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Argyll Hope Spot

Pupils and teachers learn how to stay safe around our coasts and waters

Education

Argyll Hope Spot Education | Overview

Since 2021 we have been developing and delivering our education programme with primary schools across Argyll. Our education programme is delivered in collaboration with Heart of Argyll wildlife, Dan Coyle (aka Swim Dan the Merman), local schools and our snorkelling artists residency alumni artists. Our programme includes classroom based lessons and field trips. Across our programme pupils benefit from working with a diverse range of expert practitioners including scientists, artists and outdoor educators.

We have developed a program of 6 core sessions. Schools can choose to undertake all six sessions, or a mix of only those that suit them. We can host multiple sessions in a day with a single school, or spread them across a term or school year.

A primary pupil from Argyll holds their first Shore Crab

Additionally, we can connect schools with our community champions CROMACH (delivered through Seawilding and CAOLAS who provide their own education programmes, focusing on their marine restoration activities. In these instances we work with our partners to ensure our programmes are working in harmony and providing the highest quality sessions to students.

We recognised that there was space and need for an organisation dedicated to inspiring curiosity for our coasts and waters in local communities and further afield. We start with the understanding that if people can not see something, they can not understand it. If they can not understand it, they will not fall in love with it or take pride in it. Without a love for nature and pride in what we have here they will not work to protect it for future generations.

Pupils getting close to marine species in and out of the water!

With our hypothesis that there was appetite and need for projects which illuminate the world hidden beneath the waves, we began testing ideas in 2021. To build these ambitious projects from scratch has taken time, tenacity and input from so many partners and friends. Each year we have developed and grown them a little further; becoming more confident in our approach and refining them along the way.

It is important that our projects help to reduce the barriers to accessing and learning about our coasts and waters. It is also important that our projects support those living and working alongside marine habitats in Argyll to continue to do so. Our schools programme is offered for free to schools and pupils; and we support additional costs where we can. It is surprising how many pupils in Argyll have little to no direct experience of our coasts and waters; so wherever

Making basking sharks and plankton and learning about foodwebs with artist Kate Moody

An artist sketches life growing on the underside of a pontoon

Since 2021 we…

  • Engaged over 275 primary aged pupils in Argyll and south Lochaber across 14 different schools and over 30 sessions. Our sessions are delivered by our project coordinators and by our team of partners across Argyll; drawing on the unique expertise of each.
  • Co-hosted the first Carna Hope Week – an immersive residential week for ten young people (aged 15 – 18) from Lochaber to learn and apply skills that have a positive environmental impact on land and in the sea and in doing so find hope, enthusiasm and curiosity through nature (June 2024). This project is a collaboration between Argyll Hope Spot, Carna Conservation Initiative, CAOLAS and experts working in support of nature across Lochaber and Argyll.
  • Hosted a group show of works resulting from our 2023 residency. This exhibition was held in a popular gallery cafe – The Alchemy Experiment – in Glasgow’s West End and included performances and a workshop helping us to engage new audiences (Apr 2024).
  • Hosted our fifth Snorkelling Artists Residency; inviting six artists from across Scotland to make work in and out of the water over the course of one week (Sep 2024). Our residency is supported in-kind by Kilchoan Melfort Trust.
  • Supported a retrospective exhibition at the Rockfield Centre of work from all of our 2024 cohort of residents to develop their own group show which took place in Kilmartin, Argyll from summer to winter 2025.
  • Provided public creative workshops throughout the year, and paid our artists for their time.
  • Sent our quarterly newsletter to our growing mailing list, and made regular posts across our social media channels.
  • Attended public outreach events to help people get closer to marine species and habitats through engaging activities and our Hope Spot Collection of donated marine artworks.

Carna Hope Week

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