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Course 25 Feb 2017: learn to make a green wood stool

posted on December 12, 2016

Buy your loved one a present with a difference this Christmas, or treat yourself. Book a one-day course to learn how to work with green wood using simple hand tools, and make a ‘basic’ three-legged stool.

Greenwood workshop 25th February 2017

Course date: 25th February, 9.30am – 4.00pm

Learn about different tree species and understand why different woods are suitable for different tasks, how growth effects its use, and look at wood suitable for cleaving.
Learn how to cleave wood.
Learn basic axe work to rough shape the stool legs.
Use a shaving horse, drawknives and spokeshaves to shape three stool legs.
Shape a simple stool seat using planes, inshaves, travishers and spokeshaves.
There will also be a pole lathe for participants to ‘have a go’ at turning as time allows.

Cost: £95 per person

Venue: Sylva Wood Centre, Oxfordshire, OX14 4QT

Tutor: Peter Wood, Founder of Greenwood Days www.greenwooddays.co.uk

Book your place: https://sylva.charitycheckout.co.uk/greenwooddaysfeb2017

Category: Courses, WOOD
Tags: course, green woodworking, Sylv a Wood Centre

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Managing Woods for Woodfuel course

posted on November 6, 2016

Ignite training programme

We are pleased to announce an Ignite training course to be held at the Sylva Wood Centre on 7th December: Managing woods for woodfuel.

Ignite Managing Woods for Woodfuel focuses on planting, managing and harvesting woodlands for use as woodfuel. What timber is suited to what type of woodfuel (logs or chips), assessing woodlands, measuring timber, harvesting, extraction, conversion and the economic modelling of timber harvesting and woodfuel conversion are covered in this one day course. A Lantra Awards certificate of attendance is issued on completion of the course.

The course date and venue is:

Wednesday 7th December
Sylva Wood Centre, Long Wittenham, Oxford, OX14 4QT

Courses cost £180.00 (including VAT) per person and include Lantra Awards certification fees, handbooks and catering on the day. A 10% discount is offered to members of Woodsure, the Wood Heat Association and the Confor Woodfuel Suppliers Group. Please contact the office for more details.

Ignite is an innovative training programme of practical seminars and interactive workshops with a focus on woodfuel. Ignite is designed for those wanting to know more about woodfuel and to equip new and existing woodfuel businesses with the skills and knowledge required to meet the increasing demand for high quality products from this growing alternative market. Compliance with the sustainability requirements for fuel supplied to systems receiving RHI payments are a key feature of all our Ignite courses.

To book, please contact Erica Spencer at RDI Associates by:

Telephone: 0845 226 2890
E-mail: erica.spencer@ruraldevelopment.org.uk
or complete the online booking form here.

Full course details are available on the RDI website: http://www.ruraldevelopment.org.uk/events/categories/training-course/

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Category: Admin, Courses, exclude from front page
Tags: course, training, woodfuel

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Ignite Woodfuel training at Sylva Wood Centre

posted on July 28, 2016

Ignite logo

We are pleased to announce two Ignite training courses to be held at the Sylva Wood Centre this autumn.

Ignite Firewood Production and Supply is aimed at both existing and fledgling firewood businesses. The course covers firewood as a renewable fuel, sources of timber for firewood, equipment to handle, produce and deliver firewood, units and conversion factors, markets and economics of the supply chain including calculating sales prices from wet and dry weight to loose and stacked volumes. A Lantra Awards certificate of attendance is issued on completion of the course.

Course

Dates

Location

Firewood Production and Supply

Thursday

22nd September 2016

Sylva Wood Centre, Long Wittenham, Oxford, OX14 4QT

Managing Woods for Woodfuel

Wednesday

12th October 2016

Sylva Wood Centre, Long Wittenham, Oxford, OX14 4QT

To book, please contact Erica Spencer at RDI Associates by:

Telephone: 0845 226 2890
E-mail: spencer@ruraldevelopment.org.uk
or complete the online booking form here.

Full course details are available on the RDI website: http://www.ruraldevelopment.org.uk/events/categories/training-course/

Category: Announcements, Courses, exclude from front page

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Knife whittling workshop for educators

posted on July 8, 2016

We are pleased to offer a half-day workshop designed for Forest School Leaders and any educators interested to learn new skills with wood. It will be run by Simon Clements, Wood Carver based at the Sylva Wood Centre, supported by the Sylva Foundation.

knife whittling workshop

During this workshop you will:

Learn to make your own whittling knife with a wooden handle (blades provided)
Learn how to care for knives including sharpening

About the tutor:

Simon Clements is a Wood Carver based at the Sylva Wood Centre, and is keen support Forest School Leaders in developing their skills with wood. He trained as a potter and came to carving via boat building and has a background in education.

