Tunnels at DFSC

Ian Healey, The Centre Manager, is a keen caver and has been leading groups of young people caving for over 20 years.

His experience tells him that many children really enjoy the tighter more challenging parts of a cave! This is in-spite of the expectations of their teachers! Ian regularly leads groups in Clearwell Caves and a popular an memorable part of the cave for many students is the 'Polo Hole', pictured above.

For a while we have had an old drainage pipe in the centre garden that has been used for problem solving challenges and it becomes a magnet to children to investigate. Above are two 2 year-olds from Forest Tots who have decided to go through it.

 The plans for the new classroom left a small area of land next to the building blank. Yes, it could have just been laid to lawn but we had a much better idea!

"What if we bought a load of pipes and constructed an underground tunnel maze!?" "We better make a plan!"

"Right let's buy some pipes". "We need some people to move them!" "Well, we've got lots of DFSC staff"

"We'll make construction workers out of them yet! Here we go walking down the road with one of the big pipes and the Centre building in the background."

 "I know lets use rainwater harvesting tanks as junctions between the tunnels!" "Yes, and we could start in a shed with 4 different tunnels heading out of it!"

"We'll need somebody with a digger and a dumper truck"

"What about putting one tunnel under the deck and another one sliding down on to the lawn?!"

This project is well under way and should be ready for the first groups to use next term. The construction phase has raised a lot of interest from visiting groups who are now looking forward to using it on their next visit. We think it will make an excellent new activity that combines team work, personal challenge, communication and  problem solving. We'll be setting a variety of challenges which  will include orienteering, mapping and transporting objects. We look forward to telling you more about the Tunnels in the future once they are being used. 

Summer is here

Summer is definitely here with temperatures up to 29 degrees Centigrade today. The Pond Cabin Laboratory is hidden in the foilage and staying nice and cool over the pond.

The dragonflies are darting about the pond reeds.

The wild flower meadow on the roof of the Dean Garden Room is wafting gently in the breeze and attracting it's own collection of insect life.

There are many different varieties of wild flower growing. The grass will soon need a cut and we will then let it lie like hay on the roof to allow any wild flower seeds to disperse before then clearing the grass off. Removing the grass prevents too much nutrient build up in what should be a fairly poor soil. Cutting the grass a couple of times replicates grazing and prevents the grass out competing the wild flowers.

The living roof of the roundhouse is also looking good but we don't plan to cut it.

A wren has made a nest in the outside of the wall under the eaves. See red circle on photo below. 4 chicks are busily being fed by the parents and look about to fledge.