Kindling skills with CWA Bushcraft!

Chiltern Way Academy – Wendover

Kindling skills with CWA Bushcraft!

The students at CWA have worked hard this year during Bushcraft lessons. The subject embodies Forest School principals and develops hugely important life and employment skills. The students have been busy building and maintaining an outdoor classroom that has become a huge part of their self-guided work.

This time of year, a typical day starts out with a fire. Students use the fire for warmth, cooking, and several traditional crafts. We then get to work with whatever we need to do which might be fixing a roof, sorting out drainage or looking for a plant species for a specific purpose. Skills that we need are learned along the way, sometimes through teacher direction or sometimes by student led discovery.

Sometimes the students just enjoy being outside, we learn to appreciate the seasons and learn about our immediate environment. We are looking forward to more signs of spring and some dry weather so we can get some different projects up and running.

Older students use the skills from Bushcraft and apply them to their Duke of Edinburgh award. This year our sixth formers will be attempting the gold award. Duke of Edinburgh organisers have told us we are the first special school in the country to ever enter students for this top-level award, so we are hoping to break the mould for the special school’s sector. Qualifications that will be with them forest of their lives!

Paul Coffey

Head of Wendover Campus, CWA