Let's learn moor!
05 Jul 2022
On Tuesday, we joined Class 3 on a trip to Let's Learn Moor.
This was an upland education day run by Countryside Learning, they are holding lots of days across different grouse moors in England. The aim of the day was to educate primary school children about the countryside on our doorsteps and give them an increased understanding of wildlife and human life on the moor. It definitely did that!
We completed the short journey to the Dallowgill Estate, and embarked on our first workshop, which was about Nidderdale and its area of outstanding natural beauty. We learnt about lots of the different living things that may live on the moor with a particular focus on those that live in ponds. We learnt about how clean the water is in the moor's ponds, and how we could build our own ponds at home. The children really enjoyed looking at all the living creatures.
The next workshop we moved onto, was all about farming. We learnt all about a year in the life of a Swaledale sheep, and we even got to see one being sheared which was brilliant to see. The sheep looked a lot lighter afterwards! We all learnt about the concept of the sheep being hefted to an area. This is when a flock of sheep has been bred for generations on the same piece of land and so the sheep can instinctively return to that piece of land and stay on it. They don't wander into any other areas at all. Amazing!
Before lunch, we then had two further workshops. The first was run by the Mountain Rescue Service which was really interesting. I think the children's favourite part was when they had to go onto the moor to rescue Mrs Barker, who was pretending to have injured her leg, and wheeled her off on a stretcher trolley. It was a bumpy ride!
We then found out about Yorkshire Water's role in our area and then specidfically about the moss that is found on the moor. We investigated into how much water the moss could hold and the job it did.
After lunch, we enjoyed two workshops, both run by Gamekeepers. One of the gamekeepers was very familiar, as it was Noah's Dad. In the first one, we learnt about ground nesting birds and the ways that they try to keep their predators under control to give the birds a chance to breed successfully. We also found out about the plants found on the moor.
During the second one, we heard about the controlled burning that happens on the moor and then the way in which they put out fires that occur on the moor, mainly during summer. The children really enjoyed using the water and leaf blowers to practise putting fires out.
We had a thoroughly enjoyable day at this event, and learnt lots.