Where:

The Sylva Wood Centre, Long Wittenham, OX14 4QT (see map)

When:

The course will be run on:

Thursday 6th October 4pm – 7pm

Cost:

£30.00 per person

This cost includes all materials, tuition and tea/coffee.

Please bring:

Your own penknife or whittling knife.

Booking:

Book your place online via Charity Checkout

Category: Courses, EDUCATION, WOOD
Tags: course, education, Forest School

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Wood Centre abuzz with first woodworking course

posted on April 29, 2016

Last Saturday we hosted our first woodworking course at the Sylva Wood Centre. The course was organised on behalf of the Oxfordshire Natural Beekeeping Group.

Course tutor Matt Mercy uses locally-grown western red cedar and larch for his hives, so the course chimed perfectly with Sylva’s principles of using more sustainably-grown wood products. Matt helped 14 students to make Warré hives. These types of hives are favoured in ‘natural beekeeping’ for their high level of insulation and a ‘chimney effect’, which keeps the bees warmer than some other hive types. Also the hive boxes have shuttered window inserts which allow for non-intrusive observations of bee colony activity and health.

Oxford Natural Beekeeping Group workshop at the Sylva Wood Centre, April 2016

‘Natural beekeeping’ covers a spectrum of approaches to keeping bees which encompass bee-centric, low intervention, chemical-free methodologies. This is a holistic approach that facilitates natural bee behaviours and promotes bee health through providing healthy hive environments and allowing for natural selection of robust ‘hygienic’ gene pools.

Matt Mercy, course Tutor, said:

“I was very impressed with the facilities provided and would highly recommend the Sylva Wood Centre to other tutors”.

Paul Honigmann on behalf of the Oxfordshire Natural Beekeeping Group said:

“many, many thanks for organising our course at the Sylva Wood Centre. Everyone left happy and smiling and with something physical they’d made – and for several, the event was their first face to face meeting with other natural beekeepers – a great day for all”.

Read more on the website of the Oxfordshire Natural Beekeeping Group.

Are you a woodwork tutor? Please contact Paul Orsi if you are interested in running a woodworking course at the Sylva Wood Centre.

Category: Courses, WOOD
Tags: course, Sylva Wood Centre

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Managing Atlantic woodland for lichens and bryophytes: free workshops for land managers

posted on November 16, 2015

Sylva is pleased to promote an important new project that will provide support for owners of Atlantic woodland.

The Atlantic woodlands of south-west England are internationally important for their lichens and bryophytes. However, these often-overlooked lower plant communities face a range of threats from habitat loss and climate change, to impacts from management practices and invasive species. Plantlife’s Make the Small Things Count Project has produced a Habitat Toolkit to provide practical management advice. These one day workshops will be hands-on, practical sessions to launch the toolkit and support land managers to:

Gain a deeper understanding of Atlantic woodland ecology and the requirements of lichens and bryophytes;
Identify priority areas for management;
Identify what management is appropriate in different scenarios;
Monitor lichens and bryophytes and assess the impacts of management.

All participants will receive a copy of the toolkit as well as Plantlife’s ID guides for key lichens and bryophytes.

Lobaria pulmonaria (c) Ray Woods-Plantlife

Lobaria pulmonaria in an Atlantic woodland. (c) Ray Woods, Plantlife

Workshop dates:

Tuesday 19th January 10am-3pm at Yarner Wood, East Dartmoor NNR TQ13 9LJ
Thursday 28th January 10am-3pm at Holford Village Hall, Quantocks AONB TA5 1SD
Thursday 4th February 10am-3pm at Piles Mill, Exmoor National Park TA24 8HP
Wednesday 10th February 10am-3pm at Burrator Discovery Centre PL20 6PE

Booking essential. Register online here at: www.surveymonkey.com/r/VNY7RYN

There is a limit of 15 people per workshop. You only need to attend one session. Please book early to avoid disappointment. For further information contact:
alison.smith@plantlife.org.uk

In January 2016 a web-link to the toolkit will be created in the myForest resources section.

Category: Courses, myForest
Tags: course, management, myForest

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Introductory course in woodworking – make a beehouse

posted on June 22, 2015

Join us for our first public woodworking course at the Sylva Wood Centre – on Saturday 10th October.

