Who better to tell you a little about a Green Health outing run as part of a summer long programme of sessions in the Seaboard Communities? Maureen Ross is the backbone of much of the community goings-on in this area, having been involved with the Seaboard Centre for over 20 years.
The Green Health LEADER Project funding supported a series of trips by the pupils of P6/7 at Hilton of Cadboll Primary School, this is Maureen’s story …
“I’m just back in the office after a really fantastic morning with the kids and really want to share our experiences with you. We met at 9.30am, the children got issued with their kit bags, pens, pencils, note pads, packed lunches and copies of the Seaboard Folklore Story Book.
They took part in ironing on motifs on their notebook holders and they got into this in a big way – choosing their own particular motif.
Then it was over to the play park where we raised the Think Health Think Nature flag and we sat around the benches and the story of the Mermaid was told.
Then we walked to the Mermaid and while there the children were asked to find a flat stone on which they could draw anything to do with the nature on the stone, colour it in and then put their names on the back – some of the kids chose to leave their stone amongst others which visitors have been leaving in a pile near to the Mermaid – others wanted to keep their stone and take it home.
We had a wee snack and then headed down to the polytunnel where they saw how their Sunflowers were coming along and also the potatoes they planted in mid-June. They seemed really interested in the other vegetables which were growing in the Polytunnel.
On our way to the Polytunnel we met a local man who was barrowing seaweed from the beach to his garden – we asked him what he was doing and he explained that he put the seaweed on his garden to nourish the ground so that he got a better crop of tatties.
Then we met a young man coming off the harbour with 3 mackerel which he had just caught. As I knew him very well I asked him to show the kids the fish and I quizzed them as to whether they knew what kind of fish they were – some knew, some did not. It was pointed out to them that the mackerel were distinctive in their colouring and marking and I suggested that they take note of that for their notebooks and their write up of the day.
Then it was off to Shandwick Bay where they had occasion just to let off some steam and also draw ‘Think Health Think Nature in the sand and then finally finishing off with lunch.
We walked back to the Mermaid and had a final photograph taken with her and then we parted ways – I went to the Seaboard Centre and they went up the Quarry Brae to the School.”