Primary Residential Activities

2024 was the warmest year on record, and the first year above 1.5°C — the critical threshold that will help prevent the worst impacts of climate change. (Royal Meteorological Society)
In order to create the future scientists and green skills needed to address this, Field Studies Council believe every child should have the opportunities to develop their climate literacy. This session will heighten your pupil’s awareness of climate change and stimulate their passion for driving positive, sustainable change. Through a series of hands on, interactive games and activities, culminating in the creation of a climate pledge, learners will leave feeling inspired and empowered to spread the message on climate change and sustainability.

Curriculum links: science, maths, geography, PHSE

Using key orienteering skills to explore inspirational landscapes, children will quickly and accurately navigate their teams through challenges and problems – mistakes cost time! Developing map reading, orientation and compass abilities, they will gain confidence in finding their way through unfamiliar terrain.

Curriculum links: geography skills, human and physical geography

Children will delve into the fascinating world of the seashore and enjoy active enquiry games to consider the adaptations and lifecycles of the animals they find in this unique habitat. This  session can be extended with Seine netting and crabbing.

Children will use technology to share creative ideas, stories and feelings relating to the landscape. Their unique perspectives can be captured in a multitude of media, allowing each child to journey into expressive and vibrant areas of art, meaning and language.

Curriculum links: IT use technology safely, respectfully and responsibly, use sequence, selection, and repetition in program

Discover the world of wildlife hidden within the landscape; warrens, burrows, nests and hollows all hide signs of the animals that live there. Children will use all their senses to explore the busy world of wildlife that crawls, flies, walks and hops throughout the countryside. There may be opportunities to use IT to detect bats at dusk, as well as live trapping and observation of small mammals.

Curriculum links: working scientifically, evolution

School-supervised activity. Help them burn the last of the energy off and develop new social skills with some suitable music. We will set up an area and sound system but the dancing skills are down to you.

Curriculum links: personal development

Children will take part in exciting sensory games and activities to help build a bond with the natural landscape. They will participate in some active conservation or habitat management, such as bird box building or pond restoration. Children will consider human impacts on the environment and sustainability.

Curriculum links: geography skills, human and physical geography, personal development- mental, spiritual, social, emotional

Children will build their spatial and locational knowledge creatively exploring the distinctive landscape and settlements surrounding the centre. They will use innovative ways to answer their own geographical questions, such as: What makes this place special? How is it connected to my place? Why is it like this? Locations explored could be coastal tourist areas, Olympic Park, World Heritage sites etc.

Curriculum links: working scientifically, geography skills, rocks, human and physical geography

School-supervised activity. You can sit back and relax as we set you with a suitable film and provide the popcorn.

Curriculum links: personal development

Children will delve into the fascinating world of freshwater and enjoy active enquiry games to consider the adaptations and lifecycles of the animals they find in this unique habitat.

Curriculum links: working scientifically, plants, living things and their habitats, animals including humans, evolution.

On an expedition through the local landscape, children will challenge themselves to uncover the mysteries of our countryside. They will employ cutting edge digital technologies and apply their geographical knowledge to a series of exciting activities which will deepen their curiosity and understanding of the natural world.

Curriculum links: working scientifically, geography skills, rocks, human and physical geography

Pupils will be introduced to some famous environmental artists. They will have the opportunity to blend different artistic materials and media to create 2D and 3D outdoor nature art. The students will use the outdoor environment as their inspiration. Each team will then have a chance to showcase their work to the rest of the class.

Uncover fascinating local histories through hands-on enquiry. Active participation and immersive activities guide children through our ancient past hidden within our modern landscapes. Iron-Age hill forts, medieval timber-framed buildings, Roman remains, castles and watermills provide the settings which reveal the secrets of our past.

Curriculum links: human and physical geography, A local history study

Improve literacy skills by exploring poetry and stories and a combination of tactile and visual experiences. Children will create characters, develop plots, and generate ideas to form a story of their own.

Curriculum links: human and physical geography, a local history study

Children will learn how to set a moth trap and discover facts about these misunderstood insects.

Curriculum links: living things and their habitats, evolution

Activities introducing the geometry of the Earth and basic mapping techniques will outline the science of map making. Children will use IT and a range of different maps, to explore spatial dimensions, angles, shapes and distances, while relating these concepts to the landscape surrounding them, for example within relief, contours and scales. They construct 2D and 3D maps, to different scales and find out which maps are most useful in different situations, as well as considering the history of map making.

Curriculum links: geography skills

Gather together around the fire, for an evening of entertainment, stories and music.
Curriculum links: personal development

Children will become maths detectives, discovering the numbers and patterns hidden in nature. They will take part in mathematical games, finding patterns in snail shells, symmetry in leaves, angles in trees and fractions within animal populations. This session will use the environment to inspire children, improving their mathematical literacy and problem-solving skills.

Curriculum links: geometry, fractions, decimals, percentages, measurement and symmetry.

Children will use their senses to explore the inspiring dusk environment and discover the wildlife that inhabits our nocturnal world.

Curriculum links: working scientifically, living things and their habitats

Orienteering Puzzles Develop practical navigation skills whilst also having fun and encouraging relationship building.

Curriculum links: geographical skills and fieldwork, personal development- social, physical, mental

Using a variety of engaging activities, children will discover the physical geography and river processes, which have formed this distinctive habitat. Working scientifically to gather data children will ask questions to build a picture of the river and the life that surrounds it. They will journey beside and within the watery world, discovering the plants and animals that make rivers and streams their homes.

Curriculum links: working scientifically, geography skills, evolution, human and physical geography

Children will become geological detectives, delving into the fascinating world beneath our feet to learn about different rock types, their formation and the process of fossilisation. Using a variety of interactive tests, children will explore the properties of different rocks and soils in order to solve a mysterious ‘crime’ at the Centre.

Curriculum links: geography skills, human and physical geography

Delve into the unseen watery depths to discover the life teeming beneath the surface. Children will explore pond margins for signs of life and investigate the life support systems behind the abundance of pond invertebrates hidden from everyday view.

Curriculum links: working scientifically, plants, living things and their habitats, animals including humans, evolution.

Viewing the night sky, children will find out more about the moon, stars and planets of the solar system.

Curriculum links: space

An exciting and challenging introduction to the concepts of working well together, using a wide variety of fun activities and puzzles designed to encourage problem solving and teamwork.

Curriculum links: physical education, outdoor education, teamwork

Hands-on, outdoor experiments and activities. Whilst working as part of a team explore the natural world, pupils will look for evidence that refutes or supports ideas and discover ideas from famous naturalists and scientists.

Children will discover forests, woodlands and meadows on a sensory level as well as through games and investigations, looking for the clues that make trees and plants special. They will see the fascinating features of plants and find out what plants need to survive and how plants work.

Curriculum links: working scientifically, plants, living things and their habitats, evolution.

What do you need to survive a night in the wilderness? Students to discover what they would need to survive a night in the wild. They will work in teams to build their own shelters and have a go at lighting a fire using natural materials. Depending on the length of the session, students may also have ago at making elder beads, whittling and cooking some nettle tea to have round the fire.

Curriculum links: human and physical geography