Woodcraft School

Advanced Bushcraft Award

caron@woodcraftschool.co.uk (Caron) — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 16:16:24 +0000

Description; Photos of our Advanced Bushcraft Award and some of the activities.
Location; Woodcraft School

Wildlife Watching in Poland

adamsumner5@hotmail.com (Admin119) — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 15:23:54 +0000

Description: A little selection of photos we have collected over the years showing some of the signs and scenarios we find along the way. Join our Wildlife Tour to Poland in 2013 and let us give you an insight into this interesting country and its animal inhabitants (the locals are pretty cool too!).

Instructors Course

adamsumner5@hotmail.com (Admin119) — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 15:23:54 +0000

Description: Since 2007 we have been running our own accredited instructor course in our own unique format. Here are a selection of photos to what the instructors get up to during their time with us.

News dates available of our 2015/16 programme

john@woodcraftschool.co.uk (John Rhyder) — Tue, 23 Jun 2015 09:52:32 +0000

We have just published our new course dates for 2015/16

We have consolidated some of our shorter courses to produce a set of longer programmes that we believe will take our students to a greater level and depth of learning and understanding.

Check these out on our courses page here

New Dates available for the 2015/16 Certificate of Bushcraft Leadership

john@woodcraftschool.co.uk (John Rhyder) — Mon, 01 Dec 2014 17:27:42 +0000

We have just released the dates for our Certificate of Bushcraft Leadership for 2015/16, we are already experiencing lots of demand for this programme and will be accepting applications shortly.

Win Places on our June 2014 Advanced Bushcraft Course

john@woodcraftschool.co.uk (John Rhyder) — Tue, 13 May 2014 00:00:00 +0000

To celebrate John’s twenty year anniversary as an instructor we are giving away two places on our Advanced bushcraft Award for June.

Consultancy Work

john@woodcraftschool.co.uk (John Rhyder) — Thu, 20 Feb 2014 08:28:08 +0000

John has been asked to provide technical advice to a company in Eastern England who own several outdoor education centres.

Popular Axe Course Makes a Come Back

info@adamsumnerdesign.com (Adam D Sumner) — Mon, 05 Aug 2013 16:03:35 +0000

By popular demand we are reintroducing our three day axe use course to or program next year. Along with felling, carving splitting and cleaving we will be looking at bark work, woodland management systems and hazard tree recognition. Watch the website, or join us on Facebook for further details.

Woodcraft School Intern Selected for 2013/14

info@adamsumnerdesign.com (Adam D Sumner) — Tue, 30 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000

A young intern is set to join Woodcraft school in September, we are offering a place on our instructor course free of charge in return for help with assistance and of course learning on most of our UK based courses. We have already selected this years lucky applicant and look forwards to welcoming Tom Bowman a young man with great future in this business.

Wildlife Lecture at the Weald and Downland Museum

caron@woodcraftschool.co.uk (Caron) — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 06:03:53 +0000

John is going to be giving an hands-on lecture at the Weald and Downland Museum on the 9th July at 6pm titled 'Wildlife I have known'. It will be an interactive talk with loads of bits to touch and play with - ever wondered what lynx or wolf faeces look like?! Beware, his talks are fascinating and explorative and you will come away wanting to know more!

John Rhyder at Weald and Downland Museum in 2014

info@adamsumnerdesign.com (Adam D Sumner) — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000

John has been asked to run animal tracking and wild food courses at the Weald and Downland museum in 2014 along with his regular longbow and bark basketry workshops check our website and the Weald and Downland for details.

Who's a clever boy...

caron@woodcraftschool.co.uk (Caron) — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 14:16:27 +0000

Congratulations to John Rhyder who is now the proud owner of a post graduate certificate in Species Identification and Recording. This course was run through the Field Studies Council and the University of Birmingham. John specialised in mammals, bats, reptiles and amphibians, fungi and woodland plants.

John is now writing a regular monthly column in the local Chichester Observer covering all aspects of bushcraft and wildlife. Currently into its 3rd month, it seems it has been well received inspiring lots of general enquiries about nature.

Cyber Tracking – Our Events in August

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 16:23:33 +0000

We are hosting a number of events in 2012 connected with the CyberTracker system and later this year we welcome Mark Elbroch and Brian McConnell to our southern camp. Both men are well known and respected experts from the USA having authored books on the subject. We are holding 2 evaluations and one workshop and more details can be found here. To aid us Lord Cowdray has given us permission to wander lightly over his 16,500 acre estate which has many different terrains and habitats.

We are also re-launching our popular two day Tracking Workshop to cover track and sign identification and trailing - more details to be found here.

