A GROUP of pioneering children from Okehampton Primary School have achieved the John Muir Award.

To achieve the award, the children spent four days in June completing a range of woodland activities.

The first two days were spent at Fingle Woods where they discovered the wilder parts of the Teign Valley and learned about different habitats where herds of deer roam and the endangered dormouse forages for food.

Through further exploration, they learned how to identify trees and searched a woodland stream for the 'mini-beasts' living there.

The children were encouraged to use all their senses and experienced the taste of the woods by using a camp fire to make scones and eat a Devon cream tea.

Days three and four were spent in the school's environment area, where they studied a more familiar wild area and wrote a conservation plan to improve the natural life around the primary school.

Sitting round another camp fire they made willow charcoal, cooked popcorn and listened to the children's story teller Clive PiG before playing a dormouse game.

A set of verses of haiku poetry were written to share their experiences with friends and families and their final task to earn their certificate found them creating artwork using their home-made charcoal and all sorts of foraged materials including leaves, moss and twigs.

The adventure was brought to a close by making a pizza in the cob oven and sharing it under the cob and timber shelter the children built last year.

Leading the activities for the Woodland Trust, Matt Parkins said: 'The children were really inspired by John Muir and learned about how, through his expeditions around the world, he helped to set up national parks and sowed the seeds for the protection of wild areas such as Dartmoor.'

The Woodland Trust and National Trust are working together at Fingle Woods to restore over 300 hectares of woodlands and protect our natural heritage.

The two trusts encourage free public access and there are miles of tracks to be found at Fingle Woods with a vast range of interesting and exciting habitats to explore.