The John Muir Award is still running strong at Spring Brook Upper School even through the winter months. This is due mainly to the fact that Gift Your Gear were so kind to us in donating a huge amount of outdoor clothing and boots for our pupils and staff to wear on our outdoor excursions. A massive thank you to them!
Each of our Key Stage 3 classes have been exploring different areas of the local countryside this half term depending on what the weather conditions have been….
Our Nurture Group tackled the rocky climbs, raging torrents and a trek through the ‘jungle’ to successfully find Middle Black Clough waterfall.
Of course, after all that adventuring to find it, who wouldn’t stand underneath it in the middle of January!!
Our Year 7 group had a ‘man made’ experience over at Knowl Hill near Rochdale as they hiked up steep hills past the reservoirs to the wind farm to really appreciate the power of the wind by standing underneath one of the wind turbines. Our pupils couldn’t believe how huge they are and the sound they make is amazing!!
Finally, our Year 8 group went out in the thick fog and followed the Roman Road past the Aiggin Stone (which has been there for over 600 years) up to the summit of Blackstone Edge. After exploring and completing the ‘floor is lava’ challenge to get to the summit, we found Robin Hood’s Bed which involves a pretty big jump to get to.
Our pupils are really engaging with our adventures in the outdoors and are building great relationships and trust with their teachers and TAs when completing challenges. Consequently in school I am constantly being asked as to “where are we going next?”
Well done everyone!
Mr Hopkins
You can read more about our John Muir adventures here