Pathways to Nature, Wildlife and the Outdoors by Chase Aqua Rural Enterprise

Course Aims, Outcomes and Contacts

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Please read through our course aims and outcomes. We will cover all of these by the end of the course and will help you to identify and achieve your own personal goals too. Please leave us a comment if you have any queries below. Thank you.

Your new 2023-4 Learner Handbook

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https://sway.office.com/mUvK8ci0imFGtMxr?ref=email

This handbook contains lots of really helpful information and advice, in particular support with safeguarding and contacts that you may need. Our CARE designated safeguarding lead is Carol Parkes, and our deputy designated safeguarding lead is Brad Parkes. You can contact us on info@chaseaquaruralenterprise.com or Tel: 07772 273033

Enrolling for your course

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Here is the link to enrol for this course. Please use the following information:

Course Code: CFPCARE04

Course Name: Pathways to Nature, Wildlife and the Outdoors

Provider: Chase Aqua Rural Enterprise CIC

Dates: 11th May - 1st June 2024

Welcome to your course

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Thank you for enrolling on your course, I really hope that you enjoy learning some new wellbeing, wildlife gardening skills. We hope that you will continue to develop and enjoy your new skills with your family once the course finishes.

Introduction to your course and your learning Padlet/Facebook group

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RHS online advice

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The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has a wealth of knowledge available via this link. You should also find help on what jobs need to be done in the garden to help you get ready for spring.

Session 1 - How to choose, and clean a pot for growing your herb or flower seeds

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Please watch this video. It will guide you on the best pots to use in the garden, how to clean them and the importance of cleaning them.

Forraging can be great fun, providing hours of great adventure. Take time to record your journey so that you can enjoy it again, and again!

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We hope you enjoy personalising your own linen forraging bag, and making a start in your very own journal where you can capture your thoughts and ideas throughout the course. Great to look back on afterwards too! Why try some art journalling or story telling to help you on your way.

WELCOME TO YOUR COURSE

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Please take a look at the tutorials and links provided each week - they will help support your activities that you will be doing at home and remind you of everything that we have covered in our session too.

Recycled resources: Please can everyone keep a look out for any recycled resources they can use as part of this course - in particular garden containers and pots.
Foraging: Please can you collect some interesting items from your garden, local park, when you are on a walk, things you find that interest you so that we can use these to decorate your pots and your gardening journal.
Gardening Journal: These are in the post to you - when then arrive you may like to spend some time decorating the front cover ready for next week.
Photographs: Please share how you get on each week - post your photographs to the Your Space - work in progress pics, and photographs of your finished projects are all great.

Thank you and looking forward to seeing you each week.

On-line learning at home - Staying Safe, Tips and Guidance for Safety in the Home

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more online safety

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More online safety including advice for parents

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online safety

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https://www.getsafeonline.org/

Safeguarding information for learners from Staffordshire Community Learning / county council

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Scams and Staying Safe On-line

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Useful Learner Information - British Values, Protect yourself, Feeling and Staying Safe:

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https://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/Education/Community-learning-service/ProviderInfo/Safeguarding-and-Prevent-duty-overview.aspx

Using the internet safely and protectiing personal information:
https://www.deliveringforscotland.gov.uk/at-home/internet-safety/

Learning Group Agreement

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Please take a look at our group agreement, we want everyone to feel safe, supported and included. We want everyone to achieve as much as possible by taking part.

To approve and to leave any suggestions please use the space below. It is important that all course members submit their approval of the Group Agreement

WEMWBS Wellbeing Survey

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Positive wellbeing will influence many aspects of our lives, as well as being an important employability characteristic. Please complete and return the wellbeing survey form below. We can repeat this again later to see the impact taking part in this course has had on your well-being. Thank you.

Your journey starts here:

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Please can I ask you to follow the link and complete the Google form - its a great opportunity to remind yourself and us why you are choosing to take part in the course, and what you would like to achieve from it.

We are all so very different and as tutors it helps to inform us so that we can build all learner needs and aspirations in as we progress through the course. If we can support you with any specific needs whilst you are on the couse please let us know too. Best wishes. Carol

Links to English, Maths and IT support here

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Numeracy and Digital Skills - The government have launched The Skills Toolkit, a collection of free online courses for adults to access whilst at home, to help you build new skills and boost growth and productivity.

