Outdoor Education

Schools and youth groups

Adelong Outdoor Education delivers quality educative experiences in the outdoors combined with a youth work philosophy. Core to the learning experience is enabling and facilitating young people to recognise, understand and transfer their learning back into their day to day lives through continued opportunities for reflection throughout their activity or programme.

All Adelong activities are underpinned by our core curriculum, "respect and responsibility for self, others and the natural world". Other curriculum focus areas can be included within the delivery of programmes as specified by the client. All Adelong courses are designed towards providing measurable outcomes for our clients. Programmes can be focused to support ongoing initiatives or towards new learning. We can provide introductory sessions, progressive programmes and journey based expedition programmes.

Adelong will offer a comprehensive evaluation of programmes and provide evidence of the effectiveness of the work we do.

Activities:

• Canoeing and kayaking
• Caving
• Rock Climbing and Abseiling
• Coasteering
• Gorge Walking
• Moorland Walking and Mountaineering
• Group Initiatives and Problem Solving Bushcraft

*Based on a maximum group size of 7 young people with 1 accompanying member of school staff

Activities

Canoeing and Kayaking - This activity can take place on the sea, estuary, Scottish lochs or as an adrenalin filled white water trip depending upon the outcomes you require. Open Canoeing is one of our favoured methods for facilitating journey based and overnight expeditions. We also deliver the BCU 1 and 2 star paddle sport courses and 3 star open canoe and kayak courses.

Caving - Exploration, geology, mapping and sport caving are all available in the wide variety of caves we have available to us in the local Devon area. We can also travel to cave in different sites across the UK. Caving is an excellent way to develop group and team work as well as challenging individuals on a number of different levels.

Gorge Walking and Canyoning - An activity that will find you scrambling, traversing, climbing waterfalls and plunging into pools to ascend or descend a flowing river, an exhilarating team activity that builds upon trust and challenge within a group.

Rock Climbing and Abseiling - This activity can take place on sea cliffs, granite tors or at an indoor climbing wall. Participants will all have the opportunity to learn the skill of belaying as well as different climbing and abseiling techniques. This is really good activity to develop trust within a group as well as to provide a very real challenge to most participants.

Coasteering - An exciting and adrenalin filled activity. Coasteering involves swimming, traversing, scrambling and jumping from rocks along our coastline; it is an excellent way to provide education around coastal awareness and safety as well as a focus on marine environments, it also provides a challenging and rewarding experience.

Moorland walking and Mountaineering - This activity can take place on the hills and tors of Dartmoor, the picturesque coast paths in our area or the mountainous regions of the UK including Wales and Scotland. Trekking based activities lend themselves extremely well to our journey and expedition programmes as well as our training and technical development activities. Navigation, camp craft, leadership and team work are all key elements within a trekking programme as well as being able to combine scrambling and rock climbing to produce sustained mountain days.

Bushcraft - An opportunity to learn and develop ancient skills in fire lighting, shelter building and plant and tree identification. We practice minimal impact principles throughout all Adelong programmes, the bushcraft elements of our programmes are excellent tools in delivering work around environmental education.

Initiatives and team building - This can include raft building, river crossing or initiative and problem solving based activities. A very good way to develop positive communication skills as well as trust, leadership and teamwork amongst participants.

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Accreditation and youth work

Adelong Outdoor Education uses a youthwork philosophy as the core principle for all of its delivery with young people. Building positive relationships and providing positive role models for young people enables a safe and enjoyable environment for formal and informal education to take place. Through a youthwork model of facilitation we can engage with and encourage positive and planned outcomes with young people, starting at a place where participants are comfortable and progressing to realistic and chosen outcomes.

Adelong uses a ‘challenge by choice’ principle throughout all of its outdoor education and group work to empower and enable young people to take control and make informed decisions throughout their programme and continue this  into their day to day lives.

Adelong Outdoor Education staff can offer support and guidance in delivering different types of accredited programmes with your groups. We understand that recording outcomes, particularly those measured through accreditation is a high priority for many of the clients using Adelong.

Adelong has an in depth knowledge in supporting and running:

• BCU star award schemes
• RYA powerboat scheme
• ASDAN activities awards
• ASDAN Youth Activities Awards
• ASDAN short courses
• Duke of Edinburgh’s Award
• Torbay’s Make a Difference award
• PAYP programmes
• Aim Higher Programmes
• Targeted group work
• One to One work

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Expeditions and journeys

Adelong Outdoor Education are specialists in facilitating journey based work and expeditions with groups of young people.

Journey based programmes can run from between 2 to 5 days with the opportunity to lengthen this as required by the client. Journeys can take place as a trekking venture, open canoeing or as a combination of activities. We try to remain as self sufficient as is possible to minimise intrusion into group dynamics and to maximise the ‘being away from it’ experience.

The significance of nature and our part within the natural world is central to our philosophy. It is well known and recognised that immersion into the natural world and the outdoor environment brings about positive outcomes on a far deeper level than is often appreciated or acknowledged. Through a journey based programme the opportunity to promote positive outcomes for participants through a longer more sustained period in the outdoors is recognised.

Participants do not need to have prior experience before the expedition, education and coaching on relevant subjects will run throughout the journey to enable young people to progress in their mode of transport and become more and more efficient and therefore independent as a group.

All Adelong activities are underpinned by our core curriculum, “respect and responsibility for self, others and the natural world”. Throughout the expedition group members will play a key role in implementing these core curriculum areas as well as any other pre determined curriculum areas as specified by the client.

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Adventure Therapy

Adelong Outdoor Education is able to deliver adventure therapy programmes with groups of young people. The courses can be run as part of a journey based programme or at a fixed location depending upon time of the year and the specific needs of the participants involved.

The significance of nature and our part within the natural world is central to our philosophy. It is well known and recognised that immersion into the natural world and the outdoor environment brings about positive outcomes on a far deeper level than is often appreciated or acknowledged.

Adventure Therapy uses outdoor activities to challenge and provide risk in a controlled environment. Experiential learning provides a platform for young people to experience genuine benefits and consequence through their own actions.

Self reflection for all participants is extremely important throughout the process and is facilitated on a number of different levels by our fully qualified therapists.

The ethos and core principles running throughout our adventure therapy programmes will remain consistent, we will be using the environment to create a safe space for young people to explore and begin to understand different areas of importance and significance within their lives, we will create space for constructive challenge and a chance for the participants to grow as individuals.

All Adventure Therapy courses will have fully qualified therapists working as part of the team with outdoor specialists delivering activities and risk management throughout.

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Training and Development

Adelong Outdoor Education can provide training and development at all levels, we can offer unique tailor-made packages to suit your needs.

Our training courses can all be recognised and accredited through National Governing Bodies or through your chosen form of accreditation such as ASDAN or the Duke of Edinburgh’s award.

We can run personal development courses for beginners, intermediate and advanced groups, always using a progressive model to develop and enhance skills. Our training and development programmes can compliment ongoing education and curriculum areas or can be run as a standalone option.

Courses can be run over a planned period and number of sessions, or as an individual session dependent upon the outcomes required.

Training and Development courses in:

• Canoeing and kayaking
• Caving
• Rock Climbing and Abseiling
• Coasteering
• Gorge Walking
• Moorland Walking and Mountaineering
• Bushcraft
• Multi Activity

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