School Residential Camps by a beautiful sandy beach in Devon

SOS Survival

One of the most popular activities we offer is the SOS Survival experience. Participants experience an engaging and educational adventure designed to develop essential survival skills. Imagine being shipwrecked and lost on Red Rock Island, where your captain is injured and needs to be rescued. You must work together to overcome challenges.

Along the way you will learn practical skills such as shelter building, resource management, food gathering, basic first aid provision, fire making, navigation, and signalling for help, all while practising "leave no trace" principles. The activity also incorporates elements of resource management, strategic trade-offs, and teamwork, providing a dynamic experience that emphasises safety, communication, and environmental responsibility.

Our trained instructors ensure a secure setting while guiding students through these activities. Through teamwork, problem solving, and resilience your group will learn essential skills in a fun and safe atmosphere.

SOS Survival Objectives

• Teamwork and Collaboration Strengthen communication, leadership, and cooperation within the group.


• Practical Survival Skills: Teach participants essential skills like first aid, shelter construction, fire-making, and signalling for help.


• Resource Management: Encourage critical thinking and decision-making through the trading of resources.


• Environmental Responsibility: Emphasise the importance of following the leave no trace principle in outdoor settings.

SOS Survival Learning Outcomes

• Survival Techniques: Participants will learn how to build shelters, signal for help, administer first aid, and make fire.


• Leadership and Communication: Participants will improve their ability to communicate instructions clearly, especially in stretcher building and shelter construction.


• Strategic Thinking: Through resource trading and task prioritisation, participants will understand the value of effective planning.


• Environmental Awareness: A deeper appreciation for nature and environmental responsibility through the leave no trace principle.

A teacher's perspective

The Harbour School

"The SOS Survival activity at Red Rock Outdoor was truly inspiring. The children were visibly excited from the moment we arrived, eager to get started on the adventure and test what they thought they already knew. Throughout the day, I watched them work together effectively, building shelters, gathering resources, and making fire. We have a strong emphasis on communication at school so to see them working so effectively and encouraging each other was wonderful. The Red Rock teams enthusiasm and supportive atmosphere made the activity lots of fun but also taught the children lots of new skills. It was wonderful to see their faces light up when they completed a first aid task, and especially when they successfully signalled for help and knew they were going to be rescued.

For me, the benefits of this experience went far beyond the immediate activities. The children were learning without realising so I think we teachers also picked up some useful ideas. I also liked the environmental awareness angle of leaving no trace, something I hope they will all remember.

They learned the value of teamwork, leadership, and that cooperation is important during group tasks, as well as personal skills that should stay with them long after we get back to school. Overall, I would recommend SOS Survival to other school groups. We were a KS6 group but I can imagine the activity could easily be set for different ages.

Red Rock Activity Villages

Red Rock Outdoor is made up of four circular villages and each booking will have its own village. Each includes a meeting marquee, as well as downtime activities; table tennis, volley ball, badminton and five aside football nets.

At the top of the camp are the offices, mess hall and kitchen, toilet blocks and drying rooms, and shower rooms. We offer full catering and carefully plan the menu with your school to ensure that diet requirements and allergies are carefully considered and planned. Our aim is to make the camp run as smoothly as possible for you and give the children wonderful memories.

More activities
We have a lot to offer at Red Rock Outdoor and there is a lot of beach fun to be enjoyed.

Our watersports including paddle boarding, kayaking, megsups and if the waves come in all change and grab windsurfs, surf boards and body boards. We may finish off with beach Olympics which is always great fun.

Use the short form below to request more information about our Red Rock adventures.