Today was the fourth day out of the last eight that I have spent working on the climbing wall at Concord College in south Shropshire. It was the last day of activities designed to get their sixth form students (new and old) working together and building friendships. Having run through the program on three previous [...]

This weekend has been a real treat for me. I have spent the last two days doing paddlesport coaching one to one in Snowdonia in the sunshine – awesome! Back in March, Oswestry School CCF started running Adventure Education weekends for their cadets. On that trip, I jointly led a couple of days’ hill walking [...]

With no paid work in the diary for the day, it was a great opportunity to spend some time on some personal development. I’d invited my technical advisor over for the day to have a look at a few things together. Huw Gilbert is an MIC (Mountain Instructor Certificate) which qualifies him pretty much to [...]

Today was the second day of Concord College’s activity sessions designed at getting their sixth form students (both new and old) interacting and building relationships outside of the classroom. Although the day’s program was set to run all day, I was only available for the morning due to a previous work commitment, which was a shame [...]

I seem to be working with Concord College a fair amount at the moment, but generally it is with the 6th form students. This afternoon I got to spend a few hours with some of the lower school pupils who have an activities afternoon on a Wednesday. Some were certainly a little apprehensive once they [...]

Today was one of those days that you get to spend a relatively relaxed day, with a great bunch of people, in glorious weather in a fantastic setting. You might say I enjoyed myself! Last year, I was asked to jointly lead a trip to Cwm Idwall with one of Ellesmere College’s Geography teachers. The [...]

One of the things I like about working in the outdoors is the fact that I get to meet so many new people, and often get to visit new places. Today I got both, as I spent the day at Concord College for the first time. Like almost all schools that have A level provision, [...]

This morning saw me arriving at the Adventure Rope Course at 7.30am to set up for a visit from a regional sales team from Wrigleys. They’d booked themselves into the Albrighton Hall Hotel to enjoy some time together and take a bit of time out from selling chewing gum! Although the four hour session had [...]

I must admit that I tend not to head to Snowdon very often. It’s a beautiful mountain with lots of variety in terms of walks and scrambles, but it can be a bit of a motorway. Elsewhere in the Snowdonia National Park, you can often walk all day without seeing another soul, but this is [...]

Oswestry School is a local independent day and boarding school which caters for pupils from Reception to Sixth Form. Each year there is a large intake into the Sixth Form with many students coming from home and abroad. With around 40 new pupils entering the Sixth Form, this year has been no exception. The purpose [...]