Residential Visits 

High quality outdoor education experiences delivering the best outcomes

By utilising our excellent site, fantastic location and experienced staff we aim for you to get the most from any residential here.  Designing a programme starts with the visit leader letting us know what they hope to achieve during their stay – their outcomes – which become central to the planning of and the residential itself.

Outdoor education experiences can be tailored to many different outcomes including:

• Promoting health and wellbeing
• Enabling students to enjoy and achieve in school – and hopefully later life
• Boosting self-esteem
• Experiencing new things
• Fostering independence
• Experiencing challenge
• Experiencing outdoor and adventurous activities (as per the curriculum)
• Developing team working skills

Our instructors are experienced in not only providing fun experiences, but also in adapting and tailoring them to match the group’s needs, the aims of the visit and variables such as the weather.  To ensure the high quality of what we provide, we work with groups of up to 12 young people and generally run activities over sessions of 3 hours to get the most from them.

Flexible programming

There is no set programme, we encourage and support visiting staff to take an active role organising and running activities during their visit.  Whilst we can deliver all activities during a visit, more commonly visiting staff will lead certain activities.  We believe that by delivering activities the visiting staff become central to the young people’s experiences and therefore build upon these more strongly back at school.

Our residentials are commonly over 3 or 5 days, although both longer and shorter visits are possible.  Our central Peak District location means that most groups can be at the centre and be doing activities by 11am on their first day and are busy doing activities until lunchtime (or later) on their last day – maximising what they get from their visit.  Why wait until you arrive before activities begin – we’ll support groups who choose to use public transport to get here.  Getting a train to Grindleford, having your luggage collected and then walking to the centre can be a great way to start your residential on a high.

Our Residential Bundles

To aid visit planning and budgeting we have an inclusive approach to prices for schools’ residential visits here called ‘bundles’.  The final price paid will be:

• the ‘bundle’ price (per pupil)
• + any evening instruction
• + any catering support chosen (per pupil)
• + any additional costs opted for

The ‘bundle’ price is based upon visit length, accommodation to be used and the number of instructed sessions of activities per pupil. The initial minimum number of pupils to pay for will be on your booking form, although this may be raised depending on the number of activity groups that you require.

What’s Included?

Prior to your visit

• Pre visit and programme meeting (if required).
• Places for staff on our visiting staff induction & training courses (biking leader induction and/or low ropes courses).
• Access to our visit leader login area full of resources to make planning your visit easier.

During your visit

• Accommodation & facilities
  • Welcome by centre staff, assistance with handing out wellies and waterproofs and a site familiarisation on the morning of day one.
  • Your accommodation from late afternoon on day one to 9.30am on your departure day.
  • Up to 4 staff places per accommodation building booked (Lodge, Farm House and Base Camp), once the minimum number is met.
  • Room/space on arrival and departure days.
  • Shared use of our grounds.
  • Kitchen items – oven gloves, bin bags, tea towels, washing up liquid, washing up scourers, cloths.
• Instructed activities
  • Instructed sessions – number as per the bundle chosen.
  • Use of relevant activity equipment e.g. harnesses, helmets etc.
  • Minibus transport to and from instructor led activities offsite (for up to 2 offsite activities)
• Equipment
  • Use of a waterproof jacket and pair of wellies per person.
  • Mountain bike hire for 1 session for each person during the visit.
  • Use of resources and equipment for visiting staff led activities, including orienteering maps, low ropes course & problem solving equipment.
• Other
  • A snack each day.
  • Use of Wi-Fi onsite.
  • Thornbridge Outdoors postcard per pupil.

What’s not included?

• Transport to and from Thornbridge Outdoors.
• Insurance – we recommend that groups take out insurance that covers medical, cancellation and loss.
• Food and catering – unless you have chosen one of our catering options (see Catering section below).
• Water bottle – please ask all children and staff to bring a water bottle to refill each day

Evening sessions

The majority of visiting groups choose to do visiting staff led activities, such as the nightline, a nightwalk and campfires, during the evening and we provide resources and ideas to support these.  Some groups opt to book an instructor / some instructors for an evening session, which is typically 6pm-9pm.  Popular options include booking an instructor to:

• Run a series of 60 minute bouldering wall sessions whilst the rest of the group do teacher led activities.
• Lead an evening or, depending on the time of year, ‘night’ walk.  The instructor can then prepare and light a campfire before they leave at 9pm, but you’ll need to lead your own singing….

Catering

You have the choice to self cater during your visit using our fully equipped kitchens or to buy catering support.  Catering support is provided by external catering companies and is subject to availability, please let us know as soon as possible whether you require this for your visit.  We offer two different catering support options, ‘Shop and prep’ and ‘Fully done’.  The details of these and meal choices can be found on our catering page.

Prices

Visit prices depend on:
• Visit length – with 3 and 5 day visits being our most popular options
• Number of instructed sessions – our instructors can run between 25% and 100% of your daytime activity sessions.
• Accommodation – indoors or camping in our tepee village.
• Visit date
• Catering option chosen – self catering, Shop and Prep or Fully Done.

Please click one of the links below to see prices for visits with 50% and 100% instructed daytime activity sessions.  To discuss the options for your visit and to get a price for your preferred option please contact us.