A trip to Bowles for a day, a weekend or during the holidays will bring a whole range of benefits to your young people – confidence, leadership, cooperation, independence and, of course, new skills and knowledge.
We offer a wide range of outdoor adventurous activities on and offsite
Bowles is a charity for young people. It has its own natural sandstone crag, two dry ski slopes, three ropes courses, a heated pool complete with a fleet of kayaks and countless teamwork activities around the grounds.
Offsite we take groups kayaking and canoeing, mountain biking, orienteering, scrambling and on overnight expeditions in the south-east and further afield.
Groups visiting Bowles can choose from more than 30 activities to build a bespoke programme.
The benefits of a residential trip
We believe that a lot of the development of young people that happens on residentials is in the time around the activities – living and working closely with each other in a residential situation helps to develop understanding and awareness of other people.
At Bowles, not only do we value this downtime, but we also encourage young people to think about and reflect on their actions, abilities and decisions and we actively review the activities they take part in to achieve your aims.
Our activities are challenging, fun and engaging, but we also use them as a way of developing confidence, independence, self-awareness, responsibility and maturity.
Can’t manage a residential?
While we’re firm believers in our residentials, we understand not everyone has the time or money to bring a group to stay at Bowles.
You can also bring your group to Bowles for the day and try some of the activities. Our expert, experienced, qualified instructors are just as adept at reviewing and drawing out learning for young people who are here for a day visit.
As a charity for young people Bowles also operates a bursary fund, which we can use to lower the cost of a residential here. Applicants are asked to demonstrate a need for financial assistance, and if we are able to offer support, groups are also asked to provide us with photographs and stories from their stay which we can use when fundraising.
What else do we offer?
- we can help with transport – if you can get your group to Tunbridge Wells or Eridge train stations, we’ll pick you up and drop you back
- your group will have a dedicated coordinator who will ensure your stay runs smoothly
- at night we have an onsite duty instructor, on-call in case of an emergency
- group leaders’ rooms are well-positioned and comfortable to allow you to easily supervise your group. Bedrooms are ‘zoned’ to allow easy separation of boys and girls
- we work with thousands of young people every year and have a great reputation for having the right staff, activities, accommodation and catering