Residential School Trips

Summer 2025 availability for outdoor pursuits activity centres

Activities & Residentials

Fun & educational outdoor activities and overnight stays

Residential outdoor education has numerous benefits for school children and young adults alike. Team bonding activities, individual skills development, confidence building outdoor pursuits, plus the experience of living together 24 hours a day, all combine to ensure each and every student will benefit from a residential school trip.

Away from home, perhaps for the first time, school residential trips form such an important part of growing up and are the perfect opportunity for a valuable learning experience. Make your school's annual residential as stress free as possible by getting help with risk assessments, lesson plans, free inspection visits and places for teachers.

If you visit the same activity centre every year, you may not be getting the best value for money. Other ways to find cheaper residential school trips include taking your trip outside peak times, or having activities visit your school.

Looking for a day learning how to canoe or rock climb but do not have the time to take multiple days out of the classroom? Take a look at our activity day trips.

Search residential school trips in South West, South East, East of England, The Midlands, North of England, Wales, Scotland or Ireland, Historical Residentials, Group Accommodation.

Popular school trip January 2025 !

UKSA

School Trip London & South East
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Subjects: SEN, Sports Centre, Team Building, Watersports, Accommodation Only, Physical Education

With 35+ years of experience, UK Sailing Academy (UKSA) offers young people a fun and safe outdoor environment in which to learn important life skills. Packages in sailing, watersports, and teambuilding include accommodation, food, kit, and tuition.

Where do you want to go?

How far will you travel

within 60 miles

What do you want to do?

Tell us the type of trip, how many students and your accommodation preference

30 pupils

Dormitory Rooms Camping Either

We Found 144 Residential School Trips

The residential trips below are just a sample of what we have available. Use the search options above to discover more trips:

Primary School Groups

For many primary school children, the school residential may be their first time away from home. For such an important life experience, finding an activity centre that will give your pupils a challenging but safe experience is vital. Primary aged children will benefit most from lots of new activities and experiences, allowing them to grow in confidence and learn some new skills. A good residential activity centre will employ instructors who have the ability to work with primary school groups to make each activity session valuable for every child.

Secondary School Groups

Secondary school groups will have slightly different learning objectives when it comes to a residential activity holiday. Teachers may be looking to cement relationships within a new year group by allowing students to work together in teams, or the trip may be an opportunity to give soon to be school leavers some key skills before they enter the work place. Whatever the objective, a secondary school residential is a good way to mix curriculum linked learning with outdoor fun and adventure.

Residential Field Studies

If your school group are looking for an environmental field studies based residential trip then we can help with that too! We have a great choice of teacher led, accommodation only centres, as well as those that specialise in multi day fieldwork trips for all key stages of the curriculum. For geography or science based residential study trips, take a look at the following page: Field Studies

How to Choose a Residential Centre

Local authority managed Outdoor Education Centres have been providing outdoor learning experiences for school children since the 1950s. In recent years the number of council run centres has been in steep decline, as public spending is slashed and service provision is shifted to the private sector. Thankfully for schools wishing to book a residential activity week, there are still plenty of specialist centres available to offer adventurous activities to your students. With so many residential activity options for teachers to choose from, how do you choose between them and what is most important?

residential cost Cost - for the majority of schools who ask us to help them find a good residential activity centre, cost is a one of, and in many cases, the single most important factors. Schools cannot afford to pay the full cost of the trip, so will ask parents for a voluntary contribution. Clearly the lower the cost of the trip, the more children will be able to attend. Getting quotes from a number of activity centres is something every school should do. You can also look at additional sources of funding too. Think about how far ahead you book your trip - lots of schools leave organising their residential until the last minute. This can work in their favour if they are looking at off-peak times of the year, which centres are starting to offer discounted late availability, but for popular weeks, booking early is recommended if you want to get the best prices. While cost is important, we don't think it should always be the deciding factor.

residential safety Safety - safety is important for every year group. A well run, professional residential centre will have a number of industry standard badges, awards or certificates to show that their management practices, staff and safety procedures are up to scratch. Some examples of these include the LOtC, AALA, and Adventure Mark. The instructors will be responsible for the children's safety, though most activities will include tuition so that students can take some responsibility themselves.

residential planning Planning - organising your school residential holiday involves a fair bit of planning, but most activity centres know how to make the job easier by providing help in the form of kit lists, meal request sheets, and travel arrangements. General advice is to give yourself as much time as possible when booking your school residential, if nothing else it means the more popular venues are less likely to be already booked up for your preferred week.

residential inspection Inspection - An inspection visit will allow you to see the facilities on offer and make it much easier to judge whether the centre is a good fit for your school. Brochures and websites can give a good indication, but seeing first hand is always preferable if you can spare the time. While you are visiting, make sure you take a list of prepared questions that cover any issues or concerns you may have.

residential learning outcomes Outcomes - Learning outcomes is one of the biggest buzz words when it comes to school trips. Enjoyment of the experience itself is great, but ideally you want to be able to demonstrate that your students will benefit from participation, teamwork, physical and competitive achievements, learning new skills, and a whole host of other key benefits.

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