22nd November 2009

Despite our best intentions it has been too long since we blogged and whilst we can happily say this is because we have been very busy with all of us working hard and longer hours than we sometimes would like, that is because we all still passionately believe in what we do for our charity UK Youth here at Avon Tyrrell.

We have seen a number of schools come and go over the last few weeks and they have all been a pleasure to have to stay, as well as the youth groups and carer groups that have used our self catering lodges and activities.

Sadly the end of October saw the departure of our three GAP students, Kate, Cleo and Jenny who have been absolutely fabulous over the past year. They have been no trouble at all, well apart from..... and then of course there was the time when they..... Anyway all three have been great characters and we will really miss them, and of course we now await the arrival of our new Gappies in January who we are sure will equally be as good fun. Bye Bye Girls and Thank You from all of us.

Claire Moir and Duncan Coleman have been busying running our first group through our Forest School programme at Avon Tyrrell with fifteen 15 year 8 boys from Mountbatten school near Romsey. For the past few weeks as part of a 10 week programme funded by the Ernest Cook Trust they have visited every Wednesday morning and so far have participated in fire lighting, shelter building, knot tying, open fire cookery and basic knife work as well as developing their communication and team work within the group. Throughout the programme the group are taking on more responsibility and gaining independence in the tasks that they undertake. During the second half of the programme they will be continuing to develop these skills, with the aim of them being able to take the lead role in the planning and delivery of their sessions. We have some great opportunities for schools to participate in our Forest Schools so please contact Claire on 01425 672347 or email info@avontyrrell.org or visit the Avon Tyrrell website, http://www.avontyrrell.org.uk/

We have also held our first wedding reception in a very long time which began with the bride and groom arriving by zip wire. We hope to have some photo’s of this in the future as the weekend was a very unique event held in a very special place, and the feedback we received from all who attended was very positive indeed. We all wish Stefen and Becca a very happy and fun life together.

Finally, you often talk to her but not everyone gets to meet her, so for those of you out there who have asked who is Anne, please see below our very own Anne who works in the Customer Services Department.

To find out more about Avon Tyrrell Outdoor Centre and the many varied opportunities we offer please contact us by Tel; 01425 672347 or email info@ukyouth.org or view our website http://www.avontyrrell.org.uk/

Remember… experience – learn – develop

Avon Tyrrell 11th October 2009

Well hi all, what shall we focus on today, I guess as last week we received some emails from the Council of Learning outside the Classroom this is what we should look at. They invited us to become a member, which we duly did, as we are passionate about using the outdoors to enhance learning and experiences. We think that one of the quotes from the LOtC Manifesto is a good reminder to those responsible for Young People to think about what the Manifesto says;

“Every young person should experience the world beyond the classroom as an essential part of learning and personal development, whatever their age, ability and circumstances”

We have always had that ethos here at Avon Tyrrell, but maybe people read the above and think of only school aged children, well we think young people reach beyond the school leaving age and we therefore cater for such groups, so our range goes from primary school all the way to the oldest young people and beyond.

We have the facilities to work with all these groups in an educational environmental setting and we can focus on educational development, personal development and teambuilding and much much more, and we never forget the element of fun that’s needed. We have the perfect environment here at Avon Tyrrell and we want everyone to enjoy what we have, and use our site because it is such a fantastic place. We ask you to take a look on our website www.avontyrrell.org.uk or drop in and say hello because we are determined to get that message across what a wonderful asset Avon Tyrrell is for young people and those responsible for them.

We exist to be used and we try our utmost to make Avon Tyrrell a place you want to use especially for Young People and it is a superb learning venue for all of us.

And lastly, just to let you know we have made further progress with our new environmental pond and with great help from Kate our resident Kiwi, the Eco Health Project and the Maintenace Staff the pond is now begining to become a pond and fill with water.

Remember… experience – learn – develop

Avon Tyrrell 2nd October 2009

Gosh! the time just flies by at the moment and Avon Tyrrell remains very busy. We continue to enjoy visits from schools and currently we have Grange Community School and Northern Junior School staying, and everyone is getting on very well and having fun whilst experiencing the outdoors and learning from their experiences.

We also have three Princes Trust Teams on site staying in our self catering lodges and they are undertaking our 5 day programme.

