Glenveagh National Park hosts training for twenty teachers

Glenveagh National Park has hosted its annual accredited teacher training course again this year and have brought together twenty participants from a range of counties to learn together with our National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) education staff.

Titled Nature’s Classroom: Science and Art in the National Park, the course was once again heavily oversubscribed with dozens of teachers hoping to book from all over the country. The course aims to inspire and support teachers to raise awareness of, and connection to nature for their pupils. This year the course bought both the national school science and art curriculum together alongside outdoor education and wellbeing to create a week of field trips, art workshops and reflective practice sessions.

Killybegs Coast Guard members presented with coins to mark anniversary

Marking to the 200th anniversary of the Coast Guard 1822-2022 

The course covers a range of learning outcomes both personally and professionally for the teachers and has been written to link to the new primary curriculum framework and support the school self evaluation process. This year, the staff in Glenveagh have collaborated with colleagues in Wicklow Mountains National Park to bring together a wide range of knowledge and expertise in nature conservation education that has been shared with teachers.

Working together, the team highlighted the value in outdoor education and creativity as effective gateway to teaching about local nature conservation. Topics included an overview of NPWS and the role of protected areas then moved on to native woodlands, peatlands, Irish bird life and how to teach children about these important national subjects.

Met Éireann warns of local flooding and heavy showers

NPWS conservation rangers contributed to the event and explained the scientific and practical work underway to monitor, protect and restore nature in Donegal. A summer intern student from the MTU Nature Animation course also assisted throughout the week as part of their work experience.
Throughout the week nature journaling was used to record the teacher’s experiences and to demonstrate the use of creative learning techniques to support nature education back at school.
NPWS’s mission is to protect nature, and the activities during the week were based on the idea of a three-step process for public awareness.

The concept encourages people to notice nature first, through observation, enjoyment and close contact. Building on this, the next step is to help people connect with nature, through meaningful activities and experiences to grow knowledge and
understanding.

Ayla enjoys seeing service users blossom and achieve their dreams

‘It makes all of the challenges worthwhile when you see someone achieving something what is important to them’

This then lays the foundation for conscious and informed action and behaviour to protect nature. Reaching the next generation through teachers, schools and local communities can play a huge part in achieving national and international goals for biodiversity and underpins the thinking behind the course held in Glenveagh this week.

The National Parks and Nature Reserves offer world class learning environments for all ages and play a vital part in Ireland’s society as some of the best places to engage with and learn about nature. The course is accredited from the Department of Education for the next three years and has the potential to be replicated in other National Park Education Centres in time. The staff in Glenveagh hope to invite fellow colleagues from other parks along to help with the course in future years as
well, following the huge success of this year’s joint venture.
The week came to a close on World Nature Conservation Day, as well as the Love This Place Leave No Trace Campaign, which Glenveagh has supported under its role as an accredited Leave No Trace training site. The teachers had the chance to hear about this work and future opportunities to attend courses in Glenveagh later this summer.