Awarding Body

Mountain Training

Scheme

Lowland Leader

Course

Assessment

Type

Assessment

Award Description

The Lowland Leader qualification has been designed for people who wish to lead groups on day walks in lowland countryside and woodland in summer conditions. The majority of the UK and Ireland is made up of this type of terrain so you'll never be short of places to go walking.

Introduction  

The Lowland Leader scheme is designed for people who want to lead groups in lowland countryside and woodland in summer conditions. The majority of the UK and Ireland is made up of this type of terrain so you'll never be short of places to go walking. This award is a wonderful opportunity to gain the leadership skills required to feel confident taking people out walking.   

The Lowland Leader assessment course aims to assess the technical skills, judgements and areas of knowledge deemed necessary to ensure an individual is safe to do so.   

This is a 2 day course (minimum of 16 hours)   

http://www.mountain-training.org/walking/skills-and-awards/lowland-leader   

 Prerequisites for the Lowland Leader assessment course  

Before you book onto the Lowland Leader assessment course;  

• You must have attended a Lowland Leader training course (or have been granted exemption).  
• You must be familiar with the syllabus  

• You must have logged a minimum of 20 walks in lowland countryside in different types of terrain (woodland, coastal, farmland etc.)  
• You must hold a current first aid certificate, minimum 16 hours and relevant to your work as a Lowland Leader.   

Please ensure you have entered your minimum prerequisites in your digital logbook (DLOG) at the time of confirming your place on the assessment course.  

 Lowland Leader assessment course content  

The course follows the Lowland Leader syllabus. A typical course will cover the following areas:  

• Leadership skills and group management  
• Walking skills  
• Planning a walk  
• Basic map work and route finding skills  

• Equipment  
• Hazards and emergency procedures  
• Environment awareness, conservation, access and land ownership  

Detailed information on each of the above topics can be found in the Lowland Leader Handbook, and the onus is on you to be competent in all of them by the time you come to assessment.    

Potential outcomes of assessment  

Following the assessment the course director will complete a course report on CMS which will record one of three possible results:  

Pass: Awarded where the candidate has demonstrated appropriate knowledge and application of the course syllabus, and has shown the necessary experience and attributes of a Rock Climbing Instructor.  
 
Defer: Awarded where the candidate has generally performed well and has shown the necessary experience and attributes, but where complete proficiency has not been attained in certain aspects of the syllabus or where a lack of experience has been identified.  
 
Fail: Awarded where the candidate’s performance has been generally weak, or the necessary experience and attributes have not been shown. A complete assessment course will need to be subsequently attended.  

When a candidate's performance merits a defer or fail result the candidate will have a formal written report containing individualised feedback. All relevant information will be included to support the deferred/failed candidate and the assessor who conducts the re-assessment.   

Insurance  

Mountain Training recommends that you consider personal accident and cancellation insurance. If you already have insurance cover, check that it covers you for the activity you are undertaking.   

Course programme 

Home paper 

Part of the assessment we ask candidates to demonstrate their knowledge on some of the theoretical elements by completing a home paper. You can find this by logging into your mountain training account, it is saved under the files tab on this course.  

Please can I ask you to complete this and send it through to your course director by the Thursday evening before the assessment.  

Day 1

To be held online on 10th March 2025

Link will be sent a day or so before

Time: 19:00 – 21:00

To be held online - invite to be sent just before the event.

Link will be sent a day or so before. 

Course introductions  

Qualification pathways and scope of the scheme 

Course programme 

Outcomes 

Discussion of prerequisites 

Day 2 

Saturday 15th March 2025

Time: 10:00 – 18:00

Meet Venue:  The Hampshire Hog

 Assessment of:  

Route planning 

Navigation in a lowland environment 

Walking and route finding 

Hazard Identification 

Group management 

Personal equipment 

Group/leader equipment 

Access and conservation 

Feedback 

Day 3 

Sunday 16th March 2025

09:00 – 15:00

Meet Venue: National Trust - Harting Down, South Harting

Assessment of:  

Background knowledge and understanding (access, conservation, weather interpretation) 

Responsibilities of a group leader 

Planning a quality lowland walk and identify the associated risks 

Navigation  

Walking and route finding 

Group management 

Hazard  identification 

Accident/missing person procedures 

Feedback 

Discussion of Expedition Skills Module 

The programme is subject to change to make best use of the weather and venues chosen for the course. 

Equipment  

Please ensure you have the following equipment (this list is not exhaustive):  

• Lunch and Snacks (plus extra for the late finish) 
• Appropriate walking clothing  
• Waterproof jacket 
• Waterproof trousers 
• Spare clothes (warm layer) 
• Rucksack 30-40L including waterproof liner 
• Walking boots 
• Warm hat and gloves or sun hat and sun screen  
• Vacuum flask / water bottle 
• Group first aid kit and personal medication 
• Compass - recommended Silva Type 4
• OS Explorer Map – Chichester OL08 OS Explorer
• Head torch + spare batteries 
• Notebook and pen 
• Sharpie pen 

Useful links  
Lowland Leader candidate handbook  

Hillwalking by Steve Long: the official handbook for Mountain Training’s walking schemes  

Mountain Training’s YouTube channel  

Mountain Training’s Reasonable Adjustment policy   

Mountain Training Association  

British Mountaineering Council  

Acceptance of risk

The British Mountaineering Council (BMC) ‘Participation Statement’ states: ‘The BMC recognises that climbing, hillwalking and mountaineering are activities with a danger of injury or death. Participants in these activities should be aware of and accept these risks and be responsible for their own actions and involvement’

By booking on to this course you acknowledge that you will be taking part in physically strenuous activities, and you are physically fit to do so. School of Outdoors Limited are under no liability whatsoever in respect of loss or damage to personal effects which you may sustain. You agree to comply with the safety regulations as designated by the staff at the Company. You agree to indemnify the Course staff and the company against all claims, costs, actions and demands whatsoever resulting from taking part in the programme of activities or the administration of medicines, unless such claims, costs, actions or demands result out of the negligence of the Company. 

Special requirements

If you have any special requirements, medical, dietary etc please detail these under the special requirements section of your tahdah profile.

Emergency Contact details

Please ensure that your emergency contact details are up to do before undertaking any Mountain Training activity.

Additional needs and reasonable adjustments

Please use the links below to understand more about the support we can offer for those with additional needs or require reasonable adjustments.

https://www.mountain-training.org/help/resources/support-for-people-with-additional-needs

https://www.mountain-training.org/england/reasonable-adjustments

Sustainable travel

School of Outdoors is keen to support sustainable travel. You may find a suitable liftshare here.

https://liftshare.com/uk/community/bmc

Alternatively, on our initial online meeting there will the opportunity to see if lift share opportunities are possible

Terms and conditions apply, these can be found on our website 

Start

15/03/2025 10:00

End

16/03/2025 15:00

Total Days

2

Maximum Bookings

4

Bookings

1

Venue

The Hampshire Hog

Town

Waterlooville

County

Hampshire

Postcode

PO8 0QD

Country

United Kingdom

Latitude

50.95241

Longitude

-0.98388

Name

School of Outdoors

Phone

01296336644

Website

Email