dw - Head of Avon Tyrrell Blog: 2012

Thursday, 2 August 2012

Avon Tyrrell August 2012

Summer rolls on, the Olympics are finally here and people are taking Holidays and enjoying the ‘Great Outdoors’. We are hugely busy with a great mixture of groups enjoying and benefitting from what we offer at Avon Tyrrell. The staff continue to work their socks off to try and do their utmost to ensure everyone has a rewarding experience when visiting and or staying. We ardently believe that our charity UK Youth offers this fantastic unique venue for the good and benefit of young people and that it is extremely rewarding to be able to offer many varying experience to help people with new life skills, which can have a positive affect for them.

Only this week we had one group compliment the staff on how well they worked with the group, they also said that after a number of residential trips this trip was the first time the group had fully engaged in activities, enjoyed them and felt the benefits. How heartening and rewarding for the whole team to hear compliments like that, its these moments when you know you are in the right job, without a shadow of a doubt.

And to make Avon Tyrrell a little better every year and try and maximise what we offer it is absolutely fantastic that we continue to receive corporate volunteer groups to support site improvements. B&Q HR Shared Services have recently spent a day with us working on clearing vegetation to return an area back to the original heathland which will support our Field Studies and Environmental sessions. It was a very hot day but the team worked impressively hard finishing off clearance of the area, which will now allow us to get a digger in to clear the root balls and allow the heathland to once again flourish. A very big thank you to the team for all the hard work and we hope you enjoyed our chef’s food and the outdoor activities you participated in as a thank you.

We also recently attended the New Forest Show and we had a small team in the Discovery Zone, which was a shady area (the main arena was like a furnace) where young people could engage in some field study activities including our most popular one which was mini beast hunting. It was fantastic for them to discover that not far from where they were walking they could find toads, newts, violet ground beetles, millipedes, snails and lots of slugs (to name a few!)

The president of the New Forest Show, Alan Titchmarsh came and said hello on Wednesday and he was very pleased to learn that we were so passionate about outdoor learning. He was nearly persuaded to make one of our popular leaf crowns, but was worried about what the Queen might think later when she met him. When the Queen arrived by helicopter on the same day there was a buzz of excitement throughout the day: they both took time to see as much people as possible which made the Show a very special one in the Queens Jubilee year.

Finally do not forget if you are mad about bikes and want to have some fun outdoors then come to Avon Tyrrell Outdoor Activity Centre to the Big Bike Bash on 18-19^th August. This family event is held every year and comprises of live music, DJ’s, and activities to keep the kids entertained. Facilities include on site camping, showers, bike wash, bike doctors, picnic area, climbing, boating activities, and a cross country racecourse of 3.5 miles of single track that includes river crossings, a boardwalk and a unique lake jump. If you don’t want to miss out on this fantastic weekend, then book your tickets through the Big Bike Bash at http://www.bigbikebash.co.uk/ticketss

You are most welcome to visit and see what we are up to or 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 www.avontyrrell.org.uk

Remember… experience – learn – develop

PS: Guess who these are?

Saturday, 23 June 2012

Avon Tyrrell June 2012

We have had an interesting few weeks and despite the variable weather this has not deterred the Centre being utilised by many varieties of groups and individuals. We continue to try and improve our service support to our visitors at Avon Tyrrell and appreciate the feedback we get. We have little doubt about the strength of outdoor learning and increasing appreciation of the value it brings. We would encourage all those of you who have an opportunity to come to Avon Tyrrell whether as a part of a group or individually that you make the most of the enormous amount of opportunities and experiences that can be had at the Centre to help develop life experiences.

We must tell you that only last week our very own Mariann, who works in our Customer Services Team and is the main architect of the majority of outdoor programmes, returned to Hungary to Marry Andre’. They are two very lovely people and we are all so very pleased for them and we all wish them a very happy future life together. And didn't she look beautiful?

Finally our strawbale classroom is now connected to mains electric and we also have electricity available for campers using the Lake East Camping area.

The Possibility Magazine has awarded Avon Tyrrell its seal of approval and we are proud to receive this and are pleased with the article written in the magazine praising Avon Tyrrell and its accessibility for all.

We are very very happy to tell you that we have now received planning permission for our Boathouse to be built down by our main Lake. This will make such a significant difference to the Lake area and the campers using that area as the boathouse will have showers and toilets as well as storage for canoes and kayaks and will be fully accessible. We have now begun the process of fundraising to allow us to build the boathouse. All donations are welcome, please!

In support of preparing the ground for where the Boathouse will be built, the very kind people from B&Q supply team came along and cleared more of the vegetation to make the area accessible. The weather was its usual, warm, windy wet and the sun did show itself once. The team worked very hard and achieved a huge amount, and we are truly grateful to them for all their excellent work. The day was ended with a thank you by us and a go at their chosen activity of archery before heading home to a well earned rest.

