Outdoor Learning

Residential Visits in KS2 at Pannal School

Residential Visits are an important part of our Key Stage 2 curriculum at Pannal School. We believe they give the children a wide range of opportunities which enhance both our curriculum provision for the children and the children’s independence, confidence, resilience, and social skills.

In Key Stage 2 at Pannal School, there are residential visits in years 4, 5 and 6 which each have a different focus, and all complement each other. The centre we use is youth hostel (YHA) (Grinton Lodge in Year 6)  or hold the AALA licence Adventurous Activities Licensing Service (Carlton Lodge in Year 5) and have approved supplier status from NYCC’s Educational Visits Advisor giving confidence that everything is in place to cover all Health and Safety requirements.

 ‘Safeguarding children is our priority, and we work closely with industry leading experts, including the DBS and the NSPCC, to ensure that our child safeguarding practices are over and above those required by law. All properties are regularly inspected for their physical safety and security,’ YHA.

Year 4 Sleepover (one night)

In June of Year 4, as an introduction to residential experiences, the children have an overnightsleepover in school. For some of the children, this is the first time they have stayed away from home. The aims of the visit are 

to develop the children’s confidence and independence away from home.

Year 5 Carlton Lodge (two nights)

In the autumn term of Year 5, the children spend 2 nights and activity days at Carlton Lodge Outdoor Education Centre at Carlton Miniott near Thirsk. The focus for this visit is:

• to offer the children a range of outdoor adventurous activities
• to encourage them to try new activities
• to help them to recognise their strengths
• to face and try to overcome challenges.

Year 6 Geography/ History Field Trip: Grinton Lodge (4 nights)

In Year 6, the children spend a week (Monday to Friday) at Grinton Lodge YHA in Swaledale. The focus for this visit is geography fieldwork, identifying historical evidence of how the local landscape, and its use, has changed over time, as well as developing the children’s independence and resilience.

We travel to the Lodge by coach and for the rest of the week have no transport until we return to school on Friday. This means a slower pace of life as we visit places in the locality and learn to appreciate staying in a National Park. While there, the children learn about the lead mining history in the valley with the help of the owner of the Swaledale Museum in Reeth who brings history to life. We also study the stream nearby and see first-hand the features of rivers and the effects of the water on the landscape. We walk to the top of Fremington Edge to gain a unique perspective of the valley and the children often feel a profound sense of achievement when they complete the walk.

The children:

• mix with other people across their year group
• enjoy spending time with established friends.
• often find new friendships
• learn to organise themselves
• take responsibility for what they need with them for each day out
• have time to reflect on what they have learned about themselves, others and the location
• learn a wide variety of geography fieldwork skills in a memorable environment

Before and after this visit, the children complete work in school related to the visit and all of this is presented as a project file which gives the children a taste of the type of independent work they might be required to complete at secondary school.

We hope that this gives you an appreciation of what we aim to achieve through the residential experiences that we offer at Pannal. We hope you will encourage your children to participate. We spend a lot of time preparing the children for these visits and talking to them about their excitement and apprehension and encouraging them to support each other. As we all know from experience, new situations are challenging but also very worthwhile. Please encourage your child(ren) to grasp these opportunities and grow through their learning.

We pride ourselves on keeping parents well informed about any residential in which their child(ren) will participate but if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to discuss with your child’s class teacher or the educational visits coordinator.