Programme for schools

Contact details

Outdoor Learning and Adventure (OLA) deliver a range of programmes specifically designed to meet the needs of the individual young people. All our programmes are tailor-made to each school, to meet the desired aim or outcome, with both primary and secondary schools.

We aim to deliver fun activities and use these as a way of helping improve self-confidence, co-operation, responsibility and resilience, that are all transferable life-skills.

We also work with young people to help build positive relationships and help improve attendance and attainment with individuals that are struggling to engage or re-engage in education.

As part of our programmes, we aim to have a focus on Health and Wellbeing, Leadership as well as skills development with the opportunity for awards and certification. More information on the awards we can incorporate in the programmes can be found on our awards page, these can be gained in the following activities: -

Mountain biking
Indoor climbing
Skiing
Hillwalking
Paddle sports

We run everything from stand-alone one day programmes, multi-day, weekly and year long development programmes, or include a residential night away or camping and everything in between. A few sample programmes are listed below.

All equipment and transport are provided along with our dedicated staff team.

Sample programmes

Below are a couple of sample programmes to give you an idea of how it can work.

These are based on picking up at the school at 8:45am-9:00am and returning 3:00pm-3:30pm each day.

Multi-activity week

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Group 1	Kayaking / canoeing	Problem solving and bushcraft	Gorge walking	Climbing	Stand up paddleboarding
Group 2	Stand up paddleboarding	Kayaking / canoeing	Problem solving and bushcraft	Gorge walking	Climbing
Group 3	Climbing	Stand up paddleboarding	Kayaking / canoeing	Problem solving and bushcraft	Gorge walking
Group 4	Gorge walking	Climbing	Stand up paddleboarding	Kayaking / canoeing	Problem solving and bushcraft

We run this programme often with a Thursday night away, either camping or staying at a residential centre.

Multi-activity day

All at the same venue over one day.

	AM1	AM2	PM1	PM2
Group 1	Problem-solving / teambuilding	Mountain bike	Orienteering	Bushcraft
Group 2	Bushcraft	Problem-solving / teambuilding	Mountain bike	Orienteering
Group 3	Orienteering	Bushcraft	Problem-solving / teambuilding	Mountain bike
Group 4	Mountain bike	Orienteering	Bushcraft	Problem-solving / teambuilding

	Morning	Afternoon
Group 1	Climbing and abseiling	Hillwalk / bushcraft
Group 2	Climbing and abseiling	Hillwalk / bushcraft
Group 3	Hillwalk / bushcraft	Climbing and abseiling
Group 4	Hillwalk / bushcraft	Climbing and abseiling

We have run this day for some feeder primary schools as a transition day for secondary schools, allowing children to mingle and meet children from other schools.

Sample PEP Programme (Positive Engagement Programme)

	Activity	Sample aim
Week 1	Bushcraft / orienteering	Group getting to know each other, start building rapport and breaking down boundaries
Week 2	Climbing	Individuals get to challenge themselves, while learning to work as a team to support each other
Week 3	Canoeing	Work in pairs or as a larger team raft to paddle a canoe on a journey, dealing with frustration when learning new skills and working with others
Week 4	Hill walk	Group social interaction, walking and working to the pace of your team to reach a common goal
Week 5	Gorge Walking	Work as a team to climb up a gorge and waterfalls, helping look after each other and work together on a shared aim
Week 6	Group chosen activity	Reward for hard work, reflect on what they have achieved