Residentials School Trip
The Sustainability Centre South Downs
Residential Trip Residentials London & South East
Our 55 acre woodland site nestled in the stunning South Downs hills is a perfect place to learn and explore.With the wealth of opportunities in our grounds, we can arrange activities ranging from South Downs walks and bushcraft courses to camp fires and habitat studies. We also offer activities focused on eco building, farming and food, renewable energies and conservation.
The Wetherdown Lodge where you will stay was once home to Royal Navy recruits. It has since been completely renovated and equipped with green energy technology that meets all the heating needs of the building. Pupils can monitor the output of the photovoltaic (solar energy) panels on the roof, and find out about the Ground Source and Air Source Heat Pumps that are installed in our lodge and Bed & Breakfast accommodation.
We provide full catering including buffet breakfasts, packed lunches and delicious healthy evening meals. All meals are home made by our on site chef of the Beech Cafe with local organic ingredients - a favourite with teachers and children alike!
Teacher Checklist
Risk Assessments Inspection Visits Resource Packs LOtC Quality Badge
What activities are available during educational visits?
ECO EXPLORERS
1-4 night residential
Eco Explorers, is our home grown residential which gives pupils a hands-on experience of sustainability, nature, habitats, eco-living and healthy food, all in the great outdoors.
JOHN MUIR CONSERVATION EXPERIENCE
3 night residential
In this residential pupils will discover all about the inspiring founder of National Parks, John Muir, in our glorious National Park - The South Downs. Activities will focus on conservation, protecting our planet and supporting it's species.
We recommend a 4 day stay, allowing pupils to achieve their Level 1 'Discovery' of the John Muir award (24 hours minimum time commitment). Available for shorter stays with no award.
GREEN GUARDIANS
1-2 night residential
We can create a bespoke itinerary for a shorter residential. Perfect for a first time away from home and a local visit. Pick your topics from our Day Trip options popular examples include food and farming, water conservation, habitat studies, sensory discovery and eco-buildings, most can be adapted to suit the key stage.
1-4 night residential
Eco Explorers, is our home grown residential which gives pupils a hands-on experience of sustainability, nature, habitats, eco-living and healthy food, all in the great outdoors.
JOHN MUIR CONSERVATION EXPERIENCE
3 night residential
In this residential pupils will discover all about the inspiring founder of National Parks, John Muir, in our glorious National Park - The South Downs. Activities will focus on conservation, protecting our planet and supporting it's species.
We recommend a 4 day stay, allowing pupils to achieve their Level 1 'Discovery' of the John Muir award (24 hours minimum time commitment). Available for shorter stays with no award.
GREEN GUARDIANS
1-2 night residential
We can create a bespoke itinerary for a shorter residential. Perfect for a first time away from home and a local visit. Pick your topics from our Day Trip options popular examples include food and farming, water conservation, habitat studies, sensory discovery and eco-buildings, most can be adapted to suit the key stage.
Which curriculum topics do we cater for?
Citizenship School Trip
Team building Personal development and resilience
We follow the permaculture guiding principles in everything we do focusing on Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share. For citizenship we expand on these ideas to work on students personal development and resilience, as well as their team building skills. Join us for a day of challenges, that will require good communication, tolerance for others and mutual respect to achieve results. Whether that's using planks and crates to cross the 'lava river', ski plank races or drainpipe challenge to shelter building, earthbag arch and water pistol tracking game.
English School Trip Click to expand
Storytelling
Our main English related activity that we offer is storytelling, where students will hear a range of exciting and engaging myths and legends, fairy tales and folk stories about the South Downs, nature and mythical creatures. We can also include interactive songs around a campfire, the session takes place in our atmospheric woodland hall nestled in the trees with a breath-taking view. However, lots of our other activities support vocabulary development as students immerse themselves in nature and describe what they can see, hear, touch and smell and learn new language related to those topics. Many of our activities promote working together which allows the students practice their communication skills. They also have the opportunity to articulate themselves through debate issues, such as discussing the pros and cons different renewable and non-renewable energy sources. These inspirational experiences will certainly get the imagination flowing for writing activities back at school!
Physical Education School Trip
Orienteering Climbing
Get your students moving, with a fun and educational purpose. Our orienteering activity combines their map reading skills, with our 55 acre site to explore! Alternatively, join us for our team building activities including 'Lava River' and 'Ski Planks'!
Art School Trip Click to expand
Sculpture Craft Drawing Design
Art is interwoven through many of our activities, we provide multiple opportunities for students to get creative in nature and allow their artistic side to flair! Whether that's sculpting with clay to design their own tree protector or craft their favourite minibeast, or learn how artist's charcoal is made and create a nature inspired drawing using the medium. They could be exploring all the different colours and textures in nature and crafting them into a natural mandala sculpture, or collecting chalk and learning how to naturally colour it using leaves to use flint to carve their artwork onto and take away with them.
