Orienteering in the Ashing Lane Nature Reserve July 2024 In July 2024 Nettleham Woodland Trust is delighted to have hosted its second schools orienteering activity in the penultimate week of the school year. As in 2023 the event was restricted to one week towards the end of the nesting season and all the routes were confined to paths. The weather was generally good, but torrential rain in the morning forced us to postpone the cubs’ evening session by a week. 70 pupils and about 13 adults attended.
In 2024 we welcomed back groups from Ellison Boulters Primary School and Lincoln Christ's Hospital School while Monks Abbey Primary School and the 25th Scothern Cubs were newcomers. The events would not have been possible without funding for the toilets from the Michael Cornish Charitable Trust and the top-quality provision by ML Plant & Toilet Hire Ltd who kindly kept their prices at last year's figures. As one teacher said, “What a wonderful set of toilets! And no-one had to queue!” |
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The Ashing Lane Nature Reserve again provided learning opportunities for children aged between 7 and 17, from young cubs learning how to look at a map to Y12 Sports Studies students doing timed assessments. There were also navigational issues for the Sixth Formers and some of the accompanying adults deprived of the electronic maps on their phones and satnavs! Several passers-by i.e. regular visitors and dog-walkers commented on how good it was to see the children enjoying woodland in an organised way.
The sessions typically included a briefing, a short introductory course, time at the picnic tables and, when time allowed, a 30 minute score event. 
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The youngsters were not short of things to say.
“Look there’s the flag”. “It is easy to see the fight areas because they are all green on the map”. “When you point the map towards the next control it seems to help”. “The punches are good, but you have to press really hard”. “Miss, could we do a map like this for school?” “This is harder than it looks” (Y12 on first using map) “I can do this” (Same Y12 an hour later) “My phone doesn’t help here, does it. I have to use the map” (Y12) |
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The official focus was orienteering, but to be honest being outdoors, the fresh air, exercise, an awareness of natural surroundings, having fun and a real adventure in an unknown location were the biggest takeaways for most participants as seen from some of the comments:
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“I really liked finding the willow tunnel”.
“Are those (12’) monsters (teasels) new this year?” (Cub) Y12 “How old are these trees? (20’+ alder and silver birch, and spreading oak) NWT “They were planted in 2009. You can work it out” Y12 “15. That’s younger than me!” “Slugs - I’ve seen 257 so far” (Cub early on a damp evening) “Is that a real frog?” “There can’t really be 350 species of moths just in THIS wood?” Q “Will we see the deer / foxes / snakes?” A “Not while you lot are here”. (Teacher) “This happened to be the first day in a British school for one Year 5 pupil with no knowledge of English. Watching the pupil coping with and then enjoying being with other children in a place none of them had been to before was the high point for me. Regardless of the language they pulled together as a team”. (NWT organiser) “We should try to bring more pupils next year if we can afford more transport”. (Teacher) |
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Four groups attended, but we could have managed several more. Two schools which had expressed interest couldn’t attend because of issues with transport from Lincoln and one was grounded because of the Risk Assessment concern of a class crossing the A46 on foot.
It is lovely to be able to invite pupils from local schools to visit this unique and new-ish woodland close to Lincoln, and for NWT to have the equipment and volunteers who can provide this orienteering opportunity. Without the grant from Michael Cornish Charitable Trust to fund the toilets, the primary children simply would not be allowed to participate. We are extremely grateful to three headteachers and an Akela for supporting the activity. We hope to see you again in July 2025 Chris Williams Chairman, Nettleham Woodland Trust |