The Natural Connections project engaged students and teachers from two local high schools in outdoor learning activities over the course of an academic year. Surveys conducted at the start and end of the project found that students reported increased confidence and connection to their community, though some reported decreases in skills. Teachers reported improvements in all areas for students, including attendance, skills, and attitudes. Students were found to lack self-belief in their abilities. By the end of the project, students built appreciation for local green spaces and felt more connected to their community. Teachers saw gains in students' employability attributes and intend to continue outdoor learning programs.

1. Natural Connections
Consultation Summary
Consultation background
As part of the Cumbernauld Living Landscape community engagement strategy project staff and
volunteers conducted a survey for teachers and pupils participating in the Natural Connections
project (Figure 1). This survey was repeated at the end of the year to note any changes in
employability attributes and the student’s attitude towards the environment. Over the course of the
academic year we engaged 7 teachers and adults and 45 teenagers.
Contact Group: Participants in the Natural Connections project
Location St Maurice’s and Greenfaulds High schools
Engagement type School workshops – teacher/student survey on employability
attributes and attitudes towards greenspaces
Date: August 2015 – April2016
Number of participants: 52 direct points of contact (7 adults and 45 teenagers
participated)
Age range: Students 14-16yrs - adults up to 50yrs
Organiser Tracy Lambert, CLL Community Engagement Officer
FIGURE 1 COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT IN LOCAL HIGH SCHOOLS

2. Evaluation methods
To evaluate the impact of the programme on the young people it was assessed from several angles.
1. Employability attributes and attitudes survey
The students were asked to evaluate their attitudes and perceptions of themselves at the start and end of the
programme, this include how they perceived:
 Confidence
 Attendance
 Transferable employment skills
 Ability to work as part of a team
 Quality of local greenspaces
 Ability to work on your own
 Additional skills needed to improve your employment prospects
Final on-the-spot question to students
The students were asked at the end of the project the following question:
“Did you, at the start of the project feel that you had a connection with the community and that you were a
valued member of the community?”
2. Teachers / Leader evaluation
To cross reference the student’s answers the teachers and leaders were asked to complete the same survey
for each of the young people and answer the following additional questions:
 What skills do the students currently have and what skills do they need to improve?
 How often do you use the site and how confident do you feel about using the site currently?
 Net Promoter Score for student activities
 Net Promoter Score for Continued Professional Development (CPD) day
3. Common Cause Values
The Common Cause is a tool the Cumbernauld Living Landscape uses for communities and individuals to
express their concern about social and environmental issues. The Natural Connections project ran a Common
Cause workshop with the high school students (Figure 2), to see what they thought of their town, their future
and their environment. These values look at “Extrinsic” values which are centred on approval or rewards or
selfish values, and “Intrinsic”, values which are rewarding to pursue or selfless values. We also held Common
Cause Values workshops at the beginning and end of the academic year.
FIGURE 2 STUDENT'S OF ST MAURICE'S HIGH SCHOOL DISCUSSING THEIR VALUES

3. Results
The surveys and values workshops were delivered specifically to identify independence and team working
abilities. A reoccurring theme that was picked up throughout the workshops was the lack of self-belief and
sense of worth for themselves and for the greater community.
1. Employability attributes and attitudes
Forty students were asked at the beginning of the project to complete a survey, 31 students responded. The
students and the teachers were also asked at the start and end of the project to grade the student’s
employability attributes such as confidence and team working, the results are shown in Table 1. While the
students noted increases in their confidence and interdependent they felt that their team working ability had
not changed perceptively but their attendance and transferable skills had dropped. Speaking with the students
this decrease has been identified as being due to doubting their own abilities and not noticing a change in their
attendance. Interestingly the teacher’s responses showed increases in all aspects of the students attributes
including a marked increase in attendance and even greater improvements to employability skills such as team
working, transferable and independent skills.
All the students were asked to give honest answers to the surveys, in some cases it was noted that this had not
occurred when comparing them to the teacher’s comments. What has been discovered through the surveys
and discussions was that the students were very hard on themselves with little belief in their abilities and their
place in the community. By the end of the academic year with the natural connections projects the students
were in a more positive position and had a greater understanding of their role in the community.
TABLE 1 PERCENTAGE COMPARISON OF STUDENTS AND TEACHERS OPINION OF THE STUDENTS EMPLOYABILITY ATTRIBUTES
Attributes Students Start% Student End% Teacher Start% Teacher End%
Confidence 74 92 71 88
Attendance 90 81 83 86
Transferable
skills 87 81 62.5 89
Teamwork 87 88 63 83
Independent
skills 87 96 63 88
The percentage of students/teachers who felt a change in employability attributes can be seen more clearly in
Figure 3. Where the students saw a decrease in their skills the teachers in comparison saw a marked increase
with the exception of attendance. A few of the teachers commented that they believe the students were too
hard on themselves and that they lacked self-belief in their abilities.