Food School Trip Click to expand
Where food comes from Seasonal Food
We work closely with our neighbouring farm to provide tractor trailer tours, learning where food comes from including meat and grain and the challenges faced between protecting the environment with rewilding and running as a commercial business. At the centre students also have the opportunity to do some hands on traditional cooking, working over an open fire cooking dough they've mixed to bake some delicious bread. Or after a foraging walk exploring the kitchen and herb garden, as well as the woodlands collecting local and seasonal ingredients to make a healthy stir fry or syrup. Using our green energy bikes to make their own smoothies, students think about food miles, organic produce and choices we make every day when we're eating.
Farm School Trip Click to expand
Join us on an exciting and informative tractor trailer ride to our neighbouring farm! The farmers are experts at tailoring the content they deliver, so it is enjoyed by all who visit from primary to university. The younger students will enjoy seeing the animals including cows, sheep and lambs if you're lucky enough to visit in lambing season! They will learn about where their food comes from, including what different types of grain are grown. The trailer ride is a favourite of all, a unique way to experience the beauty of the South Downs countryside. Older visitors will gain understanding of how commercial farming operates, the challenges faced and the changes to more sustainable regenerative farming.
Wildlife School Trip Click to expand
At the Sustainability Centre, we have 55 acres of woodland with an abundance of wildlife. Many of our activities revolve around the study of different fauna, including habitat comparisons of woodlands with minibeast investigations to wetlands with pond dipping. Learning about these creatures in their natural environment is fascinating, pupils will use classification keys to identify the different invertebrates and share bug facts thinking about the adaptions animals have made to suit the climate of their habitat. They will also discover the wider ecology of a whole range of mammals with our food chain activities, acting out predator and prey relationship in a fun game. We run nature walks across the South Downs National Park that include bird watching, also partner with our neighbour farm for a tour, before this we often play the bee game - where students can learn about one of our most important pollinators! Our aim is to instil a love of nature and for all living things.
Bushcraft School Trip
Our expert tutors teach a range of bushcraft activities that take place in our outdoor woodland, all of which are found to boost students confidence and social skills. They will learn some key survival tips including shelter building, fire lighting using a range of different methods including flint and steel and fire steels, tinder collection, foraging for edible plants and cooking over an open fire. For smaller groups we introduce the use of tools, practicing knife skills for whittling and wood carving projects.
Prehistory School Trip Click to expand
Stone Age
Are you studying pre-history? Want to immerse your students in the Stone Age as part of your residential? Then come and join us at the centre as we explore the different eras! Starting with Paleolithic and how Neanderthals lived and survived, students will begin the day by handling archaeological prehistoric fossil finds and replica flint tools including axes. After discussing how they lived in caves and made cave art, students will have the opportunity to craft their own design using flint to carve into chalk they've coloured using natural pigmentation from leaves. Next they think about food, how they would have to hunt animals and learn tracking to skills to put to practice in our fun game! Moving into the Mesolithic period students will watch a demonstration of how our ancestors used to make 'glue' from resin, discussing how they developed into nomadic tribes with their hunter gather lifestyle, students will put this into practice making shelters in the woods. Lastly, the Neolithic time presents homo sapiens that most resemble how we live today, with the introduction of farming communities and settlements were established. Students will use quern stones to grind grain and cook a simple bread over the fire and learn how to weave willow to make fences.
Saxons School Trip Click to expand
Saxon Settlements Arts and Culture
Include Saxons in your residential and be greeted by an Anglo-Saxon warrior in our 'longhouse' for an exciting and engaging interactive show and tell session of real and replica artefacts, students will learn all about these invaders, how they came to be here and the culture they bought with them. Discussing their religion and paganism, understanding they were buried with their possessions in the graves, that they worshipped many gods including Odin or Woden (as he would have been known) and see jewellery depicting this as well as runes. Many items will be passed round for hands-on inspection including clothing, shoes, bags, belts, waterskin, coins and longhorns, can your students complete the challenge to blow the horn? It would used to call fighters to battle, students will attempt to make a shield wall. They will feel the weight of chainmail armour and what it's like to pull a sword from the sheath, in addition to seeing other weapons including bow and arrows, spears and helmets for protection. Finishing off the talk in style with traditional technique of lighting a fire with flint and steel. Followed by practical activities that focus on their life as farmers in settlements and growing their own food, students will either weave willow fences, grind grain and cook bread over the fire, collect herbs and make 'potions' or delve into clay archaeology and make their own piece of Saxon pottery to take back to school!
World War School Trip Click to expand
War Propaganda Women in wartime Rationing The Home Front
Did you know The Sustainability Centre used to be HMS Mercury? Travel back in time to WW2 discovering how the site was used, taking a tour and exploring what they left behind. Students will enjoy an immersive and interactive show and tell experience from our expert tutor with original items including ration cards, ID cards, clothing token cards, gas masks, medals, clothing with British army uniform and much more! They will get to listen to records from the time on the wind up gramophone and play a game on an early pinball board, as well as learn some Morse code and try to send a message using lights. Explore our site during your residential stay by completing our orienteering challenge to learn the history and development of the site.
