SUMMER CAMP: ECO SCHOOL:A new eco summer school failed to live up to expectations, confined as it was to a school yard with a lack of wildlife activities, writes SYLVIA THOMPSON
HAVING ACCESS to primary schools for summer camps is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, they are child-friendly spaces that are free all summer. On the other, they carry the mood of busy classroom activities into what should be carefree, relaxed time off from school routines.
These thoughts went through my mind as I turned up to Archbishop McQuaid National School in Ballybrack to meet the children and camp leaders of Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown County Council’s first eco summer school.
Like many camp operators this year, the eco summer school didn’t get the numbers they’d hoped for. So rather than an anticipated 100 five- to 12-year-olds, there were some 30 participants – 10 of whom received free places due to a grant from the Department of Environment Notice Nature campaign. The other participants paid €60 for a five-day camp, from 10am to 2pm each day.
So what do you do at an eco summer camp?
“In school children learn about protecting the environment, they know what to recycle and they know all about turning out the lights. Our aim is to give them hands-on experience of the environment in the outdoors,” explained Dean Eaton, assistant environmental awareness officer with Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown County Council.
Activities at the camp ranged from planting sunflowers in pots the children painted themselves to making bird boxes and building dens in the outdoors.
Australian nature workshop presenter Dale Treadwell was with a group of nine- to 12-year-olds when we visited. By means of introduction, he showed them clips of his appearances on RTÉ’s children’s programme, Kazoo. He held up a tattered illustration of a food web (who eats who in the food chain) before handing out bug viewers so the children could get a close-up look at crickets, earwigs and woodlice. Only when he brought the children outside to catch a few of these insects, did he really engage their attention.
Meanwhile, a group of four- to eight-year-olds were making robin finger puppets and listening to different sounds that resembled birdsong. Once outside, they played a game in which they were either birds or the cats chasing them. There was some confusion about who was which but, never mind, they got to run around in the grass.
When asked were they enjoying themselves, most of the children nodded and smiled but didn’t have much to say. “I liked making the bird houses and planting the sunflower,” volunteered David (12). “I liked the bat and moth game,” added Katie (11). She’s referring to another chasing game in which one blindfolded child – the bat – has to catch the others – the moths.
On the day before we visited, Andy Fleming from Outdoor Wildlife, Learning and Survival Club (Owls) taught the children some outdoor “survival” skills. This involved building dens and making bows and arrows – the kind of thing many of us adults remember from our own childhood. “It’s about making them comfortable about being outdoors,” said Fleming. “Many children are losing that sense of natural play.”
And while I agree that many children have lost interest in messing around in ponds and rivers, something tells me that this eco camp won’t quite revive that interest. It’s partly because the school grounds are just too tame a place for a wildlife camp.
Mary Toomey, biodiversity officer with Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown County Council admited that they had hoped to run the camp in a park but that didn’t work out for this year.
“Next year, I think we’ll try to run it in two different venues at the beginning and at the end of the summer. And, we’ll promote it better too,” she said.
“It’s been a learning experience,” added Eaton. “Next year, I think we’d get more volunteers to work on the camp too.”
For details of next year’s Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown County Council Eco Summer School, contact Dean Eaton on 01-2047900
