The John Muir Award was launched in 1997 by the John Muir Trust. It was set up to:

• Promote educational, social and personal development through exploration of wild places and involvement in conservation
• Encourage an environmental agenda within youth organizations, including schools.
• Ensure that social circumstances don’t exclude people from opportunities to experience wild places

There are three Levels of the John Muir Award, encouraging a progressive involvement (Discovery Award, Explorer Award, and Conserver Award). All levels of the Award are based on meeting the same four challenges of: Discover, Explore, Conserve, Share.

Glaramara offers these challenges to both Adults and Children as part of its Outdoor Activities programmes. Its position in the Borrowdale Valley allows us to offer the award as an integral part of your visit to Glaramara. Taking part can be optional for individual participants, the decision is yours. Our programmes are already designed in such a way that groups can explore, discover and conserve their new surroundings, maintaining the main John Muir principles.

The John Muir Award

The Four main criteria of the John Muir Award:

• Discover: A sense of place.  Be aware of the surroundings and value them.
• Explore: What types of woodland are there, plants, animal life, geology etc.
• Conserve: This is perhaps the strongest element of the award, in the sense that the group are using their ‘discover’ and ‘explore’ elements in order to make a choice in what they want to do to help and value the environment they are in. To fulfil the conservation aspect of the award, it may be deemed suitable to enlist the assistance of bodies such as The National Trust, The Forestry Commission and Bassenthwaite Reflection. The group may decide that they want to take on further conservation projects, either at school or in their own time.
• Share: The group will review all aspects of the above three elements. They will talk about what they have learnt, what they can do in the future and how then how they might share this knowledge with others.

  Suggestions for this element are: writing about the task, taking photographs, writing poems, doing a presentation at school etc.

The Three Award Levels:

Discovery: This is the initial award which is very achievable as a result of one visit to Glaramara. It has to be completed over four days, three quarters of which must be outside.

Explorer: This award requires an additional eight days, again achievable through visits to Glaramara. Greater responsibility must be taken by the individuals on this course by suggesting activities and leading them (as much as is practical). They need to set and meet their own challenges.

Conserve: This is a twenty day course, completed over the duration of six months. This will, obviously, take place away from Glaramara (for example, as part of a school activity) although with potential use of Glaramara as part of the course. Students would have to have their projects overseen by a teacher and/or instructor, who would ensure that they were fulfilling their targets and meeting the criteria.

Ideas for group tasks and activities:

On a Canoe/Kayak session: the group could paddle to St Herberts Island and do a litter pick. They could then take a photo of the litter collected, as a way of getting a visual of the impact that they have had. This picture could be used on the notice board.

On Site: Groups could plant indigenous trees or maintain saplings on site at Glaramara

On Walks: Groups could draw pictures of various plants that they see. They could then use the internet (or maybe paper work that we prepare) to indentify the plants and trees that they discovered. They could then be asked to research these plants/trees to find out if they are indigenous, endangered, what habitat they favour etc. The pictures they draw could be put on their notice-board.

Groups could be taken to areas where the National Trust or Lake District National Park maintain footpaths. The group could discuss why this is done and what impact it has.

Rock Climbing and Abseiling: The group could talk about Lake District rock. They could discuss the impact that groups might have on the surrounding environment. They could discuss what groups might do in order to minimise any negative impact.

If you are interested in talking to us about the John Muir Award please contact us.