4. FIGURE 3 PERCENTAGE OF STUDENTS/TEACHERS WITH NOTED CHANGE IN EMPLOYABILITY ATTRIBUTES
Change in attitude towards the environment and natural heritage.
At the start of the academic year 74% of the students thought that the quality of the town’s greenspaces was
good, this increased to 92% by the end of the academic year. Students have built greater appreciation for their
local greenspace environments through learning about the sites on a landscape scale and understanding the
complexities involved in maintaining the natural environment.
Final on-the-spot question to students
At the beginning of the project 80% of the students felt they did not have a connection with their community
with 20% undecided. Once repeated at the end of the project, 100% of students felt a connection with the
community.
2. Teachers / Leader evaluation
Seven teachers were asked to evaluate the overall project (net promoter score) and the student’s
employability attributes and attitudes at the start and end of the programme. The responses from the
teachers for each student demonstrated a mature and measured (school tracker systems) response against
attributes such as attendance, confidence and team-working skills.
Net Promoter score
The Natural Connections project received a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 98.75%, all the teaching staff noticed
a positive change in their students over a range of attributes such as confidence and independent learning.
The CPD training programme also received high acclaim with a NPS of 98%. The week following the CPD
training teaching staff at St Maurice’s delivered their own SMART (St Maurice’s Alternative Radical Timetable)
programme to 80 teenagers at the site, teaching them how to build shelters and cook outdoors. The 2 day
programme was very well received by the high school 3
rd
and 4
th
years.
Perception of student’s employability attributes and attitudes
Natural Connections takes the students out of the classroom environment and out of their comfort zone to
build upon skills for future employment. Paul Dollichan, geography teacher stated “The skills they have
Confidence Attendance
Transferable
skills
Teamwork
Independent
skills
Students 18 -9 -6 1 9
Teachers 17 3 26.5 20 25
-20
-10
0
10
20
30
40
50
%ofstudents/teacherswhofeltapositiveor
negativechangeinattributes

5. learned are to work as part of a team, organising events and work programmes, the students can then decide
which of these skills they need to find employment.” Staff also commented that while the student’s
communication and team working skills were fairly good there was room for improvement. By the end of the
academic year the staff had noticed an improvement in confidence levels, independent and team working,
problem solving and developing new ideas. Two comments which were extremely interesting were that the
students had built a deeper respect for their natural environment and that through the project they were
choosing which skills suited them better for future employment.
A comment from one of the teachers highlighted that the students need to believe in themselves more and be
confident about what they have to offer a future employer. Sadly this lack of belief is not just restricted to one
student or school and has been seen during workshop sessions and events. Our young people give themselves
a very hard time and it would appear that there is little to dissuade them from this idea. The Outdoor Learning
aspect is vital for the students to be seen in the community as someone of value for themselves and the wider
community.
School use of the sites
Staff at Greenfaulds High School have previously used the Ravenswood Local Nature Reserve site for P.E. and
Duke of Edinburgh lessons. They are looking to continue the work of the Natural Connections through the
Duke of Edinburgh Award (with 36 students already registered) and with the Geography and Environmental
Studies classes.
The staff of St Maurice’s High School stated that they had not used the St Maurice’s Pond site in the past; in
most cases they were not aware of the sites existence. This high school is really keen to continue utilising the
St Maurice’s site for the Prince’s Trust group and also integrate Outdoor Learning into other aspects of the
school’s curriculum. Teaching staff at both schools are now very confident at leading their own classes in the
outdoor environment (figure 4).
FIGURE 4 P.E. TEACHER NICKY JAMES WITH GEOGRAPHY TEACHER PAUL DOLLICAN PREPARING TO MAKE AN ASH MALLET
3. Common Cause Values
At the start of the school term the students were asked to identify with the values which they felt strongly for,
for their town, future and environment. The results from the Values workshops showed that while the
students were disconnected from their town they did express values that were age appropriate i.e. a want to
enjoy life and be a little ‘self-indulgent’.

