DFSC

DFSC
Bristol CC Outdoor Education Centre situated in the village of Parkend in The Forest of Dean

Monday 2 October 2023

AUTUMN 2023 UPDATE

 We had a busy Spring & Summer since our last Blog Update with lots more developments and successful Outdoor Learning Courses run at Deanfield


The big bathroom refurbishment on the 3rd floor has been well received by residential groups and in particular by the visiting staff members occupying Rm 31 who now have a lovely ensuite bathroom featuring large shower enclosure, heated mirror and towel rail and waterfall tap!
Presently we are busy building a new retaining wall alongside part of our stream. This is to protect the Low Ropes Course from possible flooding in the future, with climate change in mind.

Whilst working on the wall we decided it might be nice to incorporate a Well and a Pump! These are to get water from the stream for use on our nearby Low Ropes Course. We thought pumping water or drawing it from a well is not things that todays children are likely to have experienced. Once completed we will report it on this Blog.

We also have a new Circus Skills Workshop session that we can offer schools. This is undertaken in the Garden Room and facilitated by a film on the organisation and coaching of the session. See the following link: 



Tuesday 31 January 2023

WINTER 2023 UPDATE

 This is the time of year when we particularly work hard on the maintenance and housekeeping side of things

We have a big bathroom refurbishment project going on in the third floor of the house. Three new toilets, two showers and an ensuite bathroom for teachers and other guests. We're very much looking forward to showing this to guests on completion.


We have four new bird nesting boxes up in the back court yard. All fitted with cameras. The second one along is meant to look like that! - it has a side facing camera for a different perspective. Hopefully the local sparrows will make good use of them in the Spring and we will be able to share some photos of chicks.


The Games Room now has 'funky' ceiling tiles. These are special acoustic ones designed to absorb the excited noise of children having a great time!


We've just had a new cooker installed. It's a Rationalle! These are the ones used in all the top restaurants by Michelin Star chefs to cook for celebs, so it should be ok! 

Friday 21 October 2022

AUTUMN 2022 UPDATE



Autumn is here and the Virginia Creepers on the Garden Rm and Main Centre Building are showing their wonderful colours

 Our big news of the season was celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Centre on 9th September 2022.

We had children from several school attending and after a buffet lunch showcased a variety of activities that we do at the Centre. The following video features the Centre Manager's speech and many images from the day and from over the years: Deanfield 50th Anniversary Celebration Day, 09/09/22 - YouTube


A commemorative standing stone and new activity were unveiled by Richard Hanks, the Director of Education & Skills at Bristol CC 

The sign on the other side of the standing stone lets people know where the Garden Room is!


We have also been getting on with the usual maintenance tasks such as painting the fire staircase.


And of course, we keep doing what we are here to do and run outdoor learning courses for young people. Below we had a large group of Yr 7's arrive for a day visit focussing on getting to know one another a lot better through challenges and teamwork. These Yr 7 induction days are really worthwhile when the students first start their secondary education.



We are now fully booked with residential courses until Christmas

Monday 18 July 2022

Summer 2022 Update

 


We've now hosted a few wedding receptions at Deanfield.
For the latest one the wedding couple chose to have a ceremony around our campfire circle area. Instead of a fire they had a planted flower display created by a Chelsea Flower Show gardener.

They left the flowers which are now planted by the end of our zipwire


We have landscaped the end of the zipwire to now be level with a padded landing mat underneath the astro-turf for increased safety


Our roundhouse has had a little make-over with new cedar soffit boards


Last year in one of the storms we had record high levels of water in the local river that flows through the village and past our grounds. Our sluice gate was breached and water poured over the top and flooded the centre grounds.



We have now installed a new sluice gate and also increased the height by a course of blocks


No worries out flooding this week and we are in a drought. With temperature forecast for 34 degrees C today we have put up a gazebo on the archery shooting line to keep students shaded and have also got a garden hose on mist for them to go under to cool down


In the house we have done a complete refurbishment of the ensuite for staff room No. 15 - complete new bathroom suite and tiling 


We have a new activity which is due to be unveiled at our 50th Anniversary Celebration on the 9th Sept.
It's presently under wraps and just teased below!...



Tuesday 30 November 2021

Autumn 2021 Update


It's been great having groups back at the Centre. In fact the Summer and Autumn this year have been one of our busiest ever. Schools had certainly missed enjoying their residential courses over the first period of the pandemic and were very keen to get back to them. The students certainly made the most of the opportunity to be outside in nature with their friends rather than sat at a desk with an online lesson.



A new activity session at Deanfield is our Low Ropes Course. This has been cleverly designed to maximise teamwork. As well as students trying out the individual rope challenges they also have to work collectively as a team to get around the course helping one another as well as transporting 2 buckets of water. They then use the water to power a bucket, tube and rope system to raise a sign out of a box. The video above is a briefing film that the students watch beforehand and it gives a good overview of what the session involves.


Meanwhile we continue to feed our students well! In fact with five back to back 5 star food hygiene awards our lovely cooks have now been awarded Elite status!
They are cooking the first of a series of Christmas dinners tonight in our 3 week run up to Christmas with our residential groups.  





Wednesday 10 February 2021

 

We have a new Logo for the Centre to add to our badges of accreditations etc. when providing publicity etc. See top left above. It reflects the excitement and achievement of young people and the fact that we are based in a forest.
Above is our latest You Tube film with Ian Healey, the Centre Manager, explaining about the courses we are presently offering during the pandemic. Whilst schools are in operation we can deliver day visits at the Centre and in schools themselves.
Despite cold weather as this is written, the first signs of Spring around the corner are already with us and the garden already has some flowers. Over the Autumn we have planted 90m of hedging + some new fruit trees and bushes - cherry, apple, blueberry and Tayberry. 

We have also been upgrading many of our activities including the ever popular 'Island Crossing' team challenge that we have now renamed 'Crocodile Swamp'
We have plenty more exciting new developments to share with you in the Spring, including news about our new Low Ropes Course presently in development.



 

Wednesday 9 September 2020

AUTUMN 2020 UPDATE

It's been a while since our last post and certainly a lot has happened to the world and Deanfield in the last few months. Presently we are preparing for a series of school day visits but we have not been idle during lockdown and have been preparing the Centre for a much brighter future.
Our self catering kitchen has had a complete refurbishment and is now suitable for catering for up to 50 people. It is well equipped with range cooker and all the required large group utensils and has a fast four minute commercial dishwasher to get the plates clean afterwards.
Staff have been working very hard to make the Centre better than ever and turning their hand to new work roles. Here are 3 of our cleaners putting decking oil on the ballustrades of our deck to preserve the wood and make it look good.
Paint brushes have been out in force and all the jobs there has not normally been time for are getting done. E.g. preparing and painting over 50 metres of sofits around the Games Room building.
We've also erected over 60m of safety fencing alongside the stream in an area of our Centre Grounds where we are going to be building our new Low Ropes Course - more information to come about this soon.
There have even been a few changes just outside the Centre in the village. Here is a new Goods Wagon on display with the Centre building behind.