http://www.dumfries-house.org.uk/education

Learn at Dumfries House, Dumfries House Estate, Cumnock (2026)

31/03/2022

Our four-day Fresh Start programme helps disengaged pupils reintegrate into the classroom environment through a series of workshops involving the outdoors, engagement with farm animals and team-building activities.

Pupils from Dumfries Academy are among the latest to have benefited from the programme, and the feedback has highlighted how engaging with the programme helps build confidence and improve behaviour both at school and at home.

Schools from throughout Ayrshire and Dumfries and Galloway have benefited from subsidies thanks to generous funding from The Greenslade Family Foundation and The Holywood Trust.

To find out more about Fresh Start, visit https://princes-foundation.org/Fresh-Start-at-Dumfries-House

29/03/2022

Are you a recent fashion or textiles graduate currently working in the industry and looking to take on a new challenge?

Our friendly and ambitious Future Textiles team are seeking a full-time lead tutor with excellent sewing skills to pass their knowledge and techniques onto school pupils and adults through The Prince's Foundation.

Future Textiles is an exciting training and education initiative run by The Prince’s Foundation which has been profiled in the pages of Vogue, Elle and Vanity Fair. It was initiated in 2015 by HRH The Duke of Rothesay, President of The Prince’s Foundation, who listened closely to the needs of the fashion and textile industry. The project brings together industry and education in three unique settings — Dumfries House in Ayrshire, Highgrove estate in Gloucestershire and Trinity Buoy Wharf in London — to arm the next generation with the skills and confidence needed to succeed in the field. To date, more than 7000 people have benefitted from the programme.

Based here at Dumfries House, the successful candidate will be responsible for coordinating, teaching and developing the Future Textiles programme. While previous teaching experience is desirable, this role is best suited to someone who has spent time working in the fashion and textiles industry.

To find out more, or to apply, visit Dumfries House (dumfries-house.org.uk)

22/03/2022

St Bridget’s Primary School from Kilbirnie in North Ayrshire were visitors to our STEM Centre earlier this month.

Representatives of aerospace company Leonardo were on hand to talk to pupils about career prospects in the aerospace industry and to help the young learners with their projects.

The school utilised a grant from Edina Trust to subsidise their transport to the estate.

To find out more about how our science, technology, engineering and maths programmes can complement classroom learning, visit princes-foundation.org/education

17/03/2022

“We would like to continue the partnership and plan to bring more groups of young people to undertake activities at Dumfries House as it clearly has had a positive impact on our school and wider community,” explains PC Russell Watters, Campus Cop for Kilwinning Academy.

Ten pupils from the North Ayrshire school have, thanks to funding from the Greenslade Trust, recently benefited from The Prince’s Foundation’s Fresh Start programme.

The nature-based education programme gives pupils who struggle to engage with classroom learning the opportunity to learn from specialist tutors in farming, STEM, rural skills, agriculture, field to fork and outdoors activities in an open-air environment. During the workshops, pupils take part in a variety of activities which aim to improve resilience, build self-esteem and inspire.

After completing the programme, 60% of the pupils evaluated their self-esteem and resilience to have improved, and said that they would actively try to spend more time outdoors.

“The Fresh Start Programme was very beneficial for the young people involved,” continued PC Watters. “Many of the pupils we brought along find it difficult to operate in the traditional classroom environment and a number of them have previously been excluded for poor choices and actions in school.

“The pupils were able to engage well with the programme and worked well together during the team-building activities. We brought a range of year groups and it was encouraging to see them working with each other. They particularly enjoyed the geocaching and survival skills activities, and many have since developed an interest in pursuing apprenticeships with The Prince’s Foundation, with one already obtaining an application form.

“The parents were all contacted after the trip, and said they had noticed that their participation in the programme had made a positive impact on their behaviour at home.”

To find out more about Fresh Start, email [email protected]

11/03/2022

“Of the unimaginably large number of planets in our universe, earth is the only one we are sure has life. That makes our world a truly wondrous place and nature an infinitely precious thing,” writes award-winning author Christopher Lloyd in It’s Up To Us.

The book is the result of a recent collaboration between The Prince’s Foundation, the Sustainable Markets Initiative and What On Earth Publishing, which aims to encourage children to think about how they can make the world more sustainable.

Here on the estate, our outdoor education programmes are based around biodiversity, ecosystems, harmony with nature, and the interdependence of nature around us. Team-building activities available for visiting school groups include bushcraft skills, building natural woodland shelters, and firelighting with the ‘leave no trace’ approach.

For more information on how to book a day or residential visit to Dumfries House, simply email [email protected]

04/03/2022

Our pilot outdoor education programme that aims to transform mindsets has been hailed a success by participants.

