Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
‘Invisible’ kids’ lives will be transformed by Arctic adventure
IN less than a fortnight Ellie Simpson, 16, and Carly Rose, 14, will ski across frozen Arctic lakes.
They will tow 45kg sledges – known as pulks – with all the equipment they need to survive in the wilderness of Greenland.
There’s a good chance they will see the Northern Lights and the phenomenon of diamond dust – glittering ice crystals which fall from the sky.
And each night they will help to erect polar bear fences to protect themselves from the predators as they camp under the stars.
Ellie, Carly and eight fellow Braeview Academy pupils are the latest teenagers to embark on Polar Academy. Each year two schools from Scotland are chosen for the expedition which aims to transform the lives of ‘invisible kids’.
And already Ellie and Carly and their peers have grown physically and mentally during 18 months of intensive training.
They’ve pulled tyres over 20km and 30km distances. They spent a week at Scotland’s national outdoor training centre near Aviemore and recently learned to sail at St Andrews.
Some struggled to do 20 pressups in the beginning. Now the girls regularly top 100. One of them broke the Polar Academy record by hitting 330.
Carly said: “It’s been challenging but I can feel myself getting stronger. I also feel more confident, more sure of myself.”
Ellie agreed. “My confidence is growing,” she said.
She has enjoyed the weekly training sessions, including Insanity, an intense full-body workout.
She added: “The first tyre pull was really good. The second was more challenging but we made it through.”
As founder Craig Mathieson puts it, Polar Academy is for the ‘invisible kids’ – those too shy or unconfident to put their hands up in class or put themselves forward.
The impact on past explorers – last year’s were from Monifieth High School and Arbroath High School – has been astounding.
Craig said: “It stops them being invisible. That ambition that everyone’s got, in these kids at the start it’s buried so deep that they don’t dare talk about it.
“But that comes to the top.”
Since last August he has been working with the Braeview team weekly and said they had already been transformed.
“They are already totally different humans. Most couldn’t even make eye contact with us, or couldn’t do a press-up.
“None had the confidence or the belief they could do stuff.”
Now, he said, they are “ready for it”.
“We’ve proved how brilliant they are every week.”
Ellie, Carly and their teammates will have to draw on the strength and skills they have gained over the last few months as soon as they arrive in Greenland, where temperatures could fall to -20 degrees.
Craig said: “Everything will be new to them. The landscape is just incredible and they will spend the first two days skiing with their jaws dropping.
“They will be skiing over the (frozen) sea, through unnamed mountains, see the Northern Lights and diamond dust.”
A different pupil will lead the trek each day.
Craig said: “We step back and it’s up to them where we go. They do the navigating, they set up camp, cook their food, put the polar bear fence up.”
They fly from Glasgow to
Reykjavik on March 12, then on to Kulusuk in Greenland.
A helicopter will take them to Polar Academy’s base in Tasiilaq. There they will spend a couple of days learning Nordic skiing.
Braeview depute head Fiona McPherson will accompany them. She said: “Most haven’t skied before. Once they have their ski legs, we set off.
“They’ll be pulling their pulks with everything they need in them and we head across the ice.”
The team could pull their sledges for seven or eight hours each day before stopping to set up camp.
A key part of the expedition is
conducting scientific research, and the pupils will take water readings and record snow density and microplastics.
Findings will be presented on their return to St Andrews and Cambridge universities.
When the school learned it and Bucksburn Academy, in Aberdeen, had been selected for Polar Academy 2024 hundreds of pupils were eager to sign up.
Staff chose those applicants they expected to benefit most.
Fiona said: “Sometimes it’s the ones who don’t want it most that would get the most from it.
“It’s not the youngsters who are captain of the football teams or are doing five Highers and everything is hunky dory.
“It’s the middle kids who often get overlooked. The kids who struggle to find their place or find their voice.”
Now the preparation is done, anticipation is mounting.
Fiona said: “Physically they are much stronger, and mentally they are much more confident.”
Ellie is looking forward to learning how to ski but admitted to nerves about the helicopter flight. She was overjoyed when she was selected for the Polar Academy.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”