Welcome to West Dunbartonshire OWL Group
We are a small team of volunteers who work within West Dunbartonshire and the surrounding areas, and we want to help connect everyone working to get groups outside locally to share ideas and experiences. We’re in the process of trying to relaunch the group as it only got going just before the pandemic and then fizzled out a little because everything was restricted and people’s circumstances changed.
As we try and get things going again please be patient with us.
For the time being we are keeping people up to date via our Facebook page and the occasional email to those that have completed the survey and confirmed we can keep their details on file (see more information below).
Membership to the group (free) is open to practitioners, teachers, early years practitioners and organisations who deliver Outdoor Learning in and around West Dunbartonshire. Becoming a member will give you access to courses, skill sharing events (to both learn from and share knowledge with others) and network events to improve you skills and confidence in working outside with your groups.
We are actively looking for more members as well as people to help on the committee. If you are interested in joining you can get in touch through out contact details below or join us on our Facebook page.
We also launched a survey earlier this year to confirm if there was still interest in having a group locally and to collect ideas for skill sessions – the survey is still live to register your interest and you can access it here: https://forms.office.com/r/gshqHDnFMR
Events
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Relaunch and Reconnect
August 29 @ 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm
Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Head Quarters
The Lost Words
In 2020 the group received funding to run sessions and create a shared resource based on The Lost Words book created in 2017. www.thelostwords.org
It is a ‘book of spells’ (poems) that seeks to conjure back the near-lost magic and strangeness of the nature that surrounds us.
It partly came about as nature related words were being taken out of children’s dictionaries and it’s hard to connect with something if you don’t have a name for it.
They are called ‘Spells’ rather than poems – designed to be spoken (or sung!) out loud in order to summon back these words and creatures into our hearts.
Due to a few different things this project hasn’t happened yet but we are looking to complete the project by March 2025. The funding will be used to do the following:
– Run 5x Skill share/CPD sessions of activities
– These sessions will mainly be based around creativity, expressive art and literacy
– Create a Community resource which can be borrowed by members.
The vision for the Community resource is that it will focus on 5 of the spells
Bramble
Dandelion
Fern
Ivy
Magpie
These have been chosen as they are the most likely to be seen by children around their homes and local areas.
Each resource box will focus on a spell and have 4 activities based on Literacy, Numeracy, STEM and an aspect of the Expressive Arts.
The plan is to have the project completed by March 2025 with the community resource being a legacy which will be available to group members to borrow long in to the future.
If you are interested in helping to create this resource, have any ideas or activities that you have used previously that would link in well with this please contact the group.
Acting Chair - Mary-Anne Collis (known as MAC)
wd_owl@hotmail.com
Gallery
Get involved with this group
Please visit the WD OWL Facebook page for now.