Brownsea Bound

The venue for the fifth session for our Level 1 Blue Skies students from Ferndown Middle School was Brownsea Island. Although skies were grey, that didn’t stop the group working hard in their teams to help clear a new campsite, pull up some pesky rhododendron shoots and collect wood for the biomass boiler that heats all the water for the Island. The hard work made everyone hungry! The afternoon saw the teams building dens for themselves. Gabby, the Outdoor Centre Assistant Manager said the dens were the best so far this year. Everyone really engaged with the tasks and enjoyed working together to produce such fine results.

13 year old Amie said “Today I managed to make sure I took part in a task, even when I was unsure about it when we were making the dens.”

Ian Vincent is our newest volunteer and this was his first day with us. He said:

“Thank you very much for allowing me to join you on your JET trip to Brownsea Island with Ferndown Middle School pupils today.

The day has been very well organised and all ran very smoothly. I spent the morning with the group doing conservation by removing rhododendrons from a woodland area and was very impressed at how well the five pupils in the group decided between them that some would pull plants and some would push the wheelbarrow. Even when the barrow was off being tipped, the others continued pulling and decided to make a pile for when the barrow returned. When some larger plants were found, the pupils gathered together and all pulled together as a team on a count of three and managed to get them out of the ground.

Some of the high points of the day were when the pupils were talking to each other and saying how much fun they were having and hearing them talk about what they were doing or had achieved.

As this was my first volunteering day with JET I was very impressed with how some of the pupils were confident to come to me and talk about their day and also how I feel I fitted into the JET team.

I have personally gained a confidence that I can make a difference and I am sure that I will notice a difference in the pupils as I intend to volunteer again very soon.”