Some time ago a student taking part in an Adventure lesson said to me ‘it would be really good to do these adventures with my parents, but they don’t know how to belay me (safeguard a climber)’. This got our department thinking and led to me advertising the Parent Adventure Days that occurred before half term.  The idea behind the days was two-fold: to give some skills to parents so they can enjoy the great outdoors with their children and for parents to see and experience what we undertake with their children at school.

We have had two Parent Adventure Days so far – a Climbing Day at the wonderful Lakeland Climbing Centre in Kendal and a day navigating in ‘perfect’ weather to challenge resilience and develop skills on the hills.

The Climbing Day took place on 20 January. A bunch of Mums met me at 10:30am. We began the day bouldering and then after some well earned lunch we practised roped climbing skills. I am afraid there are no photos, but all went away with the ability to tie on and belay a top roped climber. I will be organising a follow up soon. There is a system at the climbing wall that allows for adults to demonstrate competence in the technical skills so they can boulder, undertake roped climbing, auto belays or a combination of all three. We are working at getting these sign offs from the wall. Details are on the website above under PRE-REGISTER.

The Navigation Day on 10 February was rather damp with light winds. We looked at a number of navigation skills including route choice, contour interpretation, pacing and timing, use of a compass and how 21^st technology can help. It was a day that showed the importance of having good equipment and, being a chilly but beautiful day, showed the need for plenty of layers as it is really hard to learn on our Adventure lessons if you are chilly. I was really impressed with everyone who took part that day.

Unfortunately we had to cancel the Winter Day. Twelve parents were signed up to undertake this day with myself and Mrs Roberts, but there was not a single patch of snow in the Lake District hills. We are unfortunately too busy with your children to put another Winter Day on this season (!) but we promise to run a day next year.

We will soon be advertising some Watersports Days (sailing and windsurfing) for parents, anticipated to be a couple of full or half days. These will be after Easter, in the summer term. Places will be limited due to the amount of residential trips and Adventure lessons we are running in the summer term, so if you are interested, please do book in speedily.

We look forward to seeing you soon.

Mr Platt

Head of Outdoor Education