Braeside Residential Adventure Centre

Curriculum topics available: Settlement and land use.

Roundway Down History Walk:
A full days walking with a morning focusing on map & compass work and the afternoon looking at the historic ‘Mother Anthony’s Well’. & 'Oliver's Castle' - the site of a civil war battle in 1643, which is under 3 miles from Braeside. Nearby is the village of Avebury which boasts impressive neolithic standing stones which can be touched and studied up close. Silbury Hill and Long Barrow are also close by.

The Admiral Canal Boat Visit:
A visit to The Admiral floating museum, situated at lock 44 on Caen Hill Locks, with a Kennet and Avon canal volunteer lock keeper to guide you around.

Town Trail:
Fact finding mission. Find out about our local town and the history in it by navigated your group through the historic area of Devizes.

Curriculum topics available: Rivers, Water cycles, Map and atlas, Fieldwork, Environment.

Search high and low across the Braeside grounds for clues in this 'geocaching - style' activity using GPS handsets.

Curriculum topics available: Climbing, Canoeing, Orienteering, Archery, Kayaking, High Ropes, Zip Line.

Instructor led activity sessions using low ropes, slack lines, abseiling and zip-wire.

Education Garden & Pond onsite - pond dipping and ecology opportunities.
Drews Pond Woods - ancient woodland nature reserve
Home Covert - 35 acre woodland & private gardens offering earth education activities, invertebrate sampling, woodland studies, and stream sampling.

Bushcraft and survival activities offer a great opportunity for team bonding and personal development. Students can make a shelter, build a fire and cook over it, explore woodcraft and play woodland games among the trees. It’s a great way to get back to basics, reconnect with nature, develop practical skills and spend some quality time together. Sessions generally last an hour and can be combined and adapted to make a half or full day.

A survival themed day can be combined into our famous ‘Roundway Down Walk’ where participants learn various skills as part of a full day hill walking.

Fire Lighting
Learn how to build a sustainable fire and how to light it using natural resources around you. Following a short demo groups are broken down into smaller teams to attempt their own fire. Additional tasks can be assigned to make the experience more challenging.
Learning Outcomes: Resilience, Teamwork, Personal Skills Development
Run Time: 1 hour

Shelter Building
Learn how to build a shelter using only resources you might find in the wild. This is a great session to run alongside fire lighting.
Learning Outcomes: Collaboration and Team Work, Planning
Run Time: 1 hour

Outdoor Cookery
Can be cooking your whole lunch or just some bread over the fire. Should be incorporated with fire lighting. This is a great half day activity to get participants focused on the simple skill of cooking in the wilderness.
Learning Outcomes: Understanding Food Journeys, Planning, Critical Thinking
Run Time: 3 hours

Woodland Crafts
Woodcraft including simple knife and tool work to create wooden items for decoration, practical tools and willow weaving
Learning Outcomes: Practical Skills, Craft
Run Time: 1-2 Hours

Curriculum topics available: Kayaking, Canoeing, Raft Building, SUP Stand Up Paddleboarding.

Canoeing - instructor led activities on the Kennet & Avon Canal (just a 5 minute walk from our centre).
Braeside follows British Canoeing coaching guidelines and all coaches are British Canoeing trained and qualified.

Curriculum topics available: Conservation.

We have developed a range of educational and curricular based activities, in collaboration with teachers, designed to compliment and enhance the provision in schools. Below is a list of our most popular courses, but we are able to design and develop courses specifically for you. Sessions can explore costume, foods, activity, lifestyles and events!
Roundway Down Walk – considered a right of passage amongst Braeside alumni! Can incorporate survival, map skills, local history and geography on our instructor led walk to an historic local feature.
Drews Pond – guided walk to an ancient woodland nature reserve. We use the meadow and the woods for mini-beast hunting, and have the possibility of using the stream for measurements or for dipping. En route we walk through a public park (Hillworth Park) and could make use of the facilities for a break.
Devizes Town & Compass Trail – a walking tour of Devizes using a map and/or compass to locate buildings and monuments and then to answer worksheet questions

Curriculum topics available: Ecology, Ecosystems, Rivers, Towns and Cities, Mapping.

Education Gardens – Braeside’s education garden offers on-site sensory activities focused on plants, invertebrates, animals and habitats. Scientific collection equipment along with microscopes are available. Get your hands dirty, learn about compost and help us to grow veg our own in our allotment. Sowing, weeding or harvesting (season dependant) and even cook it! We have educational posters and signs around the grounds encouraging learning through independent exploration.

Curriculum topics available: Where food comes from, Preparing food and cooking techniques.

Our Food for Thought programme considers where food comes from and sets a budget for students to visit the local market, buy food and cook a meal for themselves. Focuses on budgeting skills, cookery skills, and sustainability. They will then have an indoor or outdoor cookery session in small groups to learn about cooking techniques alongside meal and portion planning. Learning about the importance of a balanced diet and what safety concerns there are around food.

