Blue Peris Mountain Centre is one of the surviving centres for the development of outdoor education opportunities for children from the Bedfordshire area. Originally Netherswell Manor catered for the many primary and middle schools of the county. Since its closure Blue Peris has been developing courses to offer children of all age ranges the opportunity to learn via exploration and investigation in the outdoors. Such opportunities can both meet the needs of the national curriculum and of the personal and social development of the individual which can blossom in a residential experience.

We are now ready to offer courses for primary pupils (Available course dates and prices on request). An outline of a course is detailed below although we can adapt any ideas or courses to suit the needs of the school. We have tried to develop a course which will provide opportunities for a lot of hands on experiences, with an emphasis on numeracy and literacy skills a key element of the National Curriculum today. Also we have attempted to include elements of Geography, History, Science, CDT, Drama and Art. The courses have been adapted to accommodate the typical weather for the season for which there are spaces available. A diary for the course is available offering the opportunity to record the events of the week, as well as providing some activities for the pupils to complete during their stay. A weather watch booklet is also available for the recording and analysis of the weather results gained throughout the week.

The course costs includes all transport costs to and from schools in Bedfordshire or others on route to North Wales, all food and accommodation at the centre, and all activities (other than those listed in the additional section above). We can accommodate a maximum group size of 40 pupils, smaller groups can be catered for as well (contact centre for prices). We ask for one adult to be brought from the school for every 12 children (extra adults can be accommodated if necessary), these adults can be teachers, parents, or PGCE students. The adults are responsible for the welfare of the pupils during non activity time. All activities are run by qualified staff, most of whom are teachers.

6 day courses programmes are also available (prices on request), these will include the above days, including both options on day 2, as well as a selection of the following; Conwy Castle Visit and mountain walk; Orienteering; Woodland investigation; Mine Visit; Village Study; Ropes Course; Mountain Lakes walk. More ideas are being developed currently.

Courses at Blue Peris include personal accident insurance for pupils and staff and do not require any further Bedfordshire County Council approval. To keep transport costs as low as possible it would be helpful if schools could book courses back to back.

4 Day Course Program in More Detail

Day 1
Depart from school at 8am, arrive at Centre approx 2pm. Introduction to the Centre, woodland scavenger hunt / local walk / slate art (weather dependent)

Evening
Journey to an ancient roundhouse for storytelling with a local storyteller.

Day 2
Start the day with the morning weather watch, pupils gather the weather information for the group and present it in the morning meeting. These results will be recorded in the pupils log books to be used in the production of graphs, one of the on-going tasks for the course encouraging the development of numeracy skills.

Activity Choice for your group today.

Conservation Day, visiting a Beach and Forest on Anglesey. Beach Combing, Collecting materials for Beach Art, Shelter Building and the possibility of doing some local conservation data collection around the Centre for use by the country park or national parks. The visit to the beach would take most of the day, and would include a seaside weather watch to be used as a comparison with results gathered back at the Centre earlier in the day.

Evening
This would be spent doing some beach art, pebble painting, diary writing and weather watch results work.

OR

Myths and legends adventure walk around Beddgellert. This area is linked with many folk tales and a lot of legend is based around King Arthur, where he died at the pass of the arrows, and where his nights lie sleeping in a cave to save Wales one day in the future. The walk itself is an adventure walk, where tunnels are encountered, mine entrances appear, you visit Llyn Dinas Lake and walk along the banks of the Aberglaslyn Gorge. A weather watch will be undertaken during the journey to look at the effect of height on the wind speed and temperature.

Evening
Creative writing based upon story telling and the adventures of the day. Weather watch write up, including graphs etc. Diary completion.

Day 3
The morning weather watch continues. The entire day will be occupied with the Glynllifon Mystery Trail. This will involve groups of students working together as a team, to solve problems, make decisions, use maps and journey through the grounds of an old stately home which is full of a variety of mysterious buildings. This will encourage the students to work together as a group, to communicate effectively, to make decisions, to solve problems as well as being a lot of fun.

Evening
Weather watch results written up, diary completed, and a small presentation of something funny that happened throughout the day; Or creative writing based upon the events of the day; Or design your own mystery trail using Blue Peris grounds. Packing.

Day 4
Final weather watch. Either Penrhyn Castle visit and orienteering, or Slate Museum visit and quarry walk. Return to the Centre for lunch. Depart afternoon for the return journey home.

Additional Possibilities

Visit to Sea Zoo (during beach day) additional cost.
Sygyn Copper Mine Visit (with Beddgellert day) additional cost.