AUTUMN 2019 UPDATE

We were so busy over the Summer that we missed our Summer update and Autumn is already passing on. The photo above of the Virginia Creeper on the Centre was taken last week whilst it was still in its Autumn glory. Most of the leaves have now fallen. The seasons move on and so does the Centre. We are very proud to announce the news below:

We have just been inspected for and awarded the AHOEC Gold Standard. This is the highest accreditation for our sector and is the Outdoor Centre equivalent of an OFSTED Very Good to Outstanding. We were assessed in 9 areas such as Learning & Development, Safety Management and Customer Care. All 59 criteria had to average at a least very good standard to get this accreditation.
It is the result of a tremendous team effort from all the staff at Deanfield to make the Centre a great place to visit.

Deanfield is very much about the outdoors and we have even tried to bring a bit of it to our dining room! A new 'living wall' reflects the forest we are surrounded by and is enjoyed by all who dine with us. New paint on the walls, new curtains and plants complete the theme.

As well as our dining room we have also given our lounge a complete refurb. A complete redecoration including new carpet, curtains and chairs that hopefully creates a warm homely feel for relaxing in or using as a meeting room.

Deanfield is always developing and improving (as this Blog shows) and there are several more developments in the pipeline that we look forward to telling you about in our Winter update.

DFSC Spring 2019 Update

The Bluebells are at their peak at the moment, soon to be gone for another year.

This is the scene from our nest box yesterday. Mum and Dad are busy feeding 9 Blue Tit chicks that hatched over the weekend. The live feed goes to a TV in our field studies lab where groups base themselves for our stream study.

The forest sheep have been regular visitors outside the Centre through the Spring, grazing on the grass in the village.

Steam trains are also again regular visitors to the village with their seasonal timetable in operation several days a week.

The end of an era...we recently wished Lyn a happy retirement after 27 years working at the Centre as a cleaner!  Lyn was our longest serving member of staff and we gave her a good send off with a surprise staff gathering where we presented her with a long service award and retirement gifts.

We have also been busy over the last few months doing some bathroom refurbishment. Below is one of two showers on the first floor that have been given a new look with fresh tiles and fittings and are now operational

Autumn 2018 Update

The Centre building used to be the Forestry Commission's college for training their forestry managers over a 2 year residential course. The college ran from 1900 - 1970, with a break during the Second World War when it was occupied by the American Army. We occasionally have visitors coming to see us who once trained at the college and are on a nostalgic trip. It is always interesting listening to the stories of what these men used to get up to when they lived here. Recently we had some of the  students from the last course to run that visited us as part of their reunion.

They were impressed with some of the changes that have happened including the much more modern bathroom facilities than they had! - see below

Over the Summer Holiday, Mike, one of our maintenance team, was busy refurbishing the First Floor Shower Room. It now looks a lot more modern and mirror lights even come on automatically as you enter the room!

With so many digital devices needing charging up these days, we've put in lots of  new surge protected power outlets into the tuck shop. This now allows visiting staff to safely and securely charge up their various devices. We also have our own tablets and cameras charging there that are used for a Photo Challenge activity, along with our two way radios.

 At this time of year we seem to get Ladybirds coming into some of the bedrooms, presumably to hibernate. We've built them some 'Ladybird Hotels' on the outside of the windows that we hope they will choose to use instead!

We've also had several wildlife sightings of a larger kind recently. Several groups have been lucky enough to see wild boar in the forest. This used to be a rare occurrence, probably as children are often making too much noise, but has been more frequent as of late. Mind you it is over the next few months that the Forestry Commission cull the numbers by several hundred and so the chance of seeing these animals may again diminish.

Summer 2018 Update

After a cold Spring we've had a very hot and dry Summer. In many ways this has been great for our groups undertaking outdoor activities, but the ground is parched and to be honest we could do with some rain!

 Despite the thick stone walls of the building, this year heat has been building up in some of the bedrooms. We've now got oscillating fans for all bedrooms to help keep people cool.

Activity wise we have also made some new developments. One of our favourite areas of woodland has been out of bounds to us over the summer due to felling operations by the Forestry Commission. Instead we've been doing some orienteering and den building in other areas of nearby woodland. We've also developed a Centre grounds orienteering star course that is a good practice for these bigger courses or for use by younger groups and as a quick extra activity.

As well as a very busy Summer running courses at the Centre we have also been into schools. Below are a couple of photos from a day we ran at a school where we worked with the whole school from Reception Class to Year 6. The students participated in team problem solving challenges, orienteering and bushcraft.

 Whilst the reception children were toasting marshmallows the older pupils were fire lighting and cooking dough twist dampers over open fires.

We've added another activity video to our You Tube Chanel - this time a quick look at our archery range - click on link below:

 Archery at DFSC - You Tube video

Christmas 2017 Special

In our last week before Christmas our resident group arrived to a snow covered Forest of Dean

The Centre Grounds had a good covering of snow

Team Challenges continued as usual

We got our High Challenge Course cleared so that all the groups could still Zip, Climb and Leap

We did however make the most of the snow and walked a short way to a snow slope to do some sledging

Back at the Centre we thawed everyone out in our 5 star Dining Room! - we've yet again just been awarded 5 stars by the Food Standards Agency

Click on the link below to see a new short video of our lovely kitchen staff preparing Christmas Dinner for a hungry group of 80 people

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-vLy_mQ-tI

DFSC Dining Room

Summer 2017 Update

Since our last post we've welcomed many more groups of young people to the Centre

 We now have a new sign up in the backyard and it is proving popular as a good place to take a photo of the whole group underneath it. The wild flower roof above is at it's best at the moment!

Also looking good is the wild flower meadow roof on the Garden Room across the road.

The garden itself has had some work done including a new BBQ area and 'Altar' fire pit, that are being regularly enjoyed by groups.

The new fire was used at a recent wedding reception held here

 

Behind the wedding party you can just make out a new willow hedge and archway in the photo below

we have added a few new videos to our You Tube Channel like the one above showing a group doing a stream study

We have also added our first video tour of part of the Centre. The one above showing the lounge, visiting staff kitchen and tuck shop. We hope to add further orientation videos over time.

 

DFSC Winter 2017 Update

As mentioned in the last update we have now had a couple of weddings in the Garden Room and have another two booked in. People are appreciating the benefit of a comfortable building and beautiful outdoor surroundings for this type of celebration. Our work on landscaping and outdoor lighting etc. over the last couple of years (see previous posts) has really enhanced this provision.

Meanwhile inside the Garden Room the warm comfortable environment has recently proved popular for a course of baby massage lessons. We also still host the NTC Parent and Toddler mornings every Monday.

We have also added some further disco lighting including a rotating glitter ball for student discos and evening dances in the Garden Room

The Common Room (Games Room) has recently had the addition of a second new arcade quality air hockey machine. The bowling machine which we've now had for a while but hasn't previously been mentioned is also proving very popular. All are for use free of charge.

Meet "Cracker" a baby Bengal Eagle Owl! His owner, Mike, is one of our caretakers and is also a Falconer.

In the main house we have a lot of building work that is nearing completion. E.g. above a refurb' of our visiting staff kitchenette. We look forward to showing you photos of the finished room which will include Hot water boiler for making Hot Chocolate drinks etc. in the evening + a dishwasher and sink etc.

The photo above is a cryptic view of the present state of a £100K refurbishment project we presently have going on! Our largest capital works for sometime. We look forward to 'unveiling' the finished result in a few weeks time when it is completed.

Meanwhile spring is just around the corner and the spring bulbs are about to bloom. We look forward to giving you a Spring update soon.