They also provide careers advice to give you the initiative to further your qualifications. They have a relaxed and informal approach to ensure you have fun. Because they have a low instructor to client ratio is quite low to ensure a more personal approach with high standard tuition. Plas Menai caters for many events and has a highly qualified and experienced team of staff.
Their target groups include the following.
- Schools and colleges
- Corporate
- Clubs
- Individuals
The principles of the activities run at the centre are to ensure you get the most out of your activity and they believe that your safety is very important and their commitment to safety is amongst the highest you will find anywhere in the UK.
The benefits of the activities run at the centre is that they want to see you leave feeling a great amount of adventure, to feel refreshed and to feel involved with outdoor education.
I am now going to write about Bishops Forum. The centre is charity funded and deals with clients with behavioural difficulty problems. Bishops Forum operate from many centres throughout Cornwall but mainly work from their Goodygrane centre located near Falmouth.
At Bishops Forum they aims are as followed.
To provide participants of all ages and abilities to feel challenged but not phased
To gain an enormous sense of achievement but not over reaching themselves
They provide people with courses that are tailor made to meet the requirements of the individual or group and can be arranged as one off visits or regular sessions. They try to make every effort to help develop the individuals self esteem and confidence.
All their instructors are fully trained and experienced to deal with disaffected children. All their qualifications are recognised by the NGB’s relevant to their discipline.
This is an Ariel view photo of Bishops Forum centre in Goodygrane.
They also reflect their standards by having a licence with AALA.
They provide young people with the opportunity to participate in outdoor education and developing their self-motivation, thinking and social skills to assist with their integration into education or the world of work.
They try to encourage the following.
- Teambuilding
- Participation in tasks and challenges
- Stimulation and concentration to the mind
Their target groups are the following.
- Disaffected and disadvantaged young people aged 11-19 years
- Young people with disabilities
- Girls and young women.
They also cater for the following.
- Stag and hen nights
- Corporative
- School and college groups
- Clubs
At Bishops Forum they focus mainly on personal development.
The principles of participating in the activities at the centre are to provide a safe, enjoyable learning environment for disaffected people, and it is a charity run on a break-even basis that targets disadvantaged children.
The benefits of participating in the activities at the centre is that they reach out to young people who need help, it is cheap to clients as it is charity run and the way they deliver the activities build relationships over a period of time allowing trust.
I am now going to write about PGL. This organisation has many different centres located worldwide. It is privately owned so it funds itself. They offer residential activity courses and adventure holidays in the UK and overseas. They also offer summer camps for kids, children and teenagers as well as family activity holidays. School and group travel service including educational school tours, curriculum based activity, adventure and study courses and watersports. 47 years of experience.
Their principles are to provide young people with the opportunity to develop both personally and socially beyond their classroom environment. They have a dedicated group of leaders who are fully trained and qualified and all activities delivered are fully risk assessed.
There are quite a few benefits associated with PGL. They offer educational programmes tailored to suit the group’s individual’s requirements. The quality of staff are dedicated to bringing out the best out of all their clients, and have a strong lead in the development of standards. With a huge variety of centres and locations across the UK and abroad they are real value for money as they always have offers on and free places. PGL covers areas of the curriculum that people may find most difficult in school. All their centres are LEA approved and accredited and they see the safety of their clients as a top priority.
Their target groups range from school groups, families, college groups and individuals.
After writing about the three centres I am now going to compare them. They are all different in more ways than one. Plas Menai is Government funded, Bishops Forum is charity funded and PGL is a private corporation. As you can see they all fall into different categories. Plas Menai uses outdoor education as a steering wheel to allow people to learn, train and play. Bishops Forum uses outdoor education as a steering wheel to tap into people’s inner self and to produce the best in their personal development and PGL uses outdoor education to allow people to experience adventure and have fun. Plas Menai offers courses whereas Bishops Forum and PGL haven’t got the option. Although PGL doesn’t offer courses they do train people to work for their centres and will train you to their standards and regulations. Bishops Forum would be a bit different because working with disaffected and disadvantaged children is preferred if you have already had experience with that sort of target group. They also have a very flexible approach to their clients and deliver very flexible activities. If you were to work with PGL you would be required to be very enthusiastic in what you would be delivering to your target groups that are mostly school children.
I think that out of my chosen outdoor education providers I would have to choose Bishops Forum as they are using outdoor education to allow disadvantaged children explore their inner selves as well as exploring outdoor education.
Here I have shown a map of the UK and how many outdoor education providers they provide in each arrowed regions.
The map you have just seen is showing outdoor education providers across the UK. The outdoor education centres have been positioned to link in with their surroundings. In Scotland they have beautiful surroundings such as lakes and hills so it is a good location for hiking, walking and sailing. In Wales they have mountains that are ideal for rock climbing, skiing and abseiling. A large amount of centres are located in the South and West of England and the Midlands. This is because of the weather and the warmth. People often go to Devon and Cornwall to do watersports, as it is a good coastline.
Key historical developments have also impacted on the location of outdoor education centres. The Town and Country Planning Act in 1947 restricted locations of the countryside to where people were and weren’t allowed to go. This was further developed in 1948, when the National Park and Access to the Countryside Act was brought about. It allowed access to all locations and areas in the countryside, which was why a lot of centres then started to develop around the National Parks. Many centres were relocated to higher grounds such as Scotland or North Wales. This was because the production of crops was to be highly unlikely to happen. Another impact on the development of outdoor education was the Education Act in 1944, which wanted to see all LEA’s provide the opportunity for inner city children to explore the principles and benefits of outdoor education, and to explore the countryside. This is why there aren’t many centres that operate near cities.
The outcomes of outdoor education provision are different depending on their sector. The private sector uses outdoor education as a money making scheme and can be very expensive, whereas charity run voluntary centres aim for their clients to feel a sense of achievement and ask a low price for it, and government funded public centres are there to offer people with new skills and courses to further their qualifications and give people the chance to learn a new skill.
Here are some examples.
Bibliography
- information about the map work 11.11.03
- information about Bishops forum target groups’ 10.11.03
- information about their benefits 10.11.03
