Excellent education and development must go beyond the academic and our Outdoor Education programme is a perfect complement to academic education. Experiential and adventurous education is essential in helping the students to develop the many skills and attributes required alongside academic ability. Our Outdoor Education programme seeks to provide valuable learning opportunities using three key areas:

Environmental – exposure to, and learning about, different environments, be that in the woods, the hills, the rivers, the mountains, different countries or simply a different place nearby

Activity – learning new, or developing existing, activity skills and abilities, such as camping, map reading, rock climbing, kayaking, sailing, orienteering, hill walking, cooking on camp stoves etc

Personal and Social Development – experiencing living and working with others, including sharing accommodation or tents, eating and cooking together, working with others, problem-solving, decision making, leadership, taking responsibility, dealing with challenges, dealing with risk etc

Our Outdoor Education programme is progressive throughout the school from Junior through Senior and Sixth Form. It moves from local, activity-based, instructor led experiences in the Junior School through to genuinely adventurous remote and overseas opportunities in the Sixth Form. Using the above three factors we can ensure that each trip and experience builds on the previous, giving worthwhile developmental opportunities. We encourage the students to take on responsibility whenever possible in these activities rather than just follow the Instructor.

Our Outdoor Education experiences take on many different guises, from whole year shared residential experiences, such as the Lower III activity week or Upper III bushcraft trip, to optional activity trips to develop specific skills (for example skiing or rock climbing), to challenging expeditions such as the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award expeditions or overseas Abbey Challenges. In the past, we have visited Morocco, Nepal and Uganda. Plus, for those students who find a particular activity enjoyable (for example, climbing, sailing or canoeing) there are regular after school clubs in which they can develop their skills and work towards performance awards.

Welcome from Director of Outdoor Pursuits and Experiential Education, Richard Godfrey