Guest Blogger: Elana Bader, Education Officer, Scotland Headquarters
RSPB Abernethy & Insh Marshes’ field teaching programme has achieved its Quality Badge assessment from the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom. Abernethy & Insh Marshes’ programme was rated as ‘Good’ or ‘Very Good’ in all aspects, in particular the quality of active learning delivered. This Living Classroom is a fantastic resource providing plenty of opportunities for various activities, including the largest remaining remnant of ancient Caledonian Forest and the famous Loch Garten Osprey Centre. In the last school year alone, the site engaged with with hundreds of children from the surrounding area.
All seven RSPB Living Classrooms sites in Scotland now have the LotC Quality Badge:
RSPB Abernethy & Insh Marshes
RSPB at Loch Leven (previously Vane Farm)
RSPB Lochwinnoch
RSPB Loch of Strathbeg
RSPB Mersehead
RSPB Orkney
RSPB at Kelvingrove
For more information, please email educationscotland@rspb.org.uk or visit http://www.rspb.org.uk/livingclassrooms/abernethy.aspx.
About RSPB Abernethy & Insh Marshes:
Abernethy National Nature Reserve includes the largest remnant of native Caledonian Pine Forest in Scotland, as well as moorland, loch, bog and montane habitats, and is home to nationally scarce species of birds such as capercaillie, crossbill and crested tit, as well as red squirrels and pine marten. In the last survey of the reserve, it was found to be home to over 4,200 species of plants and animals.
Insh Marshes is a unique habitat, forming an integral part of the flood plain of the River Spey and it is one of the most important wetlands in Europe. During the winter months, most of the reserve is underwater, and plays host to flocks of whooper swans and greylag geese. In contrast, when the water recedes in the summer, there are nesting lapwings, redshanks and curlews. The beautiful and colourful backdrop of aspen and birch, wildflowers, and grassland provide homes for many other species as well, including foxes and roe deer.
Loch Garten Osprey Centre is world famous for its ospreys and as the site where ospreys first returned to Scotland in the 1950s after their extirpation in the early twentieth century. It was the first Osprey Centre opened to the public and one of only a handful of public osprey watching sites in the UK. The ecologically designed centre looks out to the osprey nest visible with the naked eye and is equiped with binoculars and telescopes and dispays. CCTV cameras on the nest and surrounding area relay video to the centre and also to the webcam on the RSPB website so that people from around the world follow the annual fortunes of the Loch Garten osprey pair and their chicks.
About the Quality Badge Scheme:
The Quality Badge scheme is a Government programme designed to indicate to schools the quality and safety of out-of-classroom learning that educators provide. The RSPB have adopted the scheme as an objective assessment of our national field teaching programme at our “Living Classrooms”.