Our activities for schools and groups

Being able to accept failure at a task is often one of the hardest things for young people to do. Seeing this as an opportunity for growth is even harder! Essex Outdoors instructors have been trained to ensure that young people participating in our activities are able to develop high levels of resilience and perseverance; as well as developing a sense or humour that will help them to see the lighter side of failing in front of their friends and peers.

Although young people often appear outwardly confident, constantly taking and publishing photos of themselves, this confidence is often missing from their academic work. Accepting that perfection cannot always be achieved is a hindrance in the progression of many young people’s academic performance. By taking an attitude of perseverance towards the Essex Outdoors activities, our customers are able to develop their levels of confidence.

Clear communication skills are vital in any workplace industry and young people need to learn this skill early on. The ability to communicate your ideas and points of view, on a coherent and concise fashion will make you stand out from the crowd. By participating in Essex Outdoors activities your students will develop their ability to communicate successfully in a variety of different situations, including being able to accurately and successfully put across their thoughts and ideas in higher pressured environments.

People will naturally take on different roles when working in a team. Successful team work is an essential life skill; it is important to acknowledge that there are many different types of successful team work and that throughout their lives, young people will have to take on different roles. Participating in Essex Outdoors activities will allow your students to experience and excel in a range of different roles within a team.

Problems pop up every day and having the ability to tackle these challenges face on is very important. Through the development of a wide range of activities that can be differentiated for a variety of levels, Essex Outdoors has specifically designed programmes that encourage the development of problem solving skill sets in young people.

Everyone at some point has struggled with concentration. Being able to focus and concentrate on the task in hand is an important skill set that needs to be nurtured and is not just decided by your genes. Irrespective of your ability to concentrate, participating in an Essex Outdoors residential trip can improve young people’s level of concentration; with the most striking levels of improvement often being seen in the young people who have struggled the most.

We all know how hard it can be to commit to studying; especially when you have limited interest in your subject area. Research from Learning Away has shown that after a residential trip a high percentage of children feel more committed to their studies. It is common place that the level of maturity of young people increases after they have attended a residential fieldtrip, resulting in an increase in commitment.

We live in a world where young peoples’ exposure to risk can often be over managed; hindering their ability to learn how to manage risk correctly and ultimately leading to some young people being unable to make good judgement calls. This issue has been addressed in the new Ofsted criteria, and schools are now being encouraged to increase young peoples’ exposure to risk. The activities at Essex Outdoors are designed to expose young people to controlled risks; where they are able to safely ascertain what should and shouldn’t be done and how to successfully reach the goal that they require.