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Support with your English for speakers of other languages

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Mental Wellbeing - Little Things can Make a Difference

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A really useful link especially during the busy spring months

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What's on this month at Cannock Chase

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Art therapy explained

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Gardening - Health and Wellbeing

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This article explains how gardening can help with health and wellbeing. It also has some real life stories how it has changed peoples lives.

Session 1 - How to sow herb and flower seeds

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This week you will be sowing herb seeds into your cleaned containers at home. Please watch the video tutorial and contact me with any questions. Please take photos of your own project and share with us on Padlet in the Your Space Session 1 column.

Encouraging wildlife into your garden

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The RHS gives us lots of tips and advice of how to encourage wildlife into our gardens/outdoor space.

Reflect on your wellbeing too

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The Five Ways to Wellbeing has been a very important corner stone for this course and you may remember we started by taking a look at where you felt you were on the WEMWBS scale. It would be really good if you could pause again now and complete WEMWBS again to see what impact taking part in the course has had on your wellbeing. If there is anything that we can help to support you with on-going as a result please let me know. Link to the form is here:

Manage your own mental wellbeing with new wellbeing hub

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Wellbeing Link

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A great series following Robson Green around the countryside, might inspire you to get outside and explore a few places :-)

Wellbeing Walk in Cannock Chase

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Wellbeing walks in the forest

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This website is from Forestry England, and is linked to the walk that we will be doing this week. Take a look.

More community Learning?

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Now that you have successfully completed your course why not take another step and try one of the other learning courses available with Staffordshire Community Learning. Please follow the link for details.

Adult Community Learning Feedback 23-24

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Hi everyone, please find the link to submit some feedback on the course attached to this post. The course code you may need is CFPCARE04 Any questions please get in touch, many thanks

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Beat the cold - some links you may find useful

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Beat the Cold provides energy advice and guidance to address fuel poverty (https://www.beatcold.org.uk/).

Support with Cost of Living Resources: https://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/Community/Cost-of-living-support/Here-to-help.aspx

Hypothermia Advice: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/hypothermia/

Cost of Living Advice

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Volunteering can help improve your self-esteem and emotional health

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Careers Advice and Information

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Please see the link for information about current local vacancies that might be of interest to you.

National Careers Service West Midlands

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The Skills Toolkit from Department for Education provides access to free, high-quality courses to help build up your skills in digital and numeracy. Find out more: gov.uk/theskillstoolkit #TheSkillsToolkit

WeRecruit is Launched!

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https://careers.staffordshire.gov.uk/jobs/latest

WeRecruit is the new Staffordshire County Council's career hub which will improve the recruitment experience for you! It is accessible on both mobile and desktop devices, and will include all candidate communications and show your application progress. You can now easily: apply for jobs, manage your profile, find information to support your job search. It will also allow you to set up job alerts, so you can quickly access jobs matching your chosen criteria.

End of Course Review

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Congratulations on completing your course -with so many new things tried and achieved its always good to take a moment and remind ourselves just how far you have come and how much you have achieved.

Your space

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Please use this section to record all your activities from this week. It is really easy to upload photos of your work. Just click on the '+' below where it says 'your space session 1' and follow the steps through. If you need any help please ask one of the tutors and we can show you what to do.

We can't wait to see all your work !

Your space

CAREcic — 2024-05-10 21:56:58 UTC

Please use this section to record all your activities from this week. It is really easy to upload photos of your work. Just click on the '+' below where it says 'your space session 2' and follow the steps through. If you need any help please ask one of the tutors and we can show you what to do.

We can't wait to see all your work !

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Great app to go on your phone that helps identify flowers / plants in your garden! A great free tool and well worth getting!

Make a plan for spring

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This website takes you step by step through making a plan for your garden.

Crafty activity sheet - make your own pot sticks/decorative garden stakes.

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Sometimes the finishing touches can make all the difference - so maybe have a think about this, or try decorating/painting your pot, one idea is to coat it in polyfilla and then stick shells, reflective beads, anything at all really into it - makes a great, individual and textured finish. Don't forget to seal it with spray varnish or diluted pva glue to waterproof it.

Help your wildlife move around more easily and go undetected from preditors by making this simple mammal tunnel

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Looking for something a little grander for your bugs? Try this one ....

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Another great idea to try

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Nice and simple - quick and easy way to create a hanging bug hotel for your garden/outdoor space.

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Videos to watch - how to make a hanging or low level bug house.