Members of the Centre also recently partook in the Ringwood Carnival with a homemade float. This was led by Kathryn, our Customer Services Officer, and her willing family as well as other members of the Centre. We should say a big thank you to Kathryn’s husband Andy who kindly built the float in his own time; his help was very much appreciated. The reason for our entry in to the Carnival was to help to raise local awareness of Avon Tyrrell, as even after 60 years of operating Avon Tyrrell in the New Forest it is amazing how many people do not know we are here. We continue to try and improve local knowledge and inform everyone what a wonderful place Avon Tyrrell is, and that it should be used, but as a charity with limited resources this is not always as easy as we would like because of cost….. Any help or advice in this area is always welcome.

For those interested in the site improvements we are now working on, two projects, the completion of our Reed Bed for our sewage plant and finishing off our environmental pond by our strawbale classroom.

To find out more about Avon Tyrrell Outdoor Centre and the many varied opportunities we offer please contact us on Tel; 01425 672347 or email info@ukyouth.org or view our website www.avontyrrell.org.uk/

Remember… experience – learn – develop

Avon Tyrrell 17th September 2009

This week see’s the return of schools staying at Avon Tyrrell after the Summer Holidays, and we have Wendell Park Junior School and Mortimer St Mary’s Junior School with us. Everyone is enjoying their stay and having an active time and learning lots of new things.

We also have two Princes Trust Teams on site staying in our self catering lodges. We run a 5 day programme, which is at the start of the teams course, and the aim is to develop the young people, help bond the team and encourage the team to work well together. Our experienced instructors work day and evenings with the teams aiming to have positive outcomes at the end of the week thus helping the team move forward with the rest of the time with the Princes Trust.

We have also begun our “Roll Out The Barrel Season”, this is when schools and colleges bring along new students to enjoy the day of team building, making new friends and starting the year on the right foot. In the morning the students find themselves enjoying games and activities where points are awarded for the effective team process within the group and the completion of tasks. The afternoon is a raft building adventure ending in a massive race. The students immerse themselves here with the designing, building and hopefully the successful raft being tested by the group themselves.

We also welcomed volunteers from B&Q last week to Avon Tyrrell and following on from the success of previous visits, two groups from B&Q’s Store Operations Division and members of the Systems Development and Communications Team helped build and maintain vital resources used by the young people who visit Avon Tyrrell Activity Centre, many of whom are from disadvantaged backgrounds and may never have been to the countryside before.

The group did gardening and conservation work by Avon Tyrrell’s new straw bale “eco classroom” that acts as a base for Environmental Education activities and is an example of sustainable living and building techniques in modern society. By the classroom a sensory garden is being developed, to which the team contributed to laying out paths and cutting back Avon Tyrrell’s ubiquitous rhododendrons.

The afternoon was rounded off with some fun time playing on our High Ropes Activities and as a way of saying thank you.

We have many new projects on the go here at Avon Tyrrell and if you would be interested in finding out more about bringing a group to Avon Tyrrell to do some volunteering please contact us on the following details Tel; 01425 672347 or email info@ukyouth.org or view our website www.avontyrrell.org.uk/

Remember also to find out more about Avon Tyrrell Outdoor Centre and the many varied opportunities we offer people please contact us on Tel; 01425 672347 or email info@ukyouth.org or view our website www.avontyrrell.org.uk/

Remember… experience – learn – develop

Avon Tyrrell 11th September 2009

Last Saturday we had an Open Day and on the day the main organiser Alison Plested confessed how nervous she was that people would not come and support the event. She need not have worried; the afternoon was a success with some 800 people visiting Avon Tyrrell.

The weather held out and visitors were entertained with live dance groups including the street dance world champions Shake. We also had an excellent live acoustic session from 'Nothing But Trouble'. Visitors got to play on our activities land and water based and we had 35 stalls from the local community and traders. Our Friends of Avon Tyrrell stall was particularly busy with many questions about the Centre and people wanting ago on the Tombola. All in all despite the hard work needed to run such an event we had a fabulous day and the feedback from visitors was very positive with many asking for it to become an annual event. We think it probably will.

For those interested in numbers, The Friends of Avon Tyrrell raised £630 on the day, which is brilliant and the money will be used towards buying items for the Centre to help improve facilities for visitors.

Have a great weekend and if you want to find out more about Avon Tyrrell Outdoor Centre and the many varied opportunities we offer people please contact us – Tel; 01425 672347 or email info@ukyouth.org or view our website www.avontyrrell.org.uk/

Remember… experience – learn – develop

Avon Tyrrell 31st August 2009

Bank Holiday Monday and it has been a very few busy months but I have finally found time to start writing the Avon Tyrrell Blog again. We have been very lucky and had an exceptionally busy period with many many visitors using all our facilities. The staff have been working exceptionally hard to support the daily operations of the Centre and their efforts are always appreciated, and this is also reflected in the good feedback we get from visitors. We have also continued to improve the centre for users, and most importantly we continue to listen to the feedback from our visitors and where possible and it is sensible to do so we make changes, after all we are not here for our benefit, we are her to provide a fantastic safe venue for our users.

