What is the Polar Academy? And what’s involved in their school Arctic expeditions?

School students are being given the opportunity to put themselves through the ultimate survival test with a 75 mile Arctic expedition.

Before the epic skiing journey with professional explorers from the Polar Academy, pupils participate in 10 months of gruelling training to raise their fitness to athlete level.

They also learn skills such as navigation, setting up a tent, outdoor cooking and controlling their heartrate underwater.

And then come the rewards – skiing over unmarked land in the Arctic, passing unnamed mountains and possibly even camping under the Northern Lights.

But the programme, run by Craig Mathieson from Bo’ness, West Lothian, is so much more than a tough trek through the snow – it’s a life changing experience.

Having himself embarked on expeditions to both the North and South Pole, Craig set up the charity Polar Academy to share the benefits of exploration and inspire future leaders.

As teams from both Monifieth High School and Arbroath High School prepare for the current Arctic expedition, we take a closer look and what the programme involves.

What is the Polar Academy?

Polar Academy is a charity which delivers the ‘toughest’ youth outdoor learning and education programme in Europe, it claims.

Every year since 2014, founder Craig and his team have visited schools throughout Scotland and hand-picked a group of youngsters aged 14 to 17 who are struggling with low confidence.

He describes pupils selected as the ‘invisible’ ones in their school community, young people unlikely to volunteer for projects or put their hands up in class – much the same as he was at that age.

However ex-Army Craig says that by the end of the programme, the youngsters are unrecognisable.

“It totally changes them,” he said. “Once the kids see what they can achieve, they want to do it more and apply it to every part of their life.”

What’s involved in Polar Academy’s Arctic expeditions?

A group of 10 schoolchildren are selected to train for the winter expedition, as well as five more who remain on a reserve team.

They join up with another team from a nearby school for months of intense fitness training, including weekly sessions and one-off hiking trips.

They visit outdoor locations to learn navigation, camping and survival skills, often in the Cairngorms, and towards the end of their training they pull tyres during walks.

The young people then fly to a remote part of Greenland where they pull sledges containing their kit and work as a team to complete a 75-mile skiing tour over 10 days.

Craig said: “We don’t help them on the expedition, it’s their job to get us through, we do nothing for them.

“Each kid takes it in turns to be the leader and navigate the team. They have to cook and feed themselves, haul the sleighs, pitch their own tents.

“It’s a huge amount of trust and responsibility we give them and they always get there, they never let us down.”

And what comes after the expedition?

When the students return from their once in a lifetime experience, they tour Scottish schools sharing the story of their journey.

They are asked to give talks to a total of 3,000 pupils, raising awareness and interest in the programme.

Craig said: “There are only a few people in the world who get to go where we go and it’s just spectacular.

“How many other people get to go skiing under the Northern Lights, or skiing through diamond dust?

“The only other people who usually see those things are Inuit hunters.”

But despite all the incredible things the explorers see along the way, Craig says witnessing the young people’s self-belief grow is the most inspiring.

He added: “When I watch them talk about who they were before and when they talk about the selection process – they all say they didn’t think they would get picked.

“When they talk about the training, they all say they never thought they would be able to do it, or that they would manage the expedition, but they all do.

“They all talk about the future and they talk about ambitions. They’ve had a taste of what they can achieve and they want to do it more and more.”

Craig is Explorer In Residence at the Royal Scottish Geographical Society and committee member of The Explorers’ Club Great Britain & Ireland Chapter.