Interview with Mark Yates

john@woodcraftschool.co.uk (John Rhyder) — Thu, 01 Jan 2015 12:21:20 +0000

Interview with John and Mark Yates where John talks about bushcraft and natural history sharing some of his thoughts on these subjects.

Tracking Basics

john@woodcraftschool.co.uk (John Rhyder) — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 15:33:07 +0000

When asked to imagine the process of tracking, most of us would conjure a line of footprints stretching off into the distance and a buckskin clad mountain man with his nose to the ground. Occasionally, following animals by the signs they leave behind can be just like this, although you don’t see that much buckskin in the woods of West Sussex. I have been lucky enough to track with some exceptional conservation trackers both at home and abroad and believe the process can be broken down into four basic aspects.

How to light a campfire

john@woodcraftschool.co.uk (John Rhyder) — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 15:21:53 +0000

The campfire is perhaps the most iconic and desired aspect of outdoor life. Together with the obvious, making food and water safe, fire also acts as a focal point and a morale booster. This latter effect cannot be over stressed especially in the more remote regions of the world. Native Americans believed in an evil being named the Wendigo spirit. It was thought that this spirit would steal your life force and was especially active when the sun began to set and it started to rain. If you have ever had a long tiring day in the woods and experienced these conditions you may have noticed how your energy flags and your spirits sink. Undoubtedly the Wendigo is at work sapping your life force. Happily all you need to do is light a fire to chase him away, and again you may have notice how lighting a fire lifts ones spirits in direct proportion to the height of the flames.

Secrets in Scat

john@woodcraftschool.co.uk (John Rhyder) — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 00:00:00 +0000

It may well be considered a strange and even bizarre claim to fame but as result of my natural history study and interest. I have, after many years, become the proud (if that’s the right word) owner of a collection of droppings from most of the UK’s land mammal population. While this would seem a weird thing to be collecting I should explain, perhaps, that the tracking of animals involves finding and interpreting the things they leave behind, the most immediately obvious sign of an animals passing, at least to most, would be footprints which are indeed valuable in determining who has been about. Often times however the soil or, notably recently, the weather conditions don’t lend themselves to finding footprints. Droppings however can and do stick around for ages and give a wealth of information about the creatures that left them. There is a very good reason for my collection, honestly, but more of that later.

The Root to a Good Meal

john@woodcraftschool.co.uk (John Rhyder) — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

In the wild diet starchy carbohydrates are difficult to find at least in the woods and hedgerows and in any meaningful quantities. A quick glance through any wild food book reveals lots of salad options but few veg to really get your teeth into. Springtime does however reveal energy laden roots and despite the sudden halt in growth caused by the recent cold spell there are still good things to be found.

Spring Greens

john@woodcraftschool.co.uk (John Rhyder) — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Despite the vagaries of the British weather, the sussex plant community seems to carry on regardless with a host of new life pushing through the saturated and often frozen ground.

A walk through a typical broadleaved woodland in February and March may surprise you with the variety of plant life to be found. With a group of students last week in our local woods 16 species were identified over a distance of a few hundred yards, many of which were both edible and medicinal.

Poland Winter wildlife and Tracking Trip Report

john@woodcraftschool.co.uk (John Rhyder) — Sat, 21 Sep 2013 10:41:08 +0000

Many things stand out in the memory after a trip of this nature but two in particular are etched in my mind. The first is the sight of a European bison walking slowly out of a pre dawn mist across a snowy meadow in Bialowieza forest, the powder snow being kicked up as he walked on. Truly an animal in its natural environment doing what his kind had done for millennia.

Down in the valley

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 16:00:15 +0000

This is not a valley of lush green grass and rolling hills, where sheep roam free in deepest darkest Wales. This is Danum Valley Conservation Area (DVCA), where Orangutans swing in the trees and Clouded Leopards move with stealth through the dense forest. A Class 1 protected Forest Reserve in Borneo that is comprised of 438,000 hectares (438 sq. Kilometers!) of primary lowland Dipterocarp forest. It is one of Sabah's last strongholds and the largest protected area of undisturbed lowland rain forest.

A Few Words From Vietnam

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 17:50:04 +0000

The Miao and Yao (also called Hmong and Mien) ethno-linguistic culture has about 10 million people living in Vietnam, China, Laos, Thailand and Mayanmar. The Hmong and the Yao migrated from Southern China at different times. They have many different local groups who have distinct features of language and custom. In Vietnam there are three ethnic groups belonging to this ethno-linguistic family.

Why Learn Latin?

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 15:40:58 +0000

Or, as I am sure some of my students would say, "please, why oh why learn latin.." Latin has been used for the naming of all things natural mainly because it is a 'dead language'; it is no longer spoken and can therefore no longer evolve and change. The hope being that once something is named in this language it will stay fixed forever.