Our Adventure Courses are the 'flagship' of the Plas Gwynant activity year. Aimed at years 9 and 10, they run from Monday to the Friday of the following week, giving students 10 continuous days of activity, with an overnight expedition during the second week. Few, if any, other centres in the British Isles are able to offer courses of this duration as part of the secondary curriculum, and it is because of the success of these courses and their benefits to students that we are still able to run them.
Students get much more than just an introduction to activities, and the opportunities are there to challenge oneself to a greater degree than a shorter course could ever allow. The activities form the basis of an 11 night residential visit, which itself provides the basis for a host of Personal and Social learning outcomes. Just some of the benefits of an Adventure Course would include:
As with most Plas Gwynant courses, there is no fixed programme to the adventure courses, and staff base the activities around the group interaction and ability, and of course the weather. One aspect that is incorporated into an Adventure Course is what we call a 'giving back' task, where each group does a small, usually half day, job that involves putting something back into the area. This might be helping clear Rhododendrons, burning dead trees or assisting a local farmer in some way, but it is intended that pupils may gain a little more respect for their surroundings through their efforts.
Another theme in each Adventure Course is the overnight expedition. This is often seen as the climax to the course, and might involve a high camp in the mountains watching the sunset over Snowdon, or could be a canoe expedition to sleep under the stars on a sandy beach. Whatever the expedition, it encourages self-reliance and organisational skills, as well as physical challenge, and is a fitting high point of the course.
The Adventure Courses compliment the Key Skills that the National Curriculum focuses on perfectly, and we try to review the course with students accordingly. The Key Skills include: communication; improving own learning and performance; I.T.; working with others; problem solving
Visiting staff often do just one week each of the course, allowing more staff to enjoy the area and see how the students are developing. Many students have said that their Adventure Course at Plas Gwynant was the most memorable time during their school lives - justification enough that the Adventure Courses should continue well into the 21st century.