Biology School Trip Click to expand
Plants Animals including humans Everyday materials Living things and habitats Life Cycles Minibeasts Habitats Forest School Underwater Animals and Habitats Photosynthesis (KS3/4) Relationships in an ecosystem (KS3/4)
Students can delve deep into biology, becoming habitat detectives. They will investigate different habitats including woodland / forest, searching for minibeasts and exploring their life cycles further with the bee game. Alternatively, focussing on a wetland ecosystem discussing adaptation and pond dipping, the relationships of these animals are explored further in the food chains game. The have the opportunity to look into the ecology of the site, taking a botany walk, learning how to ID certain flora and foraging it to make a salve or a syrup. Use quadrats to compare biodiversity of different areas including grasslands and chalklands and make paper pots to take home their own seeds to grow.
Human Geography School Trip
Natural resources
Take a tour of our site and see how we've used natural materials and resources, then get hands-on with our building activities using chalk to make a rammed earth wall, cobb to build an earth oven and sand bags to create a bridge!
Physical Geography School Trip
Map and atlas Water cycles Environment Climate zones and biomes
Develop your map skills as part of our orienteering activity. Students will study an OS map of the local area, learn how to use 6 grid references and what the symbols in the key represent. When out exploring the 55 acre site, they will use a compass and understand it works.
Environmental Geography School Trip
Materials and recycling Sustainable living Renewable Energy Conservation
Our exciting new John Muir Residential focuses on conservation tasks, learn about the founder of National Parks and what we can do to help the environment. Or you can focus on renewable energy sources with a trip to a proposed wind turbine site, using anemometers to measure wind speed!
Archaeology School Trip
Enjoy some Anglo- Saxon history as part of your residential, pupils will get hands on with clay archaeology. Firstly, they will become conservators analysing pieces of pottery in small groups to highlight the similarities and differences in terms of thickness, colour, texture, pattern and part of the pot. Next, we will discuss Saxon pottery and look at pictures, before designing and making their own pattern on clay to take away with them!
Sustainability School Trip Click to expand
Materials and recycling Sustainable living Renewable Energy Conservation
All of our activities have sustainability woven into their fabric, as at the Centre we work alongside the Permaculture principles of People Care, Earth Care and Fair Share. We cover a wide range of topics including sustainable buildings, where the pupils take a tour of the site and discuss the different structures exploring how we've followed the 3 R's reduce, reuse and recycle in our projects, as well as make ovens, walls and bridges from eco-friendly materials. For our energy topic, the focus of the tour becomes the renewable energy sources we have on site such as solar panels, ground and air source heat pumps. Students will have the opportunity to practically use green energy sources with our smoothie bikes and snap circuits, as well as use anemometers at a proposed wind turbine site. The food and farming topic sees the smoothie bikes used to discuss Fairtrade and food miles, with students also enjoying a tractor trailer ride to our partner farm. Our caring for the environment and botany topics encompass exploring habitats and discovering the biodiversity of the site through mini-beast investigation, pond dipping and quadrat sampling, as well as conservation tasks such as making bug hotels and dead hedging. Our materials and change topic looks at how long plastic and other rubbish takes to decompose and think about what reusable objects we could use instead, in addition to working with natural materials such as chalk and clay to create art. Many of these activities act as a springboard for discussions about our carbon footprint and the effect it can have on climate change and global warming. Your students will leave feeling empowered to become the next sustainability champions and if they complete their residential challenges potentially win the most sustainable class of the year award!
Team Building School Trip
Join us for a range of fun and engaging team building activities, sure to get everyone involved and working together! Whether that's facing distance challenges in small groups where they have to traverse a space with obstacles in our ski planks, lava river and drainpipe trials or completing the hoop challenge and parachute games!
Forest School
What size groups do we cater for?
We can cater for one class at a time (Max 38) this includes the accompanying adults.
Is there first aid on site?
We have fully qualified first aid trained staff.
Access for visitors with disabilities
We have wheelchair access grounds and facilities.
Visitors with Special Educational Needs (SEN)
We have specialised tutors trained in working with students with Special Educational Needs.
Anything else?
Please see below our film following pupils enjoying an Eco Explorers week residential.
Who are The Sustainability Centre South Downs?
The Sustainability Centre is an environmental education centre with a difference. We focus on teaching about all aspects of sustainability on our 55 acre woodland site, where we work and live, demonstrating sustainable living.
Reviews from Schools..
★★★★★
"This trip is the highlight of the school year! It enables our students to have new learning experiences outside of the school classroom. They learn about how to look after each other, the planet and themselves. It is an opportunity for team building, bonding and learning about sustainable living through inquiry."
Southbank International School
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