C2: Learn

Learn focuses on helping people to understand commons.

A Case for Commons is a bespoke education pack including resources for primary and secondary curricula, and also outreach and sensory materials for a wide variety of community groups, including those with particular needs such as Dementia groups. The resources will be designed to be used by Project Officers, partnership staff, commoners, volunteers and teachers, or any combination of those and will be rolled out on all commons.

For groups and individuals who already use commons, maybe without realising it, the project will produce downloadable guidelines (on all commons) for organisers of events – fundraising challenges, caving and orienteering clubs, Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and so on. These will explain how commoning, biodiversity and the historic environment can be adversely affected by the way people use common land, and how they can design their activities to minimise these effects without spoiling anyone’s enjoyment. To complement these guidance notes, through the communications contract we will organise face-to-face training/mentoring for key event organisers such as the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, to ensure that good practice becomes standard practice in their advice to participants.

To highlight the potential role of commons in tackling the effects of climate change, we will deliver sphagnum plug planting events (on one common) to show local communities how peat soils work and thus why it’s important to conserve and manage them.

Closely linked to the Shared Monitoring element in A1 Stronger Together, and with in-kind time provided by University of Cumbria we will develop learning on the Natural Capital provided by upland commons using our Lake District Commons as case studies.

And finally throughout the project (on all commons) there will be Learning Gathers – virtual and face-to-face learning events both national and regional – to help everyone involved in the project share their own and others’ experiences. These will be half-day and day long sessions showcasing the work on particular commons or on particular strands of the project.

Internal to the project but possibly one of the most useful learning activities will be the Common Practice record – these are the briefing notes for each of the projects, showing what was intended, what worked well and what might be improved. Where the output is a methodology that might be useful for other people, for example the Hill Farming Carbon Footprint Calculator, that will be included in the record.