GCSE in Survival!

[RAPPLEBY2000]

i recently went on a fantastic course that anyone interested in Bushcraft would love!

i went on the "Woodland survival crafts" GCSE survival course it was a 5 day course i thought reasonably priced and the traineing area was in a lovely oak/birch wood on the derybshire/leicestershire border.

the parts of the GCSE were easily done, subjects covered were:

shelter construction(this was a continuing process that covered a few days)
fire lighting from friction (everyone did it competenly more than once!)
wild food (of which there was loads)
water collection
health and hygine
camp safety
and to top it all construction of furniture and even whistles!!

i loved everty minute!

the instructors were
dave watson and ian, both are experts in the field with a wealth of information at hand, and i believe they will be at the wildernes gathering to give on hand bow firelighting sessions!

i can now light a friction fire 9 times out of 10 and i cannot reccomend this course highly enough!

to find out more check the web site:

www.woodlandsurvivalcrafts.com

 

[grahoom]

hey - hopefully this will become national curriculum.

 

[leon-1]

Dave has been involved with setting up qualifications for the bushcraft side of life for quite a while and I have been fortunate enough to of been shown firebow by him as well and he is an excellent instructor as well as being a nice chap.

Good to hear that you enjoyed the course Rich

 

[ScottC]

Rappleby were there any younger people on the course say 14-17 or was it all adults

 

[leon-1]

Hi Scott, Dave does courses for families and schools so I would think that it would be pretty mixed as far as age groups are concerned

 

[ScottC]

OK thanks as I was looking at this course in particular a while back and if I can get a place will try and get on the septemeber one

 

[leon-1]

Good luck with it if you get on there

 

[Kirruth]

I think it should definitely be on the national curriculum: I've got images of newly qualified kids just vanishing into the woods.

 

[Lithril]

Be worth making it national curriculum if only to give you person an appreciation into the uses, fragility and upkeep of the diminishing wildlife we have around us.

 

[cgait]

You said the course was reasonably priced.What is the price exactly?

 

[ScottC]

£345.00 for the full five-day course

 

[CLEM]

GCSE in Bushcrafting ,now that would have been one lesson i would have turned up to

 

[Brian]

So Rappleby2000 I may be a bit slow on this one but you now have a GCSE having completed the 5 day course, or is there another part to the course to gain the qualification/certificate.

Sounds good either way mate,

Brian

 

[ScottC]

If you do the full 5 day one you get the qualification at the end, however you can seperate it up into 3 parts woodland survival skills part 1 woodland survival skills part 2 and woodland survival skills assessment. I think each of these is about £125 per part. Might be handy if your strapped for cash and would rather pay in installments.

www.woodlandsurvivalcrafts.com

 

[Brian]

Thanks Scott,

sounds iunteresting, might possibly do this in the future.

Brian

 

[RAPPLEBY2000]

this was the course i did:


June 6-10 Woodland Survival Skills (Bushcraft) OCN Level 2 £345.00


as i say very good value, conidering the site, and teaching available!

if you try to get on a simular Ray Mears course for a week you'd be looking at alot more money and a two or three year wait!

Dave provides a service for the local youth organisations for kids with various problems, he also runs family sessions!

he will also be at the wilderness gathering to give firelighting demos.

i would sign up whilst there are still spaces!

 

[RAPPLEBY2000]

Brian,
the GCSE was completed during the week.
for the first four days we were taught to the desired standard and on the last day we basically just demonstrated the stuff we'd been taught, at the end we had a very easy written section which asked such questions as:

design a survival meal

specify dangers in the area etc etc.

don't let the "GCSE" name worry you, there was one guy on my course that had never done anything "survival/Bushcraft related"....Ever, not even a hobby! and he passed including the friction firelighting!(which iv'e spent years trying to do!).

Even the written part was not to taxing, for those more academically challenged (like myself!) you could draw diagrams rather than a fancy perfectly written document!

don't worry, if you have a vauge idea what you are doing or if you were a scout/guide or have even just got into bushcraft you will probably pass!

it's a top course and aparently there are rumors of a higher grade to pass at, in the pipeline!

go do it!

you'll love it!

 

[troyka]

hello everyone.

one of the local colleges to me does an interesting course..
as a youth worker i had the chance to book one of the forest school leaders and do a few hours with them and my young people it was great. the young people loved it. the worker said the traing was cool ..

http://www.bridgwater.ac.uk/forestschool/index.asp

 

[Brian]

RAPPLEBY2000,

Cheers mate, I'm doing a Wildlive Primitive living course at the end of the month, so I may do the GCSE in the future. Was this your first bushcraft course or did you do it to further yourself accademically.

Brian

 

[ScottC]

It's very possible I'll be doing the Septemeber course if I can book it before all the places go. I found the site while googling and it sounded fantastic, and someone who's done the course says it was fantastic too so it must be... fantastic!