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https://supersimple.com/article/bug-hotel/

Chester Zoo – using cardboard tubes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OexxoXo9uFk

How to make lots of different homes for insects and invertebrates:
https://www.preloved.co.uk/blog/inspiration/inspiration-bug-hotel/

If you want something that looks more like a mansion:

https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/actions/how-build-bug-mansion

https://www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/give-nature-a-home-in-your-garden/garden-activities/build-a-bug-hotel

Seed bombs

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Last week we spoke about making seed bombs with our wildlife seeds. Here is a tutorial on how to make them. Post us your photos of your seed bombs.

Activity sheet and top tips from the session

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Session 3 & 4 Practical: How to create spring/summer containers

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Some great ideas for Stone Painting

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Stone painting - Five Simple Steps

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Why not leave an inspirational message for others? Painted stones are a great way to do this.

Help your wildlife move around more easily and go undetected from preditors by making this simple mammal tunnel

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Feed butterflies and they will return to your garden

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How to make a bumble bee nest

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Beautiful Butterflies - explore this fab link to learn about all of the following:

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Butterflies found in UK gardens
Identification of common UK butterflies and key facts
How to attract butterflies to your garden
The Red admiral butterfly – ID and recording sightings

More family fun - Courses at CARE

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A fun quiz - find out how much you know about nature. Let us know how you get on

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Look after your garden worms, they do a very important job in our soil!

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Have you found one of these?Find out more about the beetles in your garden and how to identify them

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How many insects can you find?

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Do birds fly into your windows - help them not to crash land - make these simple window hangers

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Some great links to explore which will support today's session:

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Bird Identification made Easy
https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/identify-a-bird/

Name that song - Identify the birds singing in your garden:
https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/bird-songs/what-bird-is-that/

https://www.british-birdsongs.uk/

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/blog/2019/04/identify-bird-song/

How to care and rescue injured birds - what to do if you find an injured bird

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/advice/how-you-can-help-birds/injured-and-baby-birds/if-you-find-an-injured-bird/

CCTV Nesting boxes – live link to nesting birds:

https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/webcams

Watch the birds from this simple bird hide that you can make in your garden or outdoor space

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Get to know your birds - have you seen any of these?

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QR Link to your Padlet

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The Password is Pathways

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No dig gardening - sowing seeds in a box - create a wildflower meadow patch

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Get started with No Dig gardening

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Nature and wildlife talk to each other

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Beautiful family of birds - can you name them

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Attract more birds into your garden by making food available - try making your own simple bird feeders

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Pond dipping - great fun for all the family

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Today we made some really exciting finds by spending a little time pond dipping in the wildlife pond at CARE - including 20 newts (3 different species), pond beetles, midge larvae and damselfly chrysalis. Also a water boatman, pond skater, water snail and a wireworm.

Some newts are protected species - take a look a the link to find out more.

Pond dipping is a great family activity and many local natural environments offer it - Cannock Chase Visitor Centre, Wolseley Gardens and Wildlife Trust - search on-line for more information and find out what's most local to you.

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Woodland forraging for organic resources - bug and bee hotels

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Wandering in the woodland, collecting sticks, moss, leaf litter and all things organic for our new bee and bug hotels.

The Bee Hotel is Complete

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Well signed so that everyone knows not to disturb this very important place whilst the bees are at work

Finding a place to locate our new bee hotel

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Really simple and so effective - this small area now dedicated to our wonderful bees can be found in our wildlife pond area, dug slightly in to the ground our pot filled loosely with nesting materials - moss, grasses and fern will provide an excellent place for our bees to gather. Well done all today, some great wildlife and environmental work achieved.

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Creating colourful summer containers to attract bees and insects into your garden.

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Learning to plant a range of colourful summer bedding plants, including geraniums, trailing lobelia and surfinias in a container / planter. Making sure the depth is correct and adding supplements to the soil.

Potting on baby spring onions - these are so tasty when a little bigger and added to a fresh garden salad!

CAREcic — 2024-06-03 08:10:16 UTC

Nick and Harry made a great job of carefully separating the delicate roots of the spring onions, filling plant pots that are the perfect size to allow the onions to develop to the next stage of growth, before repeating the process all over again!

Protect your birds, create simple, effective window decorations

CAREcic — 2024-06-03 08:12:03 UTC

Learning about UK birds that we see in our garden and creating a decoration to protect them from bumping into our glass windows in the sunlight. First part, sketching and learning what colours form on the feathers for different species.

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Part 2 - Adding some more details to the wings

Completed window deterrent for birds

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Part 3 - finished decoration! Laminated and ready to hang in your window - will help protect against birds flying into the glass and injuring themselves.