Edgmond Hall Centre for Outdoor Learning School Trip

Residential Trip Residentials West Midlands

1. Have the place to yourself - an ideal chance to focus on your own group's shared experience.

2. Tailored learning experiences. Programmes can be integrated with school or group ethos, inclusive, and designed to meet specific learning needs.

3. We focus on the whole residential experience. A visit is about more than just the activities that take place. It's about a warm welcome, great food, a strong focus on outcomes, and prosocial experiences.

4. Our practitioners are learning professionals but their soft skills set them aside. They can inspire a young person to express themselves, try new things, stick at something, and achieve more than they ever thought possible.

The team at Edgmond Hall care about, and enjoy the company of children and visiting staff, and want to share great learning experiences.

We focus on delivering tailored programmes and outcomes through creative and fun programmes. All courses are planned with group leaders from the outset, and we actively build a positive working relationship with visiting adults and, of course, the children. We aim to make learning fun, give it context and meaning, and value and encourage all children.

Edgmond Hall Centre for Outdoor Learning photograph

school trip at Edgmond Hall Centre for Outdoor Learning

school groups Edgmond Hall Centre for Outdoor Learning

Edgmond Hall Centre for Outdoor Learning school groups

Teacher Checklist

Risk Assessments
Inspection Visits
Free Places for Teachers
Resource Packs
LOtC Quality Badge

What activities are available during educational visits?

Many groups introduce, extend or consolidate topics or themes to act as a "golden thread" running through the residential experience. Our first question is always "what do you want the group to achieve?" and we tailor the deliver to suit.

A wide range of activities includes archaeology, shelter building, camp fires, archery, fencing, digital photography, earth art, animal care, orienteering, map exploration, hill climbing, time travel (abbey visit!), bushcraft, village exploration, pond dipping, trails, and nature detectives....

Which curriculum topics do we cater for?

Archaeology School Trip

The group will dig our archaeology area, unearthing all kinds of artefacts linking to the period they are studying. By the end of the session, children will:

1. be able to link the artefacts they’ve seen in the session to different periods of history i.e. Romans / Victorians etc.
2. be able to accurately record their findings and explain why they need to do this.
3. have experienced the key things an archaeologist does and be able to discuss why each part is important.
4. be excited about digging and discovering objects

PSHE School Trip

Teamwork and resilience Mental health and awareness Morality Right and Wrong

Our programmes develop skills and attributes such as resilience, self-esteem, risk-management, teamworking and critical thinking skills. We apply the "Feelgood 6" actions that we can take to improve our physical and emotional wellbeing.

Wildlife School Trip

The environment and wildlife threads throughout our delivery. We have small animals, ponds and grazing cattle on site and can focus on topics such as animal homes & habitats, classification, flora and fauna, bug hunting, climate, nature tracking, woodland, biodiversity, predators, native ecology and so on. Our Animal Care / Animal Magic sessions are always popular, giving children the chance to meet and feed our animals.

Prehistory School Trip

Stone Age Bronze Age Iron Age

The whole residential can use the Stone Age for example as a golden thread, or elements can be teased out and cover areas such as:

1. Explore what life was like for Stone Age people – shelters (homes) / fire
2. Transfer learning and knowledge of Stone Age weapons or tools in to practical making of weapons or tools
3. Identify some features of the Stone Age period in history (Shelters, fires, weapons, using natural resources)
4. Work together in groups and pairs in outdoor learning activities doing Stone Age themed activities

Team Building School Trip Click to expand

Team building / Team Challenges at Edgmond Hall are fun, experiential, and involve the whole group at the same time; often splitting into smaller groups. By the end of the session, the group will have:

1. worked together identifying when their team was successful and when they were not successful and talking about why this happened
2. shown resilience and persevere during tasks.
3. practiced and repeated tasks adapting their strategies to achieve success.
4. talked and listened effectively to share their ideas and come up with a plan.
5. experience a sense of well-being through achieving successes with their team

Medieval School Trip

Lilleshall Abbey was founded in around 1148 and became a religious house of great reputation and prestige. It was severely damaged during the Civil War during a Parliamentarian siege but there are extensive remains, giving a picture of its magnificence. During our "Lilleshall Abbey Time Travellers" session, children will explore the ancient monument and:

1. will learn about the Lilleshall Abbey and experience aspects of how Monks lived in 11th Century.
2. will have experienced a range of feelings and emotions from a calm and tranquil setting.

What size groups do we cater for?

Up to 60 participants and 9 staff.

On-site classroom facilities?

Yes, we have classrooms available.

Is there first aid on site?

All centre staff are first-aid trained.

Access for visitors with disabilities

Our in-grounds cottage is fully accessible downstairs to wheelchair users. We have an off-road wheelchair available for use that provides access around the grounds.

Visitors with Special Educational Needs (SEN)

We do cater for children with Special Educational Needs; group leaders should discuss specific needs at the time of booking. We have experience of delivering a wide range of activities and learning opportunities to groups with additional needs. These have included physical impairments, sensory impairments, learning difficulties (ADHD, ASD, MLD, SLD, PMLD, and more), challenging behaviour, acquired brain injuries and life limiting illnesses. Our practitioners have received training on how to communicate and encourage personal and social development for all abilities.

You know your students best; well speak with you to see whether we are able to provide an appropriate environment, programme, and experience for your group. You would be most welcome to visit the site to take a look around and learn more.

Anything else?

Edgmond Hall Centre for Outdoor Learning is part of a family of 4 residential centres in Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Shropshire and Snowdonia and is part of Sandwell MBCs Education, Employment & Skills Directorate. We work with schools and groups from all over the UK.

Who are Edgmond Hall?

Edgmond Hall Centre for Outdoor Learning is proudly part of Sandwell Residential Education Service (SRES). The Edgmond Hall team have been delivering adventurous school and group programmes in the Shropshire countryside for over 80 years.

At SRES we deliver a unique range of transferable learning experiences through outdoor exploration, adventure, and creative arts. Our practitioners are skilled at delivering appropriately challenging, memorable experiences, and addressing a wide range of learning outcomes.

Offering day visits, residentials and revision retreats, our programmes can be fully integrated with school curriculum and ethos, inclusive, designed to meet students' specific learning needs and planned so that learning is reinforced and embedded back at school.

SRES centres are small but perfectly formed - sole occupancy is available at Edgmond Hall so it truly becomes the participants' home for their visit.

KS1 residential and day visits are designed with the pace and content to introduce younger children to new experiences. At KS2 we progressively introduce children to appropriate challenge, always working closely with visiting staff to provide exciting challenges with great support. Beyond KS2 we deliver learning to complement the curriculum, and are a popular centre for revision weekends.