Description:

After receiving a booking from Tiree high school earlier in the year, it seemed like the ideal opportunity for one of our team to also visit the nearby Isle of Coll. Due so the winter timetable of Caledonian MacBrayne ferries (every other day) it meant arriving on the Tuesday, working with the primary school on the Wednesday and then over to Tiree on the Thursday. With Coll only having around 180 permanent inhabitants, the school only has a handful of pupils at present, but small numbers mean we get to spend plenty of time with the children, to see how they tick, and find out where they struggle with the content and to hear their ambitions. It’s very different from talking to a sea of faces, and on a personal level, it’s far more rewarding.

We started the day with the core Earth, Sun and Moon module, followed up with a tour of the Solar System using our modified Celestia software. Many interesting questions meant that we extended this session a little bit, and the practical side of the module took us up to lunch. After a hot cooked meal, we had a quick introduction to stars and then investigated some of the constellations visible in the night sky. We ended the day with a look at some nature of light demonstrations, which seem to appeal to pretty much all age groups. Once the children had headed home, it was a quick tidy up, then back to the hotel to await the onward ferry to Tiree the next morning. The schedule meant that there was plenty of time to explore the island over the two days, and to find a few hidden gems to visit. Glorious sandy beaches, abundant wildlife, a real sense of community and a relaxed pace of life … were some of the fond memories we can take from our visit to Coll.