The weather continues to be a hot topic, it often seems the accuracy of forecasting is questionable and if we made as many mistakes as the forecasters we surely would be out of business...... Fortunately it matters not what the weather does we have plenty to keep people occupied and experience new things.

The Centres latest improvements include we are proud to say, the completion of the Strawbale Classroom and is complemented by its lovely setting, and we would recommend a visit. We have also built a bridge across the lake overflow stream making it easier to cross the stream when using our extensive mountain bike trails and we have improved our landing stage for the kayaks, with the assistance from some volunteers from B&Q. We have developed 3 new elements in our low and high ropes area and climbing tower. These are the crate stack challenge, the vertical playpen and a bouldering wall, and we highly recommend them to visitors.

Finally a couple of weeks ago we had the Big Bike Bash Weekend. This was a great weekend combining a bike and live music festival and we certainly hope this festival will become a regular event at Avon Tyrrell, as it really was an event for everyone. And one of the madder things that people did at the festival was...

If you want to get in contact with us and find out how Avon Tyrrell could be of benefit to you please contact us – Tel; 01425 672347 or email info@ukyouth.org or view our website www.avontyrrell.org.uk/

Remember… experience – learn – develop

Avon Tyrrell 22nd May 2009

We heard a very good slogan today, “See Your Own Back Yard before the Rest of The World” and this was from the parents of a New Zealand GAP Student who is staying with us for 9 months. What a great statement and what a good reminder to us all at Avon Tyrrell as to what a Great Back Yard we have and why so many people come to visit Avon Tyrrell. Have a look on our website, then come see for yourself, you will love it here http://www.avontyrrell.org.uk/

Another Bank holiday weekend looms and as we say farewell and thank you to Locks Heath and Beecholme Primary Schools, our Princes Trust teams and Sheiling School for staying with us at Avon Tyrrell, we look forward to a busy weekend.

Yesterday unfortunately one visitor was taken poorly and as our staff prepared for the arrival of an ambulance we were surprised by the arrival of the air ambulance. In the end the decision was made not to take the person to hospital, although this caused much disappointment from those concerned who were looking forward to a helicopter ride. The reason I mention this is to demonstrate how well our staff react to a medical problem, as a high proportion of staff are First Aid trained and have advanced knowledge of oxygen and defibrillation. The centre although based in the rural surroundings of The New Forest is also very well supported by the local community responders and ambulance service when a medical issue do arise. We are happy to say the person concerned is again fit and well.

This week we also sent a couple of staff to run a stand at the Children and Young People Show at London’s Earls Court and we hope the two days were of benefit to those who attended the show in learning more about Avon Tyrrell, http://www.avontyrrell.org.uk/ and our charity http://www.ukyouth.org/

Site Developments this week saw our replacement shed arrive, which will be used for our 3 year funded Ecominds Project. This project starts next month in association with Solent Mind and aims to help people with mental health problems, and is funded by The Big Lottery Fund. The project will include gardening, conservation, estate maintenance and environmental projects. Outdoor activities improve the mental and physical health of the participant, and the project will improve the recreation, conservation and educational value of Avon Tyrrell for all to enjoy. We hope this project will help reduce the stigma surrounding mental disorders and help create a society that treats people with experience of mental distress fairly, positively, and with respect.

And finally, we were very fortunate to receive a visit from B&Q Store Planning Team, who volunteered their labour for the day to help out at Avon Tyrrell. The 17 strong team worked with our maintenance team and after an arrival introduction and sausage and bacon roll, they set off to tackle tasks down by our small lake which involved;

• Building an oak fishing swim
• Clearing vegetation to create a parking area for disability groups when visiting our strawbale classroom and environmental area
• Building raised beds for the environmental garden.

It was a hard day’s work and we kept the team going with drinks, biscuits and cake as well as a hearty lunch. We finished the day by giving the B&Q staff time on some of our activities to say a big thank you for their magnificent effort in completing all that we asked of them. We achieved a lot within a short space of time and the B&Q team contributed to making our site a little better for the visitors to Avon Tyrrell.

If anyone wants more details on our corporate volunteer days please do contact us – Tel; 01425 672347 or email info@ukyouth.org

Remember… Young People need to Explore to Learn