Bore Place launches new session for secondary school starters

With residentials at the attraction currently put on hold due to Government guidelines, schools can opt for a Year 7 day visit which has been designed as a team building day to help new starters bond, boost their confidence and help them to feel settled in their new environments.

Activities include orienteering, work in the woods and other outdoor activities which encourage team work.

Although the programme has been designed ideally for new Year 7 pupils, as this is often the time schools run residentials to the attraction, the programme can be adapted for any year group.

The aim of the session is to try and give children the chance to bond with classmates whilst developing confidence and benefiting from the experience of learning outside and connecting with the outdoors.

Julie Easy, education manager at Bore Place, said: “We know that starting secondary school can be hugely stressful for kids – even in normal times - never mind with everything that is going on right now.

“We designed this programme partly in response to the Government guidance that schools shouldn’t run residentials at this time, to provide a day that enables the same kind of experiences and team building that often happen on a residential.

“We know that getting children outside and learning out of the classroom can have a massive impact on building children’s confidence, improving a sense of wellbeing, as well as helping to develop and forge new friendships – all of which contribute to a successful Year 7.”

The day has been designed around the following themes:

• Team building – the group works together to tackle an interactive orienteering exercise across Bore Place’s fields and forests.
• Bushcraft – the group undertakes a series of bushcraft activities in its Green Man Glade.
• Work in the woods/grounds – the group will hone their bushcraft skills on a real time project at Bore Place such as coppicing in the woods, maintaining the grounds or building the new woodsman’s hut.
• Environmental arts – the group will work with the attraction’s in-house artist to utilise the surrounding countryside to make a piece of natural artwork.