Woodlore’s Director, Steve Gurney, made a surprise spotting when visiting one of our East Sussex course sites earlier this year:

It was a lovely sunny August afternoon and I was walking back to my car during a visit to one of Woodlore’s course sites. Suddenly, a small creature ran straight out in front of me. I immediately stopped in my tracks; the creature also stopped and then made a u-turn and sped back from where it came from.

I slowly crept towards and looked into the bushes where the creature entered and to my astonishment a little weasel was staring right back at me. “Who’s looking at who here?” I thought, and then “Quick, take a photo”.

Weasel Watching

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With the promise of a light dusting of snow in the air, the Woodlore Team gathered in the beautiful woodlands of East Sussex. Hundreds of miles away from the Arctic camp that we occupied just a week or so before, the English weather seemed determined to remind us that it could put on its own show and provide the sort of challenging conditions ideal for trimming our skills, ready for Woodlore’s 30^th Anniversary season.

The Woodlore field team at the annual training week

Training week is a very important fixture in the team calendar and provides an opportunity for us all to refresh friendships, brush-up on skills and come together in the environment that we are so passionate about. This year our focus was on renewing the team’s first aid qualifications and so, under the instruction and guidance of Jamie Cooke, Woodlore’s outdoor staff reminded themselves of the essential nature of this essential wilderness skill. The application of realistic scenarios ensured that the adrenaline kept pumping and Jamie’s humour and outstanding teaching ability made sure that what was learned held fast in the memories of the participants. Anybody attending one of Woodlore’s medical courses will be able to vouch for the unique ability of this kind of training to make things stick!

Woodlore field team practising their buschraft skills at training week

In amongst the fast-paced learning provided by Jamie, the team had other essential tasks. New course sites had to be readied, changes made to camp and the skills of the woodsman honed, ready to ensure the highest standards for the coming year. In amongst the blizzards, cold, rain and occasional sunshine, the team atmosphere was one of excitement and good humour, boosted by great food and better company. At the end of the day, the fireside beckoned and stories were shared as we all reminded ourselves why we love our job so much. Ready for this years’ exciting courses, we look forward to welcoming you into our family.

Woodlore’s communal camp fire during training week

Written by Keith Whitehead

Last week Woodlore ran it’s annual training week, which included our usual first aid training from Jamie Cooke at Solo Medical Training Limited.

On Aspirant Instructor Sarah Day’s return home, the first aid training she had recieved left her feeling reflective. Here are her thoughts:

It’s not often that the whole team gets together; we often go a whole season without seeing certain people – apart from chance meetings at the beginning and end of courses.

One of the best aspects, both of our annual training weeks and of the end of season get-together, is that we can all share our stories of the season, and what we’ve been up to over the winter. As an inevitable and very helpful part of our regular first aid training, we often exchange stories of first aid incidents we’ve dealt with, (or even been the victim of!).  It’s natural to try and analyse an incident afterwards, whether it was real or a training scenario, and think about what you might do differently another time. I often think about two incidents I was involved in several years ago.

First aid scenario during the Woodlore staff training week

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