What to expect on your visit
Who are we?
The Field Studies Council is an environmental education charity dedicated to helping people of all ages to experience the environment at first hand; to discover, explore and be inspired by the natural world. As part of its mission we welcome over 2,500 schools to courses at our Field Centres every year. They provide residential and day fieldtrips for all key stages primarily in geography and science subjects. We also run a programme of leisure courses for adults and reach many others through publications and community-based programmes.
Primary school residentials
Our short video explains what to expect and is ideal for parent events or assemblies. Pause the video as you need to chat about the areas of interest.
Day courses
Our day courses are quite similar to a day at school but most of the time will be spent outdoors.
Residential courses
Each day of the visit will be long, with activities from the morning right up until 8.00pm so lots of energy will be required but it will be rewarding and hopefully enjoyable. Students will have down time after 8.00pm supervised by group leaders.
Centre facilities
Each Centre is unique, so a virtual tour has been created of each Centre to show you what the accommodation, classrooms and recreational areas are like. They are located on the Centre’s web pages.
Each Centre has well equipped classrooms and all the teaching equipment that your group will need. Residential centres will also have common areas for staff and students.
Accommodation consists of a mixture of single, twin and dormitory rooms sleeping up to eight people. Bathrooms will be close by if the rooms are not en-suite. When making the final preparations for your stay, we will ask you or your group leader for the sex of each participant to allow us to allocate rooms and bathroom facilities.
Food
Breakfast is usually served sometime between 8.00am and 9.00am. Before or after breakfast students will be able to make their packed lunch. The evening meal will usually be served sometime between 6.00pm and 7.00pm. Centres cater for special dietary requirements and hot/cold drinks will be available throughout the stay.
Visitors to our dedicated day centres, and on day courses are asked to bring their own packed lunch and snacks as catering facilities aren’t generally available.
Sample meals
View a selection of our sample meals here.
Examples of courses
Films have been produced to demonstrate what happens on some of our commonly taught courses. They can be found on our YouTube site.
What to bring
To ensure you and your class are ready for their outdoor education trip, you can read and download our Kit List
We try to go out in most weathers so adequate clothing and footwear is important. Waterproofs and boots are available from Centres and our residential Centres have drying rooms.