Bespoke Programmes

For over five years, Heron Hill Primary School children have been enjoying great residential visits and outdoor education with Real Adventure. The very best instructors, all the equipment and kit you need and a flexible, professional approach all ensure exciting and fun activities in safe and supportive environments outdoors take place, it seems, without effort. Although as a  Head Teacher, it is reassuring to know that behind the scenes all of the boxes are ticked and Health and Safety concerns are fully covered.

Peter Hicks, Head Teacher Heron Hill Primary School

There is clear evidence that outdoor learning has a positive impact on young people, and when that learning is of high quality the impact can be life changing. For many, just being outdoors can have a huge benefit in terms of health and well-being, stimulating curiosity and developing an appreciation of the world around them. When such experiences are part of a progressive programme designed to support integrated learning in both formal and informal settings, the impact is greatly enhanced.

High Quality Outdoor Learning © 2015 English Outdoor Council

Dear Real Adventure, 

Thank you for a fantastic, fun filled week at Rydal. We really enjoyed all our activities! The bananas wrapped in bacon were nice. We all want to come again next year. Could you please say a big thank you to the other instructors?
Thank you
Yours Sincerely

Year 6 and their teachers

After spending years with off the peg residential courses, we finally found what we were looking for with Real Adventure (you good people). The chance to really tailor the course to suit our needs and experiences, the ability to spend a long day doing something challenging and worthwhile, not worrying about exceeding the 2.5 hour session time, and the fact that as we have progressed, with your knowledge and experience of our children, the adventure can start straight away, and not have to spend a morning making beds and doing team building activities!

We like the continuity of the staff, we love Michiel’s cooking, we’re pretty keen on the flexibility that you offer us too. I like the possibility of someone really developing their kayaking skills over 4 days, I like the feeling of partnership that working with Real Adventure brings too, as we plan, do and then review the learning from adventuring on a daily basis.  I actually think that using a field centre, which we have to make ours, rather than us coming to your spot, means that all sides of the experience have to own it (children, school staff, RA staff). I like the planning involved, and the outcomes: real adventures, real learning, and real food, combining to make a really good time.”

Mark Squires, Head Teacher Selside CE Primary School

We finally found what we were looking for

Mark Squires, Selside Primary

I wanted to thank you and your team for all that you did for us and for our pupils in the last few days.  As I said to you and Jen the other evening, the kids have no real idea of the scale of logistical planning and co-ordination that such a big trip requires but any of us who have ever run residentials recognise the level and the depth of the planning and we respect and appreciate it so please accept my thanks, both on my own behalf and on behalf of my girls.  My tutees can be a touch unruly at times but they loved seeing Kat's capable approach to all that she does and she was a great role-model for them.  And I loved seeing my girls rise to the challenge of walking in torrential rain, of canoeing and kayaking and of taking their ghyll leaps this morning.  

English teachers always have a book in their pockets and Jen and I discussed Robert MacFarlane's 'Wild Places' in front of the stove a few nights ago because I took it north to re-read.   I dipped into it again in the bus on the way south this afternoon and found the place where MacFarlane quotes the mountaineer Gaston Rebuffat who wrote that 'In this modern age, very little remains that is real.  Night has been banished, so have the cold, the wind and the stars.  They have all been neutralised ...  But what a strange encounter then is that between the man and the high places of his planet!"  I often worry about this lack of reality because our pupils live in worlds full of central heating, junk food, zillions of television channels and the orange glow of street lights and it can be incredibly hard to prize them away from their phones and laptops.  This is why is means so much to them - and to us - when they get a chance to experience what is 'real' - in a rock, rain, mountain water, snow, wind, trangias, caves and giant flapjack sort of a way!  

So: thank you on their behalf.  They will only really realise what the trip meant to them as individuals as time passes.

Katie Adam, Key teacher Malvern Residential

" Our school have just returned from a residential visit to the Yorkshire Dales. Dan and the team at Real Adventure were extremely helpful and accommodating during the planning stages.

I have over 20 years of experience as a teacher organising residential trips and was uncertain about how not having a traditional residential centre would affect the visit. However, my fears were completely unfounded and I came to realise the flexibility that having no fixed centre gives. Real Adventure worked to find us accommodation to meet our needs. The cooks and instructors then came to us. I must very highly commend the quality and experience of all of the instructors who enabled us to have a very enjoyable week. All of the activities provided a well-placed level of challenge and all instructors adapted to meet the needs of the children.

I can highly recommend a residential course organised by Real Adventure."

Darrell Oakden, Year 5 Class Teacher Buglawton Primary School

I would like to say a HUGE thank you to everyone involved in the Ingleton residential you have all played a part in giving Jessica a memory and experience that I’m sure will stay with her forever – she loved every minute and won’t stop talking about her new best friend “Nick”.

 

Thank you Peter for not being risk averse, as I know a number of schools now shy away for these types of activities – so thank you for believing in the value these experiences give children.

 

I think we may have another new hobby to add to the list – caving – but I am well and truly leaving that one with her Dad!!

 

Thanks again

Claire, Parent Herron Hill Primary