Nominee Summary
The Old Melrose Woodland Classroom was established in 2022 in partnership with Tweed Forum and with financial support from South of Scotland Enterprise. It occupies a woodland area on the Old Melrose Estate and provides a safe outdoor space where school children, adults, local community groups and others can learn whilst being in an outdoor environment surrounded by nature. Alongside the Woodland Classroom is a one mile circular woodland and riverside walk with its own sensory trail, interpretation panels and list of nature based activities and challenges transforming a walk on the Estate into a nature immersive learning experience.
The preservation of skills
With 70% of the population now living in an urban environment there is a real risk of our connection with nature being broken. The Old Melrose Estate aims to ensure that everyone who visits goes away having learned something new about nature whilst also having experienced the associated well-being benefits of spending time in nature. Whilst learning about nature, visitors appreciate the importance of looking after nature and the rural skills and jobs needed to do this. The Estate recognises that there is a strong need to educate the younger generation which includes the land managers of tomorrow about where food comes from, the pressures on our environment through habitat/biodiversity loss, climate change and urban development and the need to manage our natural assets in a more sustainable way. Visitors to the Woodland Classroom are able to roam the wider Estate and experience different habitats and aspects of nature and food production including the River Tweed, woodlands, crops and livestock, conservation projects, the nature pond and the Estate’s vegetable garden. In 2023, Old Melrose Estate and Tweed Forum through the Tweed Watch project started a programme with St Boswells Primary School that enables each year group to visit the classroom six times a year for nature based and curriculum-based learning. This programme will be rolled out to a second local primary school this Autumn. To deliver the programme, the Estate has partnered with Tweed Forum’s Education Officer, Jenny Holmes, who has recently been joined by a second volunteer Educational Officer.
Increasing awareness
Users of the Woodland Classroom include, local schools (primary and secondary), community groups and local Scout Groups. Some school groups access the classroom on a self-led basis and others are provided, through the partnership with Tweed Forum, with an outdoor Education Officer to lead the session. The Woodland Classroom is also available to be used by other local community groups including those working with adults and children with learning difficulties and disabilities and others who may find it difficult to access outdoor spaces. The Woodland Classroom is home to the Melrose Scout Group with over 80 children aged between 6 and 14 having bushcraft sessions there each week. The programme with St Boswells Primary School and Newtown St Boswells Primary School means a further 1,200 visits per year from over 200 pupils. The Estate also has a camping spot that it used by the Melrose Scout Group and Earlston High School for their Duke of Edinburgh camping expeditions and this further helps give local school children access to the countryside. Members of the public can access the Estate Tearooms and explore the Monk’s Trail, a circular one-mile educational walk that includes a sensory trail, interpretation panels and a free leaflet containing nature-based activities and challenges. Over 3,000 people visit the Estate tearooms and educational walks each year. When you add in all the other schools and groups who visit the Estate and Woodland Classroom there are over 5,000 visits per year.
Ethical/environmental standards
The Estate and Woodland Classroom are both focused on the highest ethical and environmental standards. Over the last twenty years the Estate has developed its own set of stewardship responsibilities which are: 1 A need to interpret, promote and preserve our heritage 2 A need to support our local Community 3 A need to minimise the environmental impact of our activities 4 A need to protect and enhance our wildlife and natural landscape These responsibilities ensure Environmental sustainability is at the heart of everything that is done on the Estate including the Woodland Classroom. The Estate aims to ensure that all activities have a positive impact on the environment and is committed to working with nature to build a more sustainable future as well as improving its biodiversity and giving the best possible support to its wildlife, trees and plants through habitat conservation projects. All of this ensures that visitors to the Woodland Classroom are able to experience conservation at work. The Estate aims to ensure that all its operations are sustainable and is focused on minimising its carbon footprint and where possible ensuring that its activities are carbon neutral. A recent Carbon Audit shows that the Estate and Woodland Classroom are carbon neutral and sequestering more carbon than they produce. The Estate is proud to have partnered with Tweed Forum who are a leader in promoting integrated and sustainable land and water management in partnership those that own and manage the land.
Noteworthy improvements
Over the last few years there has been a steady rise in the number of children and adults suffering from mental health issues. There has also been an increase in the number of children struggling with conventional classroom based learning. It has been proved that outdoor learning and spending time in nature can be hugely significantly in helping. There is a strong demand from schools for access to outdoor learning opportunities. The wonderful natural capital of the Scottish Borders and in particular Old Melrose Estate makes it a perfect location for adults and children to immerse themselves in Nature and both learn about it and experience its restorative qualities. The long term benefits to mental well-being of having access to nature are well documented. More recently, Old Melrose Estate in partnership with Tweed Forum and RHET has hosted Advanced Higher Biology and Geography students from High Schools across the Scottish Borders at the Woodland Classroom. Secondary schools struggle to find opportunities for students to gain experience in practical field work skills, a vital component of their respective courses. At Old Melrose, students can practice environmental surveying techniques in a range of habitats including freshwater, woodland, grassland, and arable fields. The partnership is currently in the process of setting up a conservation and environmental programme to enable students at the local High School to immerse themselves in the conservation and environmental issues that face their generation. The aim is for the programme to link in with the John Muir Trust Award.
Overcoming Challenges
The main challenge that schools face when visiting the Woodland Classroom is the cost of transport as they have minimal budget for school outings. The Old Melrose Estate covers the costs of transport with the help of funding from Tweed Forum and the Fallago Environment Fund to ensure that the classroom is accessible to all schools. Whilst many teachers are knowledgeable about the countryside it became apparent early on in the project that there was still a need to have trained education officers to deliver the learning side of the project. The Old Melrose Woodland Classroom is indebted to Tweed Forum for providing the use of Jenny Holmes, their Education Officer who works alondside a second volunteer Education Officer. It is not always easy to find people to volunteer to teach school children but the rewards of watching children connect with nature are immense. The Woodland Classroom is also only able to operate with the support of other conservation based organisations such as South of Scotland Enterprise, Fallago Environment Fund and Tweed Forum and the TweedWatch project. Without the help of these organisations the Old Melrose Woodland Classroom would not be a sustainable operation. Feedback from the St Boswells Primary School after two years has been exceptional. We believe that no other primary school in the South of Scotland is currently offering this level of outdoor learning to its pupils.
