During the first few months of this academic year (August to December 2023), BEAR Scotland has provided 113 visits for primary and secondary schools at the Contact and Education Centre in Queensferry and online through the DYW Live programme (Developing the Young Workforce), which is hosted on MS Teams by eSgoil / Education Scotland.

In total we reached 4,148 young people from 24 of the 32 local authority areas in Scotland, engaging with 2,343 learners in person and 1,805 online.

So far, the highest number of participating schools have been from Fife (13), South Lanarkshire (10) and Glasgow (10). The highest pupil numbers are from Falkirk.

After each visit the teacher is sent an email asking for feedback on their experience. So far, we have received feedback from 18 teachers who attended in person and 30 online teacher participants. Feedback overall has shown that all teachers rate the visits as fantastic (score 4 or 5 out of 5).

Comments included:

“So informative! Lots of interesting facts which kept the children engaged. Also, different bridge types were explained in a way that was easy to understand.”

“Pitched at the right level, very interactive and very informative.”

“All our pupils were buzzing after these tasks and loved every bit of it.”