Coming up in March, we are holding hold a Dawn chorus event on March 3rd to which all are welcome. We are lucky to have RSPB manager Damon Bridge help us listen and identify the bird song we hope to hear and this will be followed by a campfire breakfast & woodland management activities; Foraging sessions will also start in March, collecting & sharing recipes(nettles chickweed, cleavers !) with a local Langport group. We will also be continuing our Woods for Well being for adults programme. Wilderplay will start in April.

All these activities are made possible by the people who buy tickets to play the National Lottery fund! we would like to offer them our heartfelt thanks and also to the organisers who make these funds available to small grass roots charities like ours. We are able to reach, consult with and benefit a wide range of people in our community, all who have a shared interest in woodlands and wildlife.

during the Autumn of 2019 Participants on the Drayton Woods Art in Woodland programme worked with ACEarts artists Lucy Neeve and Angela Morely, exploring the creative possibilities of the woodland environment.

Using a variety of techniques and materials participants worked individually and collaboratively to produce imaginative and unique works. Expect to see creations in both 2- and 3-dimensions including leaf printing, stitching, charcoal drawings and wild weavings.

WilderWoods Wellbeing programme is funded by Somerset Skills and Learning and aims to build self-confidence, reduce stress and social isolation and help people find new directions.

We are thrilled that we have been successful in gaining Awards for All support for our new project, Woods for Well Being.

We will be offering sessions for those struggling with mental health issues, loneliness or otherwise in need of a ‘Green Prescription’ at Drayton and Hallr Woods in 2016. Some sessions will be offered through local schools and some through the community – through flyers in libraries and surgeries and hopefully by word of mouth!

We will be recruiting more volunteers to help us implement this exciting programme. Anyone who would like to know more can contact us through the usual contact details

Many thanks to the National Lottery for this much needed boost.

We are trying all sorts of different ways to be able to support groups in the woods.

Did you know that you can now help support Central Somerset Outdoor Learning Partnership for FREE just by shopping online.

You can shop via Give as you Live at over 4,000 top online retailers, and when you do Give as you Live will donate a percentage of every pound you spend to us!

Start shopping now: http://www.giveasyoulive.com/join/central-somerset-outdoor-learning-partnership/ec181350

————————————————–

Step 1
Sign up to Give as you Live on your desktop, tablet or mobile. It’s fast, simple and 100% secure.

Step 2
Shop for millions of products at over 4,000 top online retailers including Amazon, John Lewis, eBay and Expedia.

Step 3
When you shop, a percentage of the purchase value is donated to Central Somerset Outdoor Learning Partnership. The best thing is, it won’t cost you a penny extra!

————————————————–

How does Give as you Live work?

See how you can support us – just by shopping online

Play video: http://www.giveasyoulive.com/emails/181350/howitworks

————————————————–

© Everyclick Ltd and Central Somerset Outdoor Learning Partnership, 2015. All rights reserved.
Everyclick Ltd is a company registered in England & Wales (No. 5181419).
Registered address: Basepoint Business Centre, Crab Apple Way, Vale Business Park, Evesham, Worcestershire, WR11 1GP. Tel: +44 (0) 870 005 5050.

If you would like to unsubscribe, please reply to this email.

We have continued to post regular news from Hallr Wood and Drayton on our facebook pages. Both woods have run very well attended summer events thanks to Short Breaks, Aster Community and the Isle of Avalon Foundation.

Our regular work with schools continues and we are looking forward to welcoming children from Brookside School who will be coming to us at Hallr Wood for 10 week programes this year. They will also be sending some of their children with mobility issues to Drayton Woods. Drayton Woods is set up for wheelchair access to the woods.

We are delighted that Somerset Community Foundation have linked us with a supporter for our Community Volunteering days. We have long links with Somerset Community Foundation and are so pleased that they continue to support us as they do. Without the background work of maintenance and management at the woods, we would struggle to deliver our educational programmes and so this funding is really crucial.

We are looking forward to our Open Day at Hallr Wood on Saturday September 26th from 2:30- 6:00pm.

In addition to our regular groups of young people, we have had a busy term with various other events this autumn.

Open Day

(Sep 13^th) Thanks to Aster Communities for supporting this. We fired our kiln up again and enjoyed a lovely week end with quite a few people sleeping over to be there for the kiln opening too. We hired a minibus from Brookside School to enable those without transport to attend. As usual there were lots of activities, trails, music on stage and delicious teas in the café. We estimated 84 adults and 38 children attended.

Scouts

Barton Scouts came to us for support for their fire and shelters badges and gave us a donation of £20. (Sep 23^rd)

Volunteer Day

(Oct 5^th) Supported by Aster Communities. We planted bulbs, cleared some of the growing area, processed fire wood, built an arch into the orchard and moved timber.

Get Inventive with Nature’s Patterns: a workshop for forest school practitioners and school staff (Oct 6^th).  We had some great email feedback. ‘As always the Hallr Wood workshops are fabulously inspiring and full of achievable ideas. Thank you so much, it is wonderful to be able to access such high quality workshops so reasonably.’

Super Heroes Day for Charlton Mackrell Primary School: (Oct 16)

It was lovely to be able to work with our local Primary School as this doesn’t happen enough. 24 variously caped super heroes made dens and power sticks and emblems.

Playscheme for Brookside School (Oct 28^th) 24 children, 4 adults. Mixed activities, including den making, firelighting, crafts and Pizza making.

Inclusive Youth Volunteer Day (Oct 29^th) (9 young people) Short Breaks funded.

It was especially lovely to see three of our old participants return. Tom’s dad had taken the day off work unpaid to bring him.

Visit of mizer to plank timber (Nov 7^th) We had a very intense but rewarding day planking our timber. We worried there wouldn’t be enough for Rupert to do but he didn’t get through it all. This was funded through our Wood Fund. 

Wessex Water representatives came on November 11th to present us with a cheque for £160 towards our wildlife  pond. Many thanks to Wessex Water.

24 young people joined the Hawk & Owl Trust at Wilderwoods Drayton. We walked across the fields to the big wild wood and heard tawny owls , both male & female, as well sounding out the bats. The shrill cry from a vixen fox got everyone shivering…..