New Star Course Orienteering

We have created a new Orienteering Course less than ten minutes walk away in the forest. 18 orienteering punches are placed at distances between 50 and 300 metres from a central start point and radiate out in all directions. The start point is a junction of 5 tracks that is ideal for this style of orienteering course as each track provides a 'handrail' to navigate along. The group leader can give out maps  with just one control shown e.g. Map 04 below. Orienteerers then have to navigate to that control and punch their score sheet with a unique patterned pin punch before returning to the start to get another map.

This method of orienteering, known as Star Course Orienteering because of the routes taken out from a middle point, allows good supervision as students are only gone for a few minutes at a time. They then return to the group leader and can get further coaching as required. Once a pair of students has completed a half a dozen controls they can be given a master map to get as many others as possible in a given time.

The maps shown above are based on a satelite image to keep the 'clutter' down, but on the reverse of each map is the equivalent position shown on an OS1:25K map to help familiarisation with using this form of mapping.

So far these orienteering maps have only been trialed once with a group, but are set for some intensive use with 350 students using them over a two and a half week period, so we hope it works and we don't lose too many. Students that is!

 

New Abseil Venue

It has to be said we don't do that much off-site abseiling with groups these days. Most of our school groups and other visitors instead make full use of our excellent on-site High Challenge Course - as seen illustrated on other Blog posts. Occassionally though we have a school that as well as wanting to do the Zip Wire, Climbing Tower and Leap of Faith, also want to get their group out in the wilds to experience abseiling on natural rock.



 We have now prepared and risk assessed a new Abseiling venue in the Forest that is less than two miles away from the Centre. It offers scope for 2 abseils - a shortish 25 foot one as an introduction as modelled by Dominic in the photo above and a longer 40 foot one shown below. Usually both can be achieved within a session allowing a progression in challenge.




40 Foot Abseil Face

 



Dom at top of 25 Foot Abseil





INSET Training Start of Term

As I write this 17 teachers and staff from a primary school are starting their Autumn term with an INSET day with us. They are working in two groups and having a go at several of our in grounds activities: Team Problem Solving Challenges, Crate Stacking, Zip Wire and Abseiling. They are also doing an Environmental Scavenger Hunt up in the Forest and have just enjoyed a pub lunch before getting going again.

They're having a great time and enjoying the experience despite initial concerns. I was quick to point out that we work under the philosophy of 'challenge by choice'. Having said that many are achieving things they never thought they would have done at the beginning of the day! It all goes to show that Outdoor Learning works whatever your age.

We have now run quite a few INSET days for school staff as well as other corporate groups. They make great team bonding days. This school is also using it as CPD for what you can do with children and is also using it as a way to look at observing behaviour and motivations and providing feedback.

It's also been a nice way for us to start the term before our first residential group of children arrive on Monday. So if you fancy doing something different for your next INSET day - give us a call!

Ian and Dom gain APIOL Status

Over the last two years Ian and Dom have worked with a mentor to reflect on their teaching of Outdoor Learning and complete portfolio work, witness testimonies and a final interviews with assessors before finally be awarded with the status of Accredited Practioner of the Institute for Outdoor Learning (APIOL).

Amongst other things this accreditation recognises the following:

Defines the breadth of skills required to be considered proficient in the outdoor sector

Demonstrates operation to clearly defined standards which include quality of service and provision of a learning experience, in addition to technical skills. It is a benchmark of quality individual practice, with clearly defined standards of knowledge and performance

It demonstrates and clearly states the professional ethics and expected continuous professional development of practitioners in the outdoor sector.

For more information about this award you can visit the IOL website: http://www.outdoor-learning.org/Default.aspx?tabid=72

Ian & Dom continue to work hard in their CPD to ensure they are working to the best of their abilities and continue to develop and deliver high quality outdoor learning courses for the groups that visit DFSC.

New Visiting Staff Dining Table

As those who have stayed with us will know, Denise, Karen and Jane, our wonderful cooks pictured above, always go that extra mile to look after you. We were finding that with the large portions of roast dinner they serve up that on the visiting staff dining table there wasn't a lot of room for it all when we had lots of visiting staff. We've therefore bought a nice new wooden dining table for visiting staff which is a little wider than the standard student variety and has extra room for heaving dishes of roast potatoes and vegetables etc. In fact there's even enough room that the cooks have been making some meals even more special with flowers or candles!

Our cooks also of course make sure the children are very well looked after. The top photo reminds me how they make a special fuss of any student who has a birthday while they are with us. So a reminder to visiting staff to let us know if there are any birthdays and we will make a cake, put the candles on and get the banners out.

Tuck Shop Developments

 Schools this Summer have enjoyed shopping in our new enlarged and improved Tuck Shop. Taking advantage of over twice the amount of room Debbie has expanded the product range of goods for sale and there are now several exciting new lines in gifts and souvenirs that are proving very popular with students.

In fact we think it wont be long before Debbie has a whole chain of shops and franchises coming to a place near you along with on-line shopping as well!

We recommend for a 5 day stay that students bring a maximum of £8-£10 and that limits are set by visiting staff on what can be spent on 'tuck'. We do after all feed them well on three meals a day! With an increasing turnover and increased product range Debbie has more work to do with stock taking and reordering and to help with this and auditing requirements we now have even got a till! This replaces the old cash box and allows recording on till rolls for money spent each week. As this is a job carried out by visiting staff we ask them to familiarise themselves with the easy to use instructions that explain all.

The profit from our tuck shop goes on buying new recreational equipment for student use and to charity.

Comfortable Viewing & Great Spectator Sport

The Trapeze Bar Jump (aka The Leap of Faith) has always made excellent spectator sport. Although at first glance it might appear to be a very individual challenge, certainly requiring a great deal of personal commitment to undertake, we have over the years also found it to be an excellent team activity. This is because the group empathise and share the experience and we hope to create a very supportive and encouraging ethos to the activity whereby each participant is supported and willed on by their peers. In this way we have often found individuals push their comfort zones to achieve things thay could not do on their own. They then have great satisfaction and pride in their achievement, whether it is getting half way up the pole and having a swing off or making it all the way on to the platform and actually leaping and catching the bar. The challenge can graduated as above and also by moving the bar nearer or further from the platform according to individual's height and challenge threshold.

We've now made this excellent spectator sport more comfortable viewing by positioning a bench for sitting on in a safe and good viewing position.

The viewing bench for the leap of Faith has proved so popular that we've gone and added one for the Zip Wire as well. This activity also requires team work to operate as their are jobs to do to get the zip rope back to the top of the tree for the next person. Retrieval ropes need pulling, ropes need unclipping and people climbing the ladder need their safety rope pulling on. So it's not all sitting about, but once you have gone down you can have a quick sit down to relax after your adrenaline rush and watch other experiencing the same thrill before congratulating them on their achievement.