We offer a range of options from a full programme of activities and day trips to accommodation only options allowing you to plan as little or as much as you like. Our accommodation boasts over 90 beds in dormitory rooms and comfy teacher twins and double rooms. We have a fully equipped commercial kitchen which can be used by suitably qualified individuals.

Curriculum topics available: Story writing, Persuasive writing, Superheroes, Fairy tales Myths and Legends, Heroes and villains, Creative writing, Story telling, Journalism.

Write A Sequel to your Favourite Book:
Imagine that the publishers of your favourite book have asked you to write the sequel to it. A new character or a different setting could be introduced; thinking about how the writer of the original book has used language, sentences, and character development, you can build an exciting new story. It’s time to let your imagination take off!
If you can, please bring your favourite story book to the course and be ready to explain to a partner why you love it so much.

Seasons to Stories:
The tale is yours and you can make of it what you will, as you draw your readers into your very own seasonal story. On this course we will look at the inspiration we can take as writers from the environment, the atmosphere and the weather, as well as other seasonal influences. We will delve into the details that may inspire us, exploring different ways to develop our creative writing.
Come along and enjoy the day, whilst having the opportunity to focus fully on your writing with tutorial support whilst meeting fellow writers with a similar interest.

Christmas Story Writing:
‘The most magical way to see Christmas is through the eyes of a child.’
Christmas stories are such a wonderful part of the lead up to the festive season and with this in mind, we embark upon a creative journey where pupils become immersed in the craft of imaginative Christmas story writing. They will have the opportunity to explore a range of seasonal stories, discussing their key features with peers and experimenting with different structures and vocabulary for their own stories.
Who knows? The pupils’ own stories could become treasured Christmas gifts to friends or family members!

Image to Imagination:
It’s time to view the world with a writer’s eye, as you learn how to develop a wonderful piece of creative writing using the stimuli of vibrant and exciting pictures! Our selection of images will be varied and thought-provoking, having been carefully chosen to inspire you whilst developing your skills in inference and prediction. Together we will explore the stories in the pictures and use immersive drama techniques to ‘participate’ in the events within them, going backwards and forwards in time to imagine the lead up to each image and decide what happens next. Excellent use of vocabulary and explanatory skills are a must, not to mention thinking on your feet, as we freeze frame parts of the emergent story in order to ‘hot seat’ characters from within it. We will use this performance-based steppingstone to develop vivid and thoughtful pieces of writing drawn from our discussions and experiences. First person or third person perspective? The choice is yours!

Curriculum topics available: Fractions, Logic and Problem Solving, Measurement, Statistics, Ratio and proportion, Algebra, Shape.

The overall aim of the courses is to extend the opportunities for individual pupils to explore and develop areas of ability and talent.
Our purposes are to:
• Provide an opportunity for teachers to acknowledge pupils’ potential, gifts, and talents, and nominate them to participate in exciting and stimulating challenges
• Extend the range of opportunities available to Years 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 pupils, to meet others with similar interests, abilities and talent in order to work in a variety of ways to increase understanding, develop skills and explore challenges
• Provide an opportunity for teachers and other adults in the learning community to offer their knowledge and skills.
• Extend the range of learning activities available to pupils to enrich their education.
The courses focus on challenges for Years 2 to 6 pupils and offer a range of opportunities to work with adults from various professions and disciplines. It is our intention to extend the range of courses available in the future.
All courses in this programme will be held at Braeside Education Centre, Devizes, but some may involve visits off site in the surrounding area.

Curriculum topics available: Materials and recycling, Sustainable living, Climate change.

Roman Baths in Bath - themed visits and day trips
Lay Wood - Roman villa
The Wiltshire Museum - exhibitions on Roman history in the area

Curriculum topics available: Partially Wheelchair Accessible, Disabled Toilet Access, Autistic Spectrum, Emotional and Behavioural Disorders, General Learning Difficulties, Dyslexia Dyscalculia and Dyspraxia, Deafness, Visual Impairment, Physical and Mobility, Fully Wheelchair Accessible, Social Skills, Raising Aspirations, Changing Place.

Roman Baths in Bath - themed visits and day trips
Lay Wood - Roman villa
The Wiltshire Museum - exhibitions on Roman history in the area

Roman Baths in Bath - themed visits and day trips
Lay Wood - Roman villa
The Wiltshire Museum - exhibitions on Roman history in the area

Curriculum topics available: Minibeasts, Habitats, Microbiology.

We have our own pond onsite allowing pond dipping to study mini-beasts. We have access to Drews Pond Wood where students can undertake velocity studies in a natural chalk and pebble stream. We lead visits to Caen Hill Locks where we can further study the ecology of our local waterways.

Town Trail:
Fact finding mission. Find out about our local town and the history in it by navigated your group through the historic area of Devizes.