6. Unexpectedly there was little thought for their own future, for teenagers about to embark into the
employment world there was very little belief in oneself and very little ambition. A tentative connection was
apparent for their environment through the want to be ‘responsible’ and to ‘protect the environment’.
However, this was counter balanced with the slightly obscure value of ‘family security’. The students had
mentioned that they were a bit confused by the idea of environment as the word itself means much more to
each individual i.e. working environment or home environment. The students had commented that the use of
the word environment tended to be off-putting. Overall there was a tilt towards the majority of values being
at the extrinsic/selfish end of the spectrum.
The session was repeated at the end of the project and while the outcome looked to be once again tilted
towards more extrinsic/selfish values the explanations of the students was dramatically different. When asked
about their town they clearly felt they now had a deeper connection with the community and they now felt
that the town evoked feelings of ‘loyalty’ and a higher level of ‘self-respect’ as they now saw it as their town,
one where they had a say in how it was shaped. They wanted to see a ‘clean’ town where there was a better
connection with a ‘unity with nature’ and see how they could also help ‘protect the environment’.
Their views towards the environment also improved through the hope of having a ‘world of beauty’ through
‘unity with nature’ and ‘protecting the environment’, however three of the values, ‘pleasure’, ‘successful’
and ‘enjoying life’ indicated a move towards Extrinsic (selfish) values until they were asked how this was
related to their environment. The students simply stated that they wanted to see a successful environment
that was a pleasure to be a part of, where they and others could enjoy the experience of a healthy
environment.
While their views towards the town and the environment were big steps forward the biggest change occurred
when they examined how they now viewed their future. The balance between extrinsic and intrinsic qualities
showed an incredible level of maturity. These students who had not thought much of where they were
heading in their career paths at the start of the project were now valuing ‘self-respect’, ‘intelligence’,
‘ambition’ and they want to be ‘successful’ balanced with ‘helpfulness’, ‘wisdom’ and ‘equality’.
FIGURE 5 VALUES NOTED AT END OF PROJECT

7. Summary
Overall the response from the students and the teaching staff has been very encouraging and positive. The
greatest notable change from the students is the level of maturity they have shown through the Values
workshops. The Values workshops worked incredibly well, this may be a result of working as a group and
voicing opinions before deciding on a course of action. In a group setting the students carry themselves with a
stronger sense of confidence; emphasis on group workshops would be beneficial, when they are taken out of
this environment their self-belief drops.
The differences between the teaching staff and the student’s opinions have been an insightful indicator.
Where the students may only be thinking of their performance within the workshop environment the teachers
are also seeing the students’ outwith the Natural Connections workshops in other subjects. This comparison is
valuable as it examines the differences between the students and their peers which is a theme that will be
repeated throughout their employed life.
Lessons learned
A valuable lesson learned from the year, is the importance of all the respondents returning their surveys,
difficulty arises when a number of surveys are not repeated. However, consideration is required for students
who leave at Christmas. An emphasis must be placed on teachers to complete the surveys too and this will be
taken forward with the next groups.
Next steps
These surveys will be repeated for the academic year 2016 – 2017; the workshops themselves however, may
have a greater team working element incorporated to build on the group dynamic. Other workshops which
are independent in nature but creative and fun will be explored.