And if you are mad about bikes and want to have some fun outdoors then come to Avon Tyrrell Outdoor Activity Centre to the Big Bike Bash on 18-19^th August. This family event is held every year and comprises of live music, DJ’s, a festival and activities to keep the kids entertained. Facilities include on site camping, showers, bike wash, bike doctors, picnic area, climbing, boating activities, and a cross country racecourse of 3.5 miles of single track that includes river crossings, a boardwalk and a unique lake jump. If you don’t want to miss out on this fantastic weekend, then book your tickets through the Big Bike Bash at http://www.bigbikebash.co.uk/ticketss

And finally, we hope you enjoy this picture as much as we do from a pupil from Bransgore Primary School who recently stayed with us. It was at the bottom of a very kind thank you letter and we thought it was such a good drawing of Avon Tyrrell House from someone so young we would share it with you:

You are most welcome to visit and see what we are up to or 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 www.avontyrrell.org.uk
Remember… experience – learn – develop

Friday, 1 June 2012

Avon Tyrrell 31 May 2012

Diamond Jubilee Weekend; and just think in 1949 Princess Elizabeth opened Avon Tyrrell Outdoor Activity Centre for our Charity UK Youth. Amazing really as the Monarchy and Avon Tyrrell have adapted and grown throughout the years to many demands and contributed a huge amount to Society; something we can both be very proud of.

It is therefore very rewarding that B&Q chose Avon Tyrrell as a site for a commission by the muralist, Chris Naylor, to sculpt into our lawn Her Majesty’s Head in celebration of her 60 years on the throne, which took an amazing 2 days of hard work. On completion, and to the thrill of a number of young people staying a helicopter arrived carrying a photographer who took some aerial shots of the grass sculpture. As we are a youth charity, the photographer asked the young people from Beaufort Community Primary School and Lord Wilson School to get involved, which as you can see proved to create fantastic photographs. We hope the Queen gets to see the photos and is reminded of the day she opened Avon Tyrrell Outdoor Activity Centre for UK Youth over 60 years ago.

While this was going on, the Enduroman athletes have returned, and starting today with the hardened few. The athletes begin completing 10 days of back to back Ironman Triathlons – 2.4 mile swim, 112 miles on a bike and a 26 mile Marathon. The athletes will be competing day and night and if you would like to come and spectate, you are welcome at any time. At days 5, 7, 8 and 9, they are joined by those doing 5, 3, 2 and 1 Ironman Triathlons.

Also continuing with the Royal theme, two of our staff, Suzanne and Alex enjoyed a Royal Tea Party at Buckingham Palace. Both staff thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon and felt privileged to attend on behalf of our Charity UK Youth.

We also continue to try and improve the welcome we offer our visitors, our Eco Health Project participants have been busy building flower beds, planting and arranging hanging baskets as well as replanting established Avon Tyrrell plant beds to help improve the aesthetics of our welcome and immediate area around the House. We hope you will enjoy what they have done as much as we do.

… And to end, Avon Tyrrell UK Youth staff very much congratulate the Queen on her Diamond Jubilee.

experience – learn – develop

Saturday, 5 May 2012

Avon Tyrrell Update May 12

Plenty happening at Avon Tyrrell over the last few weeks, and happily it’s all been positive good stuff.

We have enhanced the off-road cycling facilities for young people and the local community with the £8,000 raised at last summers’ annual ‘Big Bike Bash’ and a recent £2,000 grant from the New Forest National Park Authority. The money has been invested in improving existing sections of bike trails and new decking in our ‘north-shore’ area, as well as a fleet of new bikes and training for instructors who cater to growing demand for biking skills sessions.

We have just finished 2 amazing Forest School programmes, which were part funded, one through Hampshire County Council and the other through Wettons Bursary.

A group of Year 8 students from Mountbatten school in Romsey participated in a 6 week programme. During this time they learnt how to light fires, build dens, track animals and most of all play in the woods. They learnt a great deal and their confidence grew each week.

Jack and Jill’s pre-school from Bransgore also took part in a 6 week programme. This group was the youngest we have had at Forest School and all of the staff loved working with them. The freedom of playing in the woods was the biggest highlight for all of the children. They loved climbing trees and role playing in the woods and each week the Name Tree would give them a Tree Cookie with their name on (so we couldn’t forget their names!) We spent lots of time exploring and using our senses as well as using well known children books such as ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’ and ‘Stick Man’ to keep the children engaged.

Forest school is such a great way for children to learn and develop in the outdoors. It gives them such an opportunity and here at Avon Tyrrell our Forest School Practitioners love running the programmes.

And a Thought;- maybe just maybe if more young people had been given opportunities like Jack & Jill's at such an early age then perhaps some young peoples life paths may have been more positive, as after all our early years experiences shape our future.

Work is now well under way to replace our zip wire tree with a pole due to fungi damage to the tree. We hope to have it all up and running and independently safety checked within the next couple of weeks. The Zip Wire remains an exciting ride across our small lake and you can even learn to calculate your speed of travel.

And I have no idea why blogger makes these pictures go sideways.....

We also recently ran in partnership with HCC two overnight events for families who have a young family member with a disability. These Inspiring You events were well attended and very successful, inspiring all who attended to enjoy the outdoors and participate in activities they would not normally do or have the confidence to do. We will be running more of these events throughout the year and if you are interested in attending please contact us and we will happily discuss with you what we are doing and when.

And finally yet another member of staff after the Bosses Chair…….. definitely has a more friendly smile