First Day Fun!

First day activities for our groups.

Our first group went scrambling across the rock sea cliffs in Anglesey, along with lots of rock jumps and a scary tyrolean.

 

 

Our Next 3 groups all went to the Afon Ddu gorge, which translates to the Black River in English. Here they all scrambled up the gorge, did some natural water slides, squeezed in between some tight gaps and jumped in to the big pool at the top. 

 

 

 

Our Final two groups went for a lovely morning canoe paddling on our local lake, Llyn Paddarn before going rock climbing on Lion Rocks, working directly towards our aims of this week of becoming a good team and pushing themselves out of their comfort zones.

 

 

 

 

Heatwave hits Blue Peris

Well, the group certainly have struck lucky this week, with either blue skies ( hot) or slightly cloudy ( muggy and hot). Who says we get no summer in North Wales?

 

 

 

 

Taking a break in the gorge

 

 

They've managed to cope with the heat though, mainly by finding any available source of water and jumping into it! They managed to jump into every pool in the gorge and equally spent a lot of time jumping into the lake ( when they were supposed to be canoeing!). Who can blame them though, when the weather is this good?

Are there more fun ways to cool down?

Extreme Bath time!

When they weren't jumping into water, they were busy hiding from the sun down the slate mines, exploring the caverns ( I bet no one wanted to jump into water down there!).

Cool Mines

They couldn't escape the suns  rays whilst rock climbing though, but the concentration and effort probably took their mind of the heat.

Climbing in the sun.

Good Effort!

Turn your back

If you turn your back for too long at the centre then once you look back Matt our site agent has no doubt built something new.

This time the last section of our equipment stores has been updated and it looks grand.

Having a top notch stores with top notch kit is importance to us and is one of the Blue Peris many strengths.

Our recent AALA inspector sated " one of the best equipped stores I have seen "

Nice to get great feedback.

I wonder what Matt will have done once we look again.

Gorgeous day!

This week we have some very active students who are one time, with all their kit and even brought a brilliant attitude too! This meant we were all leaving the centre early this morning for some adventure.

Big smiles in the machine.

 Two groups were in the Gorge today and had a whale of a time splashing around on the slides and under the waterfalls, they even got to jump in the lake at the end! But it wasn't all just fun, the groups are also working on their communication skills and were actually leading each other up the gorge under the watchful eye of the instructors.

Cracking photo!

What goes up...

 The remaining two groups headed up into the mountains where they made the best of a small weather window and headed to the summits in the sunshine! Today was a great day to enjoy the views and help others who maybe needed a little more encouragement on the walk up the mountains.
Everyone worked hard and was successful, the whole team summiting together made for a great experience the young people won't forget!

Mountain fun!

Summit Fever!

Terrific Tuesdays

What a start to the week for out group of year 6's today.

All our groups went climbing and canoeing, and applied a lot of suncream.

In climbing two groups scaled the rock cliffs at Lion's Rock and Union Crag, all working really well in their groups.

Whilst the canoeing groups enjoyed a paddle around on Llyn Paddarn getting slightly wet at the end. Lots of games were played and lots of challenges were accepted. Before we switched the groups round. Even some of our afternoon groups tried out some tandem canoeing!

Look at them climbers go!

Section of tandem canoeing just to finish the day.

Bombs away

Rafted canoe adventures.

Well