GCSEand BTEC outdoor activities

GCSE PE and outdoor sports

With all the new changes that have come from both the Department for Education as well as the examination bodies it is tricky to understand what is actually required for assessments in GCSE rock climbing, kayaking and canoeing.

Below is what the new assessments actually mean and gives some guidance on what a high level performance looks like. Believe it or not some elements of the assessment have actually got easier! I hope that by reading this you will gain a better understanding of what the different examination bodies require and which of these can be done as a part of an intensive course at Bowles.

Bush craft activities for schools

Revision Camps and Study Weekends

Our study camps provide a perfect opportunity to get out of the classroom and into the outdoors during the run up the Year 6 SATs tests.

By spending 50% of the day engaged in adventurous activities with our instructors, children are inspired and energised to learn. Research has shown engaging in outdoor education can increase SATs grades in itself. Away from the classroom children’s behaviour is often improved, and our activities are designed to promote confidence, independence, responsibility, and most importantly team work, all of which will improve students’ ability to learn when back at school.

This is complimented by teacher-led lessons for the other half of the day. You can refer to the lesson ideas below to plan lessons that follow on from the adventurous activities that the children have loved, or plan your own lessons to target areas children need to work on in the run up to SATs, away from their traditional classroom environment. For the teacher led lessons we can provide classrooms with desks, white boards and projectors, or you can choose to take full advantage of our grounds and use our outdoor classroom surrounded by forest.

Year 6 is the perfect age to take advantage of all the benefits a study camp can offer. With SATS testing happening  in Spring a study camp leading into this period will have the lower prices that are available in this period. As Bowles will be providing instruction for all the sessions and then school staff running lessons in our indoor classrooms, the price is even further reduced.

Activities with an educational aspect.

We also have a range of lesson plans for our outdoor activities which have an educational aspect which can be used in conjunction with our own classroom work. We can run Bush-craft sessions that link to the Carbon Cycle, kayaking days that also include a river study, zip-wire sessions that  calculate speed, abseiling sessions that use basic trigonometry, climbing session that links to Mountains of the World and of course orienteering sessions that cover scales, distance and timing.

GCSE camps

We have worked with a number of secondary schools providing ‘study  weekends’ for GCSE. The students stay at Bowles and do activities with our instructors and this is mixed in with study sessions provided by teaching staff using our classroom facilities. We find the combination of outdoor activities and study/revision is very successful and achieves great results.