Our workshops and activities

The media team spends a lot of time coming up with fun ideas for videos, no matter how silly, and they often rope other residents and students into participating. We are encouraged to be professional, work together, and adhere to deadlines, but also to be as creative as possible! We proudly share the videos and films we create for both internal inspiration and external engagement.

We are lucky in Scotland to have such clearly defined seasons, and our textiles and design activities follow the year's fluctuations. We encourage our residents and day students to think creatively and bring their original ideas to life – with hand sewing, embroidery, repairs and machine sewing. We make soft toys, bags, patchwork and cushions which are very popular at our annual Advent Sale.

Our residents and day students make candles and wax melts, and use polymer clay, resin and terrazzo to create candle holders, accessories and gifts such as keyrings and jewellery. We use a Cricut machine and other digital tools to design and print labels for the packaging and other marketing items for our products. We also enjoy seasonal craft activities.

In our woodwork programme, participants engage in sensory stimulation, cognitive and physical activity, and social interaction through woodworking. This helps enhance fine motor skills, physical abilities, and overall social and emotional well-being.

We collaborate with different community groups, offering support where possible. For example, we partnered with the Estate Team to create garden benches from felled trees, bird boxes, squirrel feeders, and a new log store. We work on various sessional projects throughout the year, including items for our Advent sale such as rocking animals, garden accessories and wooden Christmas decorations.

The primary responsibility of the Green Team is the kitchen garden, where we grow our own produce together. Residents and day students learn how to care for the soil, produce our own compost, and sow, grow and harvest our own vegetables. We work with the estate team, cleaning and feeding our animals. Depending on the time of year, we cut the grass, chop wood, rake leaves, and pick up litter. We visit gardens, estates and animal farms, where we learn new skills and share our experiences with our community. Our residents and day students reconnect with nature and learn about our environment, promoting sustainability so we can look after our planet responsibly.

Based in our new purpose-built Forest School, at Nurture Nature we collaborate with external community conservation groups and national trusts to explore nature in our local environments and learn about lifecycles and other fascinating facts about insect life. Our residents and day students also collaborate with different workshops and activities to create wonderful nature crafts. They also learn about wildlife photography and go on weekly nature hikes and safaris to observe wildlife across Scotland.

We offer a range of sports to promote and support health and well-being. We attend a ten-week course with Stirling Albion football club, joining their training sessions at the stadium. Residents and day students also keep fit, do Zumba, yoga and enjoy short walks in and around our community.

Our residents and day students enjoy a quieter environment with a mix of sensory activities. We make our own paper, adding scents and flowers for use in crafts, and we make paper where we add wildflower seeds to grow in the garden – a unique, sense-filled experience. We create our unique personal activity books as we go through the seasons, taking pictures and printing them. Our residents and students keep their hands busy – making, sewing, painting, drawing, card making and stencilling. We also make fudge and tray bakes to tantalise our taste buds.

In our pottery group, we focus on exploring the sensory elements of clay and trying out techniques used in hand-building. This involves rolling out clay, cutting it out with templates or cutters, pinching and coiling, scratching and slipping, sgraffito and all types of glazing. Our new pottery wheel allows our residents and day students to experience the joys and sensory elements of throwing and learning techniques to create cylindrical objects and trim. We help keep the area and equipment in order by filling and emptying the kiln, maintaining the wheel, and sorting out the glazes.

We use the Cricut machine to personalise items and employ different techniques to design clothing and hats. Our residents and day students learn to design and create items using different digital software and equipment. We collaborate with other activities to create items, e.g., nurture natures bees project is captured on mugs. We are working towards selling our products to the broader community, and learning how to price, package and send items.

We have fun wet-felting on all projects – big and small – sometimes attempting to make clothing such as a scarf or wrist warmers. We do needle felting and embellish pieces with embroidery. In our glasswork sessions, we learn various techniques to create artwork in tune with our seasonal calendar. This activity supports participants in developing skills from simple ones like hand-eye coordination to others that need more concentration.

In Life Skills, we help our residents and day students understand the value of money and how to manage their money. We teach them about budgeting and how to save for special occasions, and we also do any required grocery shopping for other activities. We encourage everyone to live a healthy lifestyle, stay fit and well, and participate in activities such as walking, football and basketball. We go on outings to develop our skills and community engagement, such as visiting museums, parks, zoos and sports facilities. Additionally, as part of our community engagement, we volunteer with various local groups in the area.

In Choir, we focus on the experience of singing and making sounds. We start each session with a warmup, yoga stretches and breathing exercises. We agree which musical genres to focus on and the specific songs to learn – gearing these towards festivals, seasons and celebrations in our community. Our residents and day students practice playing samba drums and percussive instruments and enjoy using them during rhythmical sessions. Our choir performs at community events and may potentially sing at external venues.

At Camphill Blair Drummond’s Drama Group, there is a place for everyone. We accommodate anyone interested in acting, singing, dancing, prop design, costume design, script writing or becoming a part of the backstage crew. If our residents and day students are superstars in the making or enjoy making props or costumes, then the Drama Group is the right place for them.