Challenge Weeks

For the last five years, we have run an Outdoor Challenge trip to the Forest of Dean/Gwent for Year 8s from Sutton Grammar School for boys.

It’s a very intense experience, with full days of mountain biking, hillwalking, caving/traversing/climbing, an overnight canoe bivouack, night hike, wide games, Masterchef competition, backwoods cooking and all the extra enjoyment comes from camping rather than being surrounded by four solid walls. because we can rely on the boys being fit and enthusiastic, we are able to plan activities that are more ambitious than the rather tame taster sessions that larger providers typically offer.

We are now able to offer the same experience to two other schools. The trip would suit year eight or year nine. We could  reorganise it at a different site for a mixed group, but the existing format is only suitable for a single sex group due to the facilities at the campsite we use.

The trip requires the accompanying teaching staff to be very “up for it”. This is not a trip where you hand over the kids to the instructors during the day and catch up on your book, but for those who relish the opportunity to have a bit of adventure alongside their pupils and don’t mind taking a turn at the sink during the manic hours of the Masterchef competition.

For schools able to provide their own minibuses, the trip typically costs £320 plus VAT ( state schools can recover the VAT as is usual for trips). Arrive in Gwent 2pm on the first day, staying for five nights and departing around 2pm on day 6. Longer trips available by arrangement.

Please enquire about dates early. For 2012, the nights of 30 June to 8 July are already taken.

Last year, the Sutton Grammar trip was so oversubscribed we had to run two trips with an overlapping day. We brought both groups together in the camp fire circle, just before trip 1 left for a night-hike to Tintern Old Station, and asked the leavers to tell the arrivers what they had been doing. There was a great buzz, which I think it would be hard to duplicate without the challenge of the outdoors.