WHO WE ARE

Friends of Lagganlia (FoL) is a registered charity, and limited company, which was set up in March 2012. It was established by teachers, outdoor education leaders and like-minded individuals who recognised and valued the powerful positive impact of residential outdoor learning experiences on the personal, social and academic development of young people. A Board of voluntary Trustees runs Friends of Lagganlia. FoL was set up to enable young people who find themselves in challenging disadvantaged circumstances to attend Lagganlia Centre for Outdoor Education. (see below).

The charity is independent from the City of Edinburgh council, Education and Children’s Services, Sports and Outdoor Learning Unit and Experience Outdoors.

Lagganlia Centre for Outdoor Education is set within the astounding natural environment of the Cairngorms National Park. It is situated in peaceful Glen Feshie between Aviemore and Kingussie.

The Centre is committed to providing high quality, adventurous, safe, enjoyable, outdoor learning experiences to motivate learning and promote the benefits of environmental education and sustainability. It is owned by the City of Edinburgh Council and the Centre charges a fee for the overall residential experience. The Centre is managed and run by its own staff.

Typically, primary schools contact Lagganlia and arrange for classes to attend for a week’s residential outdoor education. Parents pay for their children to attend Lagganlia. It is at this point that the Charity would be contacted to help support individual children.

The primary purpose of our charity is to enable young people from disadvantaged circumstances, who cannot pay the required costs, to attend courses and extend their education through using the facilities at Lagganlia. We provide funding to help pay the costs of attending a residential experience at Lagganlia, charges which some families are unable to meet.

There is considerable research describing the benefits of outdoor education and, conversely, we recognise that these benefits are denied to those who lack outdoor education experiences.
Please see the link to the research document under our section on Document Downloads below.

FoL is committed to doing what it can to prevent young people losing out on the benefits of outdoor education when their families are unable to afford the costs.

FoL also provides funding for the following charitable purposes:

• Provision of specialist equipment and training for leaders to enable disabled young people to participate in Lagganlia’s activities.
• Promoting the development of environmental education and sustainability in order to raise awareness and protect the natural environment.

Since 2013 we have funded 371 young people from a total of 60 schools at a cost of £49600.00 to attend Lagganlia. Without our support the majority of these young people would have been left behind in school while their classmates benefitted from what was for many, the life changing experiences of outdoor education.

• ‘We never thought Ben would ever come to camp with the rest of his classmates. I have never heard of such remarkable inclusion….he has canoed ..on his own and with help climbed a tree! These activities and others have changed Ben’s life forever. A gateway has opened through which he can see endless possibilities’
  Parent of a physically disabled young person
• ‘I cannot emphasise enough how valued the residential experience at Lagganlia is by myself, my colleagues and the parents/carers of the children. The range of development that the week at camp gives is fantastic in terms of building children’s interests, abilities, self-confidence, resilience, responsibility, and social skills. It broadens their horizons for their futures as they grow from children into young adults.’
  Primary school headteacher
• ‘We recently took 45 of our young people to Lagganlia for a week long residential…and for all our children and in particular, the individuals with an autistic spectrum disorder diagnosis, the challenge was huge. But all our young people faced this challenge, showed great resilience and had a brilliant time doing it. The positive impact on our children and their families has been monumental.’
  Primary school teacher

Requests for support are made at the time of a school applying to Lagganlia for a residential course. Schools are asked by Lagganlia to complete application forms which are then passed to the Awards Subcommittee within the Charity. The outcome of the application is relayed to the school within a few weeks.

We are a Registered Scottish Charity. Reg No: SC042771

https://education.gov.scot/media/0fklf35p/hwb24-ol-support.pdf

Blog and Friends of our Centres

With regard to people’s protected characteristics, the Board of Friends of Lagganlia recognises the importance of equality, diversity and inclusion in all their forms. This will be reflected in the appointment of Trustees, in the charity’s actions and in the demographic spread of its beneficiaries. All concerns about departure from this policy will be taken seriously and responded to appropriately.

The content displayed and any data is the responsibility of the charitable organisation. The City of Edinburgh Council has no responsibility for the handling and storage of data associated with the Friends of Lagganlia organisation.
Data held by Friends of Lagganlia will be held securely, not open to compromise and in keeping with the Charity’s legal obligations. This includes Trustee data (eg contact details) donor details, grant application details, financial data etc. Data files will be password protected.
The risks associated with breaches of this data policy will be regularly reviewed by the Board of Trustees as part of our Risk Register. Any such breach will be immediately reported to the appropriate authority.