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While clearing the willow herb today Murray, Callum, Aedan and Jamie spotted a frog. Ranger Greig was with us and she caught it for us to get a closer look. She told us that frogs are cold blooded and that if she held it too long it's skin would get burned. She also told us that frogs lay about 2000 eggs but that only 2 survive to adulthood. Lucy got a quick chance to hold it until it pooed on her hand! How lovely!

18.05.18 Today we started clearing the rosebay willow herb. We picked a huge pile and cleared a good sized area which we will plant with wild flowers. We tried to pick it as low down to the ground as we could to get the root out. Holly pulled out a big long root system from the ground which was over a metre long. This showed us what the roots of the willow herb are like. Their roots are very successful and really help the willow herb take over an area. We're proud of the start we made.

Today we spent all afternoon exploring our wild area. Some of us found a rope in a tree and with our teacher we set up a hoist over a big branch of the largest tree. We talked lots about friction and weight and leverage and we needed good team work and strength. Some of us have been working on a den everytime we have free time in our wild area and we continued work on that. It's made from anything and everything we could find. Some more of us spent time sitting high up in trees, observing the world around us and chatting to our fellow climbers. Some of us even started the battle against rosebay willow herb. As you can see from the photo some has already grown quite a bit but mostly it's just tiny shoots among the dead growth from last year. Quote of the day: "Best outdoor learning ever"!

When we first went up in September half our wild area was covered in a tall purple flower. Arran, who knows lots about nature, told us that it's an invasive species called Rosebay Willow Herb and that it will take over the whole area and stop other plants growing. Throughout the year we've watched the flowers turn to seeds and scatter everywhere. In winter the stalks turned woody and we pretended to be forestry workers cutting it down by whacking it. We then used the stalks to build the best shelters ever! In spring we started to see it grow again and decided we needed to do something about it. Arran learned all about it from his Mum Ranger Greig and today he shared pictures and information about it and we decided to declare war on willow herb to help the biodiversity of our area!

We've been learning about types of angles and measuring angles in class so we took our learning outdoors to test our skills and knowledge. Each group were given different angles they had to create using natural materials and a protractor. We all used twigs and sticks. Once we created our angle we had to label it to say how many degrees it had and what kind of an angle it was. The trickiest part was the wind blowing our paper away. The best part was when we had all successfully completed the task we still had time left over to play and explore in our wild area. Some of us climbed trees, some built dens and some of us played hide and seek.

We gathered all the den building materials we could find in the school and carried them up to our wild area. We worked in groups to build a den we could all fit in. There was a lot of problem solving to be done and we used as many of the natural resources we could find to supplement our building materials. One group built their den between two bushes, which gave them great shelter and the basis for their structure. A few groups build a teepee style den. It was great fun.

During the induction week, the group of 8 trainees had the opportunity to discover and explore many new places in the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park. A highlight of the first week was climbing Ben Lomond with NTS estate ranger, Alistair. Ben Lomond, at 974m high, is Scotland’s most southerly Munro, situated on the east shore of Loch Lomond. For our group of trainees, spirits were high as we approached the summit, as this was the first Munro many of them had climbed. Views from the top looking south over the expanse of Loch Lomond were spectacular and looking north, the beauty of the west highlands stretched as far as we could see. It was a great day for spotting wildlife, the sky was busy with migratory birds arriving from the Southern Hemisphere. On this April day, we were treated to the first Swallows arriving from South Africa, having flown up to 200 miles a day, crossing the Sahara Desert, the Mediterranean Sea and the Pyrenees mountains, finally arriving in Scotland where these birds will nest over the summer months. A wonder to see them darting above us, with their distinctive fast swooping flight. The skylarks were also making preparations for the nesting season, and they offered up the soundtrack for our day! The male birds flew high above our heads, and while tricky to spot, their spectacular song-flight was unmistakable. Follow the RSPB link to have a listen... https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/skylark/ Seeing and hearing this bird was really special, as Alistair explained they are now Red UK conservation status.

Huge thanks to the amazing Ranger Fraser at NTS Ben Lomond who passed on all his knowledge of the invasive species Rhododendron and encouraged everyone to make a difference to this native woodland by hand pulling small saplings - we ended up with a huge pile after just an hour! Great work everyone