The Prince's Foundation’s new Growth, Resilience, Independence and Trust (GRIT) Programme has been specifically developed to help young people improve their confidence and support them to develop a growth mindset.

“A growth mindset describes a specific way of viewing challenges and setbacks,” explains Richard Kay, residential centre manager and activity instructor for The Prince's Foundation at Dumfries House. “People who have a growth mindset believe that even if they struggle with certain skills, their abilities aren’t set in stone. They understand that with work and effort, their skills can be developed over time. The GRIT programme aims to help them do just that.”

Held over the course of four days here at Dumfries House, the GRIT programme utilises the estate’s expansive onsite facilities — including a nature-based obstacle course, indoor climbing wall and archery range — to lead participants through a tailored programme of team-building activities.

While college students were beneficiaries of the pilot, the course can be adapted to suit a number of different groups, including corporate colleagues, teachers seeking CPD opportunities, and secondary school pupils.

To find out more, visit www.tinyurl.com/GritDH

01/03/2022

In what will represent a boost to rural industry in the UK, The Prince’s Foundation has received planning permission for a new education centre here on Dumfries House estate.

Since 2017, the charity has earned recognition as a flagbearer for promoting education, training and employment in the farming and rural skills sector. Under plans newly-approved by East Ayrshire Council, The Prince’s Foundation plans to expand its offering with a rural skills training facility, which will lie adjacent to the estate’s Home Farm. The facility will host events and workshops for around 1800 participants each year, including secondary school pupils, school leavers showing an interest in land-based careers, and adult learners looking for new careers as well as farming and rural sector workers looking to upskill.

“This development will allow The Prince’s Foundation to carry out important work in agricultural education at an impressive new facility next to Home Farm on Dumfries House estate, our headquarters,” explains Gordon Neil, an executive director of The Prince’s Foundation based at Dumfries House. "Our charity already practises and passes on traditional and rural skills, and this new development will build on our work to encourage the next generation to learn such skills and consider careers in rural industries."

For more information on the Field to Fork education programmes currently run by The Prince’s Foundation at Dumfries House, visit tinyurl.com/DHfieldtofork

24/02/2022

“I want to learn how to become someone who embodies their trade as a way to connect to myself and other people, as well as nature and the wider world,” says 28-year-old Eleanor Wray, an earthbuilder from Gavinton in the Scottish Borders. “I want to create buildings that really serve a purpose and have meaning and intention, and learn to repair buildings that were built with that same spirit.

Eleanor has turned her hand to a range of traditional building skills to help design and construct a new outdoor classroom on Dumfries House estate as part of The Prince’s Foundation’s Building Craft Programme.

“It has been quite satisfying to go from grafting in the workshop on elements of the structure to seeing it go up,” said Eleanor, whose specialisms include timberframing and strawbale building. “I’ve been waiting for the opportunity to practise earthbuilding, which will form the three walls of the classroom. I appreciate earthbuilding for ecological reasons: it’s healthier for the planet and represents a connection between the land and a building made to last.”

The Building Craft Programme supports those working in the construction sector to push their skills to the next level and continue on their journey to becoming the next generation of master craftspeople. Eleanor’s participation in the programme has been generously funded by Historic Environment Scotland.

As part of a team of 12 students from all over the UK, Eleanor worked on constructing an Outdoor Classroom on Dumfries House estate, the Live Build element of their eight-month programme. The classroom, located over the Back Burn from The Morphy Richards Engineering Centre, home to our STEM programmes for school pupils, will provide a beautiful, sheltered learning environment for pupils and students on a range of The Prince’s Foundation’s courses. It has just been completed and will stand as a testament to the value and endurance of traditional building craft.

For Eleanor, the programme followed a stint on The Prince’s Foundation’s Summer School, which aims to shed light on the value of craft in its traditional form.

“I find it essential in this time of environmental awareness and the continual rise in 'new builds' that we continue preserving the work of the tradespeople that spent hundreds of years working and learning directly from nature to create structures that still serve us today. If we are to have any hope of creating a secure and sustainable future for the next generations, then it is looking to the past, respecting and maintaining what has come before, so we can be informed in the future, and build for those who have yet to come.

“We laid up parts of the timber frame in the workshop on the farm, shaping all the joints with power tools and hand tools, and putting them together so that when we took them to the building site we should be able to erect an entire frame.

“Over the weeks of living here at Dumfries House, working and walking the estate, I've come to feel that it is a genuinely good place. And by that I mean that is the kind of place that calls good people to it, where people come to join in the beauty and the spirit of the place in whichever way it gathers them. I'm really honoured to have been invited here to participate in a programme like this. It's wonderful to be able to contribute to a place where there is so much love and dedication.”

