A new, exciting and fun approach to understanding our environment Discover, learn and enjoy, whilst experiencing outdoor activities

Why is Outdoor Adventure the perfect location for environmental programmes?

On arrival you immediately find yourself surrounded by a magnificent, naturally wild, coastal environment. Our cliff-top centre overlooks the Atlantic Ocean and the 10 acres of Centre grounds have been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest by English Nature and placed on the register of European sites as a special area of conservation.

The John Muir Award

The John Muir Award is the main educational initiative of the conservation charity, The John Muir Trust. It encourages people of all ages to enjoy and take responsibility for wild places. This popular environmental award scheme offers a framework for groups and individuals to discover and explore wild places both on their doorstep and further afield, to put something back and to share their experiences. It is non-competitive and open to all. Outdoor Adventure runs the John Muir Award for schools, colleges, universities, youth groups, families and other adult groups.

The John Muir Award was established to:

promote educational, social and personal development, through the exploration of wild places and involvement in conservation

encourage an environmental agenda within youth organisations, and a youth work agenda within environmental organisations

ensure that social circumstances don’t exclude people from opportunities to experience wild places

Who is it for, within education?

Within schools, the award is highly appropriate for middle, upper primary and secondary pupils. It is also relevant to many modules of University and College courses. It can be set up as a self-contained course or it can contribute to areas of study such as geography, environmental studies, outdoor education, personal and social development, arts, IT and much more.

Environmental Studies curriculum

The John Muir Award scheme is an ideal framework for meeting the requirements of the curriculum. Pupils will receive a Record Book to log their experiences and a certificate of a nationally recognised award. As well as being suited to the environmental studies area of the curriculum, it is also cross-curricular.

What do pupils get out of it?

5-14 Curriculum

The John Muir Award is well suited to the environmental studies area of the curriculum but it is also cross-curricular

Award Levels

This is a progressive award

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Challenges

The four Challenges are designed to promote an holistic approach:

• Discover a wild place
• Explore its wildness
• Help to conserve it
• Share your experiences with others

The John Muir Award Website

A fantastic and inspiring four days. This approach of getting students to understand and want to conserve our environment really works. The centre is in the perfect location and the instructors certainly have a huge wealth of knowledge and the enthusiasm to pass this on to everyone.

Miss Lloyd, Swadelands Eco School, October 2003

The Activities

COASTAL ROCK CLIMBING
A Spectacular climbing environment where you will experience real exhilaration of conquering a rock face with the sea crashing around you.  Below you will often see seals, dolphins and basking sharks and have Oystercatchers, cormerants and maybe even a peregrine falcon circling above you.

EARTH WALKS
These take you on a journey through a stunning woodland area that overlooks the Atlantic Ocean. It encourages people to feel part of, and have a connection with our planet and the wildlife around us, which is so often overlooked in today's society. Through activities such as 'Smell Cocktails', 'Explorer Boards', 'Magic Spots', 'Animal Lines', 'Sky Mirrors' and more, students will go on a sensory exploration focused on smells, feelings, sights, sounds and tastes of the natural world.

SEA KAYAK EXPEDITIONS
We have a brand new fleet of sit-on sea kayaks. This is an excellent way of exploring our coastline and we paddle in to inaccessible Cornish coves only visited by seals and other wildlife. Here we explore the incredible rock formations and caves and understand how the power of the ocean carves out our spectacular coastline.

BEACH STUDIES
A real eye-opener in discovering what makes our foreshore tick and how everything depends on everything else.  You will see strange creatures you never knew existed!  The session mixes a variety of activities such as exploring local rock pools, art with natural materials, using ocean studies information sheets and even includes a crab race - providing you can catch them!

CANADIAN CANOEING
A method of transport originally used by the North American Indians, Canoeing is now becoming one of the fastest growing outdoor sports in the world. Navigate our beautiful inland waterway, learning new strokes and trying some group challenges - trying to stay dry! En-route you will see swans, kingfishers and herons along the length of Bude's historic canal.

CONSERVATION
Outdoor Adventure works closely with the National trust and Heritage Coast to provide an afternoon where the students having experienced this incredible wild environment help to conserve it for the future. Activities range from projects in our local woodland and coastline, to building bat boxes! This is an opportunity for people to give something back to nature, and benefit from a rewarding, fun and fulfilling activity.

COASTAL TRAVERSING
Explore the shoreline! Make your way along the base of the awesome sea cliffs passing over or under whatever comes your way. You will be picking your way through boulder fields, jumping across rock pools, traversing across barnacle covered ledges into secret bays and coves where there are no other visitors other than the seals. Predominantly a dry sport but your skills will determine a wet or dry finish!

ORIENTEERING
Located in an incredible 70-acre woodland stretching inland from the beaches at Duckpool, is an area owned by the Forestry Commission and National Trust. It has an amazing canopy of fir and broad leaf trees, enchanting pathways through the wood and even a rope swing over a small stream to have lunch beside. These elements amalgamate to make a stunning setting for a day out exploring nature.This is not only a great opportunity to learn or improve navigation skills, but always challenges leadership qualities and other team skills such as communication and trust in others.

SHELTER BUILDING
Ever wondered how people survive in the woods? Many tribes and native people around the world are noted for their ability to live and survive off the land.  This activity draws out those primitive instincts and uses resources that are naturally found in the woods, to build a shelter. On completion of your shelter you will learn about other survival skills such as fire lighting, water and food collection.

SEA CLIFF ABSEILING
You cannot beat the thrill of descending down a Cornish cliff face with waves crashing beneath you.  As you descend you take in the spectacular views all around and are literally in touch with the incredible folded rocks that were formed over 350 million years ago at the base of a deep ocean.  The feeling of accomplishment when you reach the bottom is overwhelming.  A brilliant experience and confidence boost. 

COASTEERING
This is an amazing sport.  It takes you into remote places, which have no other means of access. The rugged sea cliffs and ocean swells of the Cornish coast provide an unparalleled backdrop for a coasteering expedition. Coasteering uses a crazy blend of climbing, cliff jumping, scrambling and swimming to access caves, zawns, plunge pools and jets of raging white water. This is the closest you will ever get to feeling at one with nature.  On returning to civilisation even after a morning session it feels strange and you have a realisation that you have just done something very special.

EVENING ACTIVITIES
We have lots of different types of evening activities and entertainments some are listed below:

• Cliff top fire with acoustic music
• Quizzes
• Barbecues
• Team challenges
• Night Lines
• Local coast walk
• Beach games
• Beach Scavenger Hunt
• Bat Studies