The snow lay, wind lashed, rain fell, and occasionally the sun shone. But curiosity and creativity crackled amongst the children who made twin visits to Abriachan Forest and Moniack Mhor the week before last. They followed badger tracks, cooed at the mice that Suzann sent scampering back amongst the trees, and they fetched newts, mayfly nymphs, caddis fly larvae and tiny trout briefly from the burn to study.

They arrived at Moniack wide-eyed and hungry, but soon took up pencils to capture the morning’s experience in words. They wrote ‘In the Forest’ poems like the jointly written ones from St Clements and Coulhill; riddles like the two below; and each day the children added to a story about a little girl called Talitha who thought she was searching the forest for a golden fox. It was started by St Clements on the Monday and finally the end was found on Friday by the children from Kilchuimen, with the other schools adding their episodes in between.

With the wood-burning stove warming toes, and the inspiration of nature and movement in the morning, Moniack’s long table fell quiet with concentration in the afternoons as pupils and teachers alike made their own ‘Written Worlds’.

I make water look like tea,
rotting over thousands of years
to give a home to pine trees.
Leave me on the hills
where I’m supposed to be
of your grow-bags and your fires.

Kilchuimen Primary

You won’t see us when it’s dry
but we’re always left behind
and have soles but not hearts.
We’re made by a stamp
remaining, disdained by you in the damp.
We come in different sizes
from three to thirteen.

Ferintosh/Mulbuie Primaries