Nominee Summary
Anna continuously goes above and beyond to mentor and support young people to develop rural skills and educational programs. She has developed, and leads, skills development programs in horticulture, forestry, Forest school and Land-based Engineering which involves students aged 14 restoring a vintage Massey Ferguson 35 tractor along with various vintage horticultural implements. Anna has a natural ability to identify young people’s needs and interests in rural skills and to implement a program which showcases those skills and secure a career pathway for the young person.
The preservation of skills
Anna has developed a range of education programs which are adapted for individual learning needs, these include Horticulture up to NPA level 5, Rural skills Forestry up to level 5 and Land-based Engineering level 4. Anna was concerned that vital rural skills were being lost and wanted to bring those skills into mainstream school education. Anna teaches Forest School to ensure basic bushcraft skills are learned and encourage young people to use the outdoors responsibly. All students at Selkirk High School experience outdoor learning with Anna and take part in Scottish Junior Forester Awards, Green Tree Awards, Forest School and grow their own fruit and vegetables within the school horticulture department. Anna shares her knowledge and resources with other schools across Scotland to encourage more schools to include rural education in the main stream curriculum. Her passion and drive for rural education has earned her the Lantra Mentor of the year award alongside many other awards for the rural and outdoor learning projects she leads, this includes the Scotlands Finest Woods award for Climate Change Champion.
Increasing awareness
Anna uses the schools social media to promote the outdoor learning and rural skills educational programs on offer to students. She has also featured several times in the mainstream media, appearing in an episode of BBC Landward promoting the tractor restoration project and in both BBC news and ITV news promoting horticulture skills and the newly developed Climate Change and Sustainability program, where students in S2 learn about effects of climate change in their local area and take positive action including tree planting and biodiversity projects. This has led to almost 4000 native trees and hedgerows to be planted within the Selkirk area. Anna has supported many other schools across the Scottish Borders and is now supporting schools across Scotland to promote and develop rural skills educational programs. Anna gives up her own time to run plant sales to the general public selling bedding plants grown by students in the schools Horticulture department. Fruit and vegetables grown throughout the year are sold to the community for a pay what you can donation in an attempt to reduce food poverty and encourage more locally grown produce.
Ethical/environmental standards
Anna has developed close working partnerships with a high number of local trades and community groups. The tractor restoration project relies completely on local community support through donations, local trades have donated parts and sponsored fundraising events and a local charity provides a donation of PPE for all students. Various people have volunteered their time to assist in the various projects creating a multi generational learning experience. These include an agriculture engineer who volunteers weekly to support the practical side of the tractor restoration. Game and Country donate chicken feed and beekeeping equipment as the school keep our own chickens and bees, producing free range eggs and honey, which the students extract and decant. Anna is passionate about organic gardening and the school is now a chemical free zone, utilising natural fragrances, oils and companion planting to control pests and disease. Bio corridors have been created within the school grounds, along with a student led project to create a wildlife nurture garden to promote biodiversity and encourage pollinators. There is a strong community link with various open days and access to the community through plant and produce sales and several community orchards have been planted.
Noteworthy improvements
The support from local trades, charities and the local community have provided a vast amount of opportunities for Anna to promote rural skills and to encourage young people to. Be more active within their community through outdoor projects. Students were approached by the local tennis club to help maintain flower beds and make the area more attractive for visitors. The Royal British Legion asked for students to design a memorial garden for Selkirk War Memorial, and the horticulture students grew the required plants for the design. The tractor project relies heavily on the support of the local community and trades and the working partnerships have solidified a link between the school and the working environment, offering work placements to students when leaving school.
Overcoming Challenges
When Anna first started working at the school she was an additional needs assistant and used the horticulture department as a way to support students who struggled in traditional classroom learning. The success of the projects Anna developed became obvious very quickly and with the COVID pandemic, the need for outdoor Learning became more important and accepted within school settings. A Chemistry teacher, Maddy Pope, was timetabled with Anna to begin official classes teaching rural skills but this involved a limited time per week. Anna fought for the educational programs to be full time permanent fixtures however this wasn’t possible with Anna’s role as an additional needs assistant. To overcome this a new role was created and Anna took on the role of Outdoor Learning Youth Worker which has a full time program of teaching students various rural skills based on the learners needs and interests. Anna visited various companies, organisations and community groups to promote her vision of mainstream rural education and built up a large contact list of willing supporters. It has been said that if Anna calls, you know you’re going to agree to something, you just don’t know what that is yet. Everything Anna does is to support young people to learn vital rural skills, stop those skills being lost and encourage a love for the outdoors.