Description
For people with no or very little experience of woodwork but keen to develop practical hand skills. The course is targeted at people who want to learn woodwork skills with limited equipment. For example a few hand tools and a portal bench such as a workmate.

What you can expect to learn
Using hand tools – marking out tools and techniques. Using saws for different tasks; techniques for cutting in straight lines. Using chisels safely. Wood joint construction and assembly techniques. Using drills and screws. Timber technology

Learn to make a beehouse at the Sylva Wood Centre

What you can expect to achieve
By the end of the course you will have probably completed a bee house, and gained the knowledge and confidence to make similar items. Many of the skills learnt on this course are transferable and are fundamental to good quality, productive and enjoyable woodworking.

Course Tutor
This course is run by Pete Beckley. He has wide experience in teaching, including secondary schools, FE, HE, and adult classes. He currently teaches young adults with autism in a specialist environment. Before embarking on a teaching path, he was employed as a bespoke furniture maker and he occasionally finds time to still make small items in his workshop near Wantage.

Course details
Course Fee:                        £75
Materials Fee:                   £5
TOTAL COST                       £80

Timings:

Arrive 0900
Start by 0930
Coffee break 1100
Lunch 1300 (bring your own)
Tea break 1500
Depart 1630

Book online today:

We operate on a first-come-served basis. We will contact you to request full payment, to secure your place, in advance of the course. Maximum number of delegates will be 10, minimum 6. The course may be cancelled if insufficient bookings are received.
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We look forward to welcoming you to the Wood Centre

This course is administered by the Sylva Foundation, and provided by an external tutor. By providing your details, you agree that the Sylva Foundation may contact you by email with news and information about our activities, events, products and services.

Category: Courses, WOOD
Tags: course

Comments (1)

Workshop: bringing forest ecology into schools

posted on June 12, 2015

The Sylva Foundation is working in partnership with the British Ecological Society to run a half-day CPD and consultation workshop to establish opportunities and constraints to teaching and learning forest ecology in secondary schools.

Teachers and Educators: are you interested in using local woodland near or on your school grounds to carry out ecological investigations, experiments and monitoring that fit with curriculum requirements? Would you like to learn more about forest ecology from Forest Scientists, Foresters and Woodland Owners? The proposed consultation workshop is an excellent opportunity to explore these ideas and benefit from CPD.

Woodland Owners: would you like your woodland to benefit young people through education activities? Are you interested to understand the needs of secondary school teachers when going on woodland visits?

Forest Scientists and Foresters: would you like to share your knowledge of forest ecology, fieldwork and current needs in research of trees and forests? Are you interested to know the content of secondary school curriculum and ways in which young people can inspired to follow careers into Forestry?

Aims:

The workshop will use participatory methods and fieldwork to answer several key questions:

1. What are the requirements for teaching about forest ecology in the new secondary school curriculum for Key Stages 3-5?

2. How do teachers currently teach forest ecology? For example through case studies, theory, local trips, Field Studies Centres, or in the classroom? What are the barriers or bridges to teaching about forest ecology?

3. What support do teachers and environmental educators need to teach forest ecology and what support do students need who carry out ecological investigations?

4. Can myForest for Education and Sylva’s Forest Science projects support these needs? If so how?

Details and Booking form below

British Ecological Society workshop

Monday 6th July 2015, 1pm -5pm

At the Sylva Foundation offices, Manor House, Little Wittenham, OX14 4RA directions

Workshop Co-ordinator: Jen Hurst , Education Manager, jen@sylva.org.uk

Participants are asked to pay a booking fee of £10.00 to guarantee their place on this workshop. Funding from the British Ecological Society has enabled the Sylva Foundation to provide this CPD and consultation event at minimal cost. See booking form below.

Lunch: Lunch and drinks will be provided free of charge.

Participants: Twenty participants: Biology and Geography secondary teachers from Key Stages 3 to 5, Environmental Education professionals, Woodland Owners, Forest Ecologists and Foresters.

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Category: Courses, EDUCATION, events
Tags: ecology, education, forest

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news

Course 25 Feb 2017: learn to make a green wood stool

Managing Woods for Woodfuel course

Ignite Woodfuel training at Sylva Wood Centre

Knife whittling workshop for educators

Wood Centre abuzz with first woodworking course

Managing Atlantic woodland for lichens and bryophytes: free workshops for land managers

Introductory course in woodworking – make a beehouse

Workshop: bringing forest ecology into schools

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