■ Applications for our 2022/23 Building Craft Programme are open until March 28 at tinyurl.com/22-23BCP

22/02/2022

Earlier this month, we were delighted to welcome 19 pupils from Muirkirk Primary School to Valentin’s Education Farm to learn about the farm-to-fork journey and sustainable farming practices.

“Dumfries House estate is a great environment for pupils to learn in,” explains Muirkirk P2/3 class teacher Gillian Wright. “At the farm, they were able to get up close with the animals which helped them understand where their food comes from.

“It was great to see them engaging with the workshop, and using their knowledge. Even one pupil who comes from a farming background came away from the estate with a different perspective on things.

“They ended the day by having a ball in the nature-based playpark.”

To find out more about booking a school visit to Dumfries House, simply email [email protected]

📸 Iona Murray, farming and rural skills co-ordinator for The Prince’s Foundation, led the engaging workshop for Muirkirk Primary School pupils.

15/02/2022

Some of the UK’s most ambitious and talented craftspeople will next month arrive at Dumfries House to embark on the Building Arts Programme, a joint venture between The Prince's Foundation and Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust - QEST.

Joanne Dawson is among the seven students selected for the 2022 Building Arts Programme, a fully-funded course supported by The Prince’s Foundation, QEST, and with donations from Ecclesiastical Insurance Group and a private charitable foundation.

Something of an all-rounder, Joanne, from Barnsley, boasts experience in tiles, textiles, embroidery and woodworking. She was drawn to the programme by the promise of honing her craft within a small group of fellow craftspeople undertaking a series of practical workshops with leading practitioners, enrolling on placements with some of the craft industry’s leading lights, and concluding with a live group project

“I think the Building Arts Programme is a brilliant opportunity for those who are in search of an alternative to formal education and yet still having the opportunity to develop a questioning of the individual, the work, and how it is situated in the real world,” she says.

“I find solitude in the process of making and repeating methods until you have reached where you want them to be, I also enjoy how there are specialists who have worked with their trade for their lifetime. The people in the workshops I have gained access to over the last few years have been incredibly inspiring and through conversations, have given me the energy to continue with my own work - it is as much about the people as it is about the story and the sharing of that craft, the passing on of knowledge.

Joanne harbours ambitions of starting her own small business working on commissions and producing exhibitions. Her hopes for the next nine months include solidifying her practice and work ethic as well as maximising the social opportunities the course brings, such as meeting likeminded people and collaborating on projects.

📸 Joanne Dawson, by Jassy Earl Photography.

11/02/2022

Did you know that The Prince’s Foundation offers textile training programmes for people of all ages here at Dumfries House?

Our Future Atelier series of day-long workshops allows school pupils to learn and hone their skills in manufacturing of garments and products to an industry standard as well as utilising a range of textile techniques from hand-knitting to weaving and embroidery under the guidance of our experienced tutors.

For school-leavers and adult learners looking to gain the skillset and speed that appeals to prospective employers in the fashion and textiles industry, we run training programmes, often subsidised, in areas such as batch production. On completion, many of our graduates can generate the requisite level of quality and efficiency that renders them an asset to companies on the lookout for specialist makers.

Our high-level programme The Modern Artisan, meanwhile, is now in its second year having launched to international acclaim in 2019. The programme is the result of a partnership between The Prince’s Foundation and worldwide online retailer YOOX NET-A-PORTER (YNAP) and sees artisans from Italy and the UK working collaboratively on the design and manufacture of the sustainable collection. The current cohort of British and Italian artisans have collaboratively designed the collection under the guidance and expertise of the YNAP team and tutors from The Prince's Foundation. The artisans will manufacture the collection in our industry-standard textile training centre at Dumfries House.

To find out more about how to get involved in a programme that’s right for you, email [email protected]

10/02/2022

A nature-based learning programme by The Prince's Foundation that has proven to be a hit with pupils and teachers at a host of schools is set to be rolled out to children across Ayrshire and Dumfries and Galloway, with schools invited to apply for fully-funded workshops and day visits to Dumfries House.

Fresh Start, which promotes nature-based learning and aims to address issues faced by pupils amid the ongoing pandemic, has already seen pupils from several schools benefit from open-air learning from specialist tutors in farming, STEM, rural skills, agriculture, field to fork and outdoor activities.

Opportunities for schools in Ayrshire are being generously funded by The Greenslade Family Foundation and costs for pupils in Dumfries and Galloway will be funded by The Holywood Trust.

Those interested in finding out more should email [email protected]

Learn at Dumfries House

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