I am an education consultant who specialises in learning and play outdoors. My Fellowship explored outdoor technologies in the primary school and early years. It was a broad topic designed to find out more about how outdoor learning can happen in innovative ways in North America, Sweden and the Czech Republic. I wanted to share this with education professionals, especially teachers in Scotland, and to consider the strategic approaches needed to further embed the use of the outdoors into everyday teaching.

My background was outdoor and environmental work prior to becoming a teacher and then head teacher. My passion began in the mid-Eighties as part of a break from an environmental science degree. My Fellowship gave me the opportunity to reflect and subsequently to have a significant impact particularly within Scotland. I have since co-written six national documents around different aspects of outdoor learning and play. The Fellowship was also instrumental in my forest kindergarten work, which is now the first national award-bearing course of its kind.

I am indebted to my Fellowship for being able to contribute to shaping and changing Scottish education.