Avon Tyrrell Latest 25th March 2011

How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives - Annie Dillard

What a great quote and with the last of our HCC Inspiring you weekends for families who have a member(s) with a disability last weekend what a perfect analogy. Those who attended enjoyed an early spring weekend and the pictures below give you a good story of an inspiring weekend, and we will be working jolly hard to find further funding to support more weekends in 2011/12:

 

 

Our bushcraft was very popular and it did not matter what your ability was there was great chance for everyone to do something not experienced before and most importantly get something from it.

 

Fishing was as ever, very popular and it had an excellent therapeutic effect on participants.  All fish caught were safely returned to the lake and there were many stories of how big the fish were that were caught......

We also had a bird display on the Sunday which everyone enjoyed learning about the birds and especially about the origins of the owls 'Twit Twoo'

 

ITV meridian TV also visited and you can see a short piece about the weekend at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUru_fNy83Q

Also we did not want to finish without showing you the creative work produced by Beechwood School this week whilst staying, it’s a credit to the children’s imagination and inspiring how creative they can be with just a little encouragement and guidance.

To find out more about Avon Tyrrell Outdoor Activity Centre and the many varied opportunities we offer please contact us on Tel; 01425 672347 or email info@ukyouth.org or view our website http://www.avontyrrell.org.uk/  or follow our twitter http://twitter.com/#!/y7dw

Remember… experience – learn – develop

We had lots of boating opportunities for participants and the variety ensured everyone could have ago, and clearly enjoy exploring our large lake with all its wildlife.

Avon Tyrrell Latest March 2011

Avon Tyrrell with a wide variety of groups visiting us.  We have supported two Disability Weekends sponsored by HCC which have been hugely popular and successful enhancing the Centres reputation as provider of outdoor adventure for all abilities. We continue to receive feedback such as below:

Subject: Autism weekend just gone

Hi - Just wanted to say how much kids enjoyed the weekend especially put on for children with autism and their families. The instructors are all very good which is something i have found consistent on each occasion when i have been to Avon Tyrell, particular thanks to Matt for getting my son out from behind the climbing wall and being so very patient. Thanks to all instructors and all the staff, Ann and catering staff for a really good weekend. - Vicky (mum to Michael, Hannah and Maya)

Site Developments

Winter Maintenance Projects continue including a rolling Avon Tyrrell House painting programme for rooms and group communal areas and upgrading of toilets.

We have relocated the Shop into the Reception Area by opening the floor space up, this has given us a very nice retail space and it is now always open when Reception is.

The Fundraising Team raised funds to remove vegetation from the Avon Tyrrell Grade II listed grounds SINC sites and return them to heathland, and whilst work was limited to small areas, a great deal of work in these areas was completed over 4 days to assist with improving the grounds

Our recent disability work has helped gain extra funding from HCC to improve disability access to the site by improving the track to the lakes and upgrading the pathway from the boating lake to the zip wire.  We are also in the process of building 4 fishing swims with disabled access and buying a mobility vehicle to assist disabled users to get around the site, this is all funded by HCC and wUK Youth and will be completed by the end of March.

 



The fundraising team also raised a considerable amount of money to build a cycle pump track within the boundaries of the Avon Tyrrell mountain bike track that can be used by the local community. Work has begun and should be completed by the end of March. The money is also being used to upgrade some elements of the mountain bike track.

DofE

Saturday 12th March iwas the launch date of the Duke of Edinburgh Award New Forest Open Centre at Avon Tyrrell and voluntary, supported by members of the staff. If you are interested in doing your DofE then please contact us as we have an exciting programme for 2011 planned out:

Learning outside The Classroom (LoTC) Quality Badge

And finally we are very happy to report Avon Tyrrell Outdoor Centre has achieved the Learning Outside the Classroom Quality Badge. This is an excellent achievement by the staff and the advantages for external site users is that we have been externally assessed and met the criteria for supporting outdoor learning and therefore they do not have to complete as much documentation to visit us as an approved centre, so we expect this to support our selling programme.

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

Remember… experience – learn – develop