SPORTA REPORT PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
ORGANISATION Valley Leisure
PROJECT Explore Outdoor
V
alley Leisure’s outdoor adventure activity programme, Explore Outdoor, enables eight- to 14-year-olds to participate in
instructor-led activities such as canoeing, archery, climbing, bushcraft, and orienteering to develop map skills. Valley Leisure has worked with
over 50 community and school- based groups in the last two years to deliver their ‘learning outside the classroom’ curriculum – a personal development curriculum that supports the government’s Learning Outside the Classroom initiative, designed to ensure that every young person experiences the world beyond the classroom as part of learning and development. Recent developments from Valley
Leisure include a three-day camping residential for 70 local secondary school children, and termly Year 5 primary school Adventure Days, which throughout the year build on skills such as teamwork and communication. “Ofsted’s review into outdoor
learning found that the majority of schools offering outdoor learning
SEEING RESULTS
charity 4SIGHT – a charity for people with visual impairments, which works to bring independence to its clients and provide opportunities in all areas of life. The community development team at
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the West Sussex-based trust worked closely with 4SIGHT to set up a gym at its head office in Bognor Regis, with the goal being to create a gym that offered a safe and progressive environment for members to keep fit. “4SIGHT applied for funding to
build an adapted fitness suite at its headquarters, which has excellent lighting and equipment with audible
nspire Leisure Trust is supporting people with visual impairments to live full and independent lives through its partnership with local
ORGANISATION Inspire Leisure Trust
PROJECT 4SIGHT
prompts to support members,” says John Stride, CEO of Inspire Leisure.
“The charity directly approached us as the local leisure provider, as well as a local company with a reputation for community involvement in the service sector, so we were involved from the beginning of the project in 2010.” Between May 2010 and December 2012, Inspire Leisure provided an
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instructor and ran fitness sessions within the gym. The instructor worked with the members on a one-to-one basis each week, getting them used to the environment and enabling them to orientate themselves around the facility and the fitness machines. The scheme saw 12 visually impaired
people benefit from the partnership, making a total of 202 visits. Half of these participants developed enough confidence to then transfer to the gyms at Inspire Leisure facilities, encouraging further interaction and integration with their local community. “We still support the scheme at our
Felpham and Littlehampton sites, where some of the 4SIGHT members have joined,” adds Stride. ●
October 2013 © Cybertrek 2013
The outdoor activities help build key life skills
adventure experiences were as a five- day residential trip for Year 6 pupils,” says James Blyth, Valley Leisure’s assistant manager for sport and activity development. “Ofsted found the more exposure to adventure activities young people have, the more they get out of the five-day trip. We’re therefore not competing with trips, but rather offering an opportunity to complement and develop skills on a more frequent basis.” Research in the Test Valley area had
shown that one of the reasons schools didn’t regularly visit leisure facilities was because of the costs involved, not only for the activity but for transportation
too. Valley Leisure therefore boosted the success of Explore Outdoor by purchasing a mobile climbing wall, Land Rover, 10 Canadian Canoes, mobile archery solution and other equipment. Explore Outdoor now delivers
tailored sessions to special needs schools, Brownies and Scout groups, local rehabilitation services, NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) groups and Pupil Referral Units, as well as supporting local events in Test Valley. Blyth says: “The people on our
programme and holiday activities are developing invaluable life skills like team building, confidence and leadership.”
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