Wilder Woods

The website rebuild is now done!

About -> All about our group, what we do and why.
Activities -> All about the course we run for all ages.
Volunteering & Community -> All about how you can come and help out with our woods and the community.
Events -> See a calendar with dates and times for our events.
News -> All the latest news.
Gallery -> Photos from courses by the leaders and helpers.
Contact -> All our contact information.
Links  -> Links to other like minded groups and organisations.

Of course we will continue to add more information so keep checking our news section for updates.

We are always very grateful for grants which help us to achieve a huge amount through our group.
Recent successful applications include;
A partnership project between our local Forest Education Initiative group and CSOLP to deliver to teenagers. We combined a portion of our SCC youth grant for 2009-2010 with an FEI partnership fund and a Grass Roots grant organized by Heather to deliver a Woodland Toys project due to take place in Drayton, Swanmead School and King Alfred’s in Highbridge in March.
We are delighted to have been awarded a further year of funding for 2010-2011 from SCC towards our youth provision which will enable us to take youth groups for evening sessions this summer and to continue our youth volunteering.
We have been successful in obtaining Funding from SCC (Short Breaks) for working with Disabled children! The Application is to work with Fiveways School Support Staff to provide 5 Holiday Activity days from Easter to Autumn Half term 2010.
Thank you to all those who have supported us.

The website has now been mostly rebuilt but stay tuned for continuing updates to it.

Central Somerset Outdoor Learning Partnership is still thriving and actively working to increase access to forestry and conservation activities for all ages. However we have unfortunately encountered a problem with our web site and ask for patience until it is up and running. Our Picassa galleries are still in place and events will be posted on here.

SPRING TERM 2010

Sat 6th March Woodland Toys: Part 1 12yrs+ 10-4pm Drayton Woods £5
Sat 13th March Woodland Toys: Part 2 12yrs+ 10-4pm Drayton Woods £5
Fri 19th/Sat 20th March Overnight Bushcraft Camp 13yrs + 5pm- 12noon Drayton Woods £15/
£12 concs
VOLUNTEER DAYS

We hold regular volunteer days to help with woodland management tasks and welcome anyone who is interested. We especially encourage youth volunteers who can get credits towards Duke of Edinburgh or John Muir Award through us. Wear warm clothes, sensible footwear and bring a packed lunch. There is no membership fee or charge but we ask you to contact our volunteer co-ordinator ahead of the days so tasks can be planned.
Sunday Feb 14th Woodland Management Adults
13yrs+ 10.30-4pm Drayton Woods
Sunday March 7th Woodland Management Adults
13yrs+ 10.30-4pm Hallr Wood
Charlton Mackrell

Please ask for concessions if you qualify for free school lunches
Activities for Young People 12 years and over are subsidised by Somerset County Council Youth Fund

Booking Essential
Please ring/e-mail for Further Details and Booking Form
Hallr Wood (nr Somerton): Deb Millar 01458 223 444
deb@beccott.com
Drayton Wood (nr Langport): Hannah Aitken 01458 252 463
hannah@madasafish.com

Volunteer Co-ordinator: Jane Wilson: 01458 446799

Our annual review (2009) is ready. Unfortunately it is 8 pages long and we haven’t managed to upload it but electronic copies can be obtained by emailing forestschool@beccott.com

Thirteen teenagers from around Somerset enjoyed a night sleeping out in hammocks this last weekend, thanks to a grant from Somerset County Council. They did a night walk and learnt survival techniques from Duncan Macleod- Rhodes from Wild Connections. Look out for photos in the gallery and also some gripping accounts from the young people themselves.. (at least they promised they would write something!)

We are terribly saddened by the news of Midge Hopkinson’s death last Friday 25th September after a brave battle against cancer. Midge did a massive amount for the Girl Guides and was thrilled that we were doing forest school on her doorstep. She was also supportive of our group on a practical level; our kettle and many of our pots and pans have been re-cycled on through her from the guides. We were so pleased that she agreed to be on our committee. We hoped that she would re-gain enough strength to sit around our lower camp fire one day and this was another reason to soldier on with our improved access because this does make it a possible for people with limited mobility to visit the wood. On a personal level I will miss calling in on her and discussing camp fire recipes and how good it is for children to get out into the woods and be a bit wild.

Sessions for families with young children will soon resume in Charlton Mackrell and begin in Drayton with help from a Grass Roots Grant. We are very pleased as we have missed the lovely Wednesday afternoon sessions with mums, dads, grannies and young children.

Please look at the calendar for dates.

We will be able to repair our storm damaged craft shelter area and improve parking at Hallr Wood, thanks to another grant from SCC Aggregates Levy who have supported our summer playschemes for the last two years.