Many teenagers do not get on with school.  Some are even excluded for being disruptive or other behavioural reasons, but what can be done to help them?  One project that is proving successful is the Telford Access to Nature Partnership, managed by Cadi Price, a officer for the Severn Gorge Countryside Trust based at Ironbridge in Shropshire.

A group of eight 16-19 year olds are doing a three month course based around woodland skills.  Initially they learn how to use and respect edge tools (such as axes and billhooks) and then with help at the Green Wood Centre they make a chair.  Once they have become comfortable with each other and with using hand tools they make supervised trips to a local woodland where they work in pairs learning to fell trees (within  the management plan for the woodland), carve spoons, make their own meals over a campfire, build benches and learn about the woodland.

On the face of it the end result is an OCN level 1 – this means an Open College Network Level One qualification in woodland management, a bit like an NVQ.  But more importantly it gives them confidence and help in moving on positively – of the last group of eight doing this course seven of them went on to work for the BTCV (British Trust for Conservation Volunteers) as assistant wardens.  As one social worker familiar with the project, put it to me: “if you don’t build them up they will do what they do best – which is nicking things.  Or they go on an “emotional holiday” – which means using substances, ducking out of life.”

Many of the teenagers on the course express this sentiment, “our teachers at school said we were rubbish, but this shows we aren’t”.  Without courses like this these teenagers would become what the government calls NEETS – Not in Education, Employment or Training.

Cadi Price works with several tutors whom she describes as “immensely dedicated” including Neil and Rob who work with the teenagers.  Together they have built paths, a shelter, a deer exclosure and even a composting loo with an A-Frame above it.  This loo is actually a rather throne-like toilet, helping to build status in all things!  The course is funded for 3 years by Natural England and the Big Lottery Fund.

This project is based around a Shropshire woodland owned by Woodlands.co.uk. We have lent the woodland to this project as part of our community woodlands initiative – see www.woodlands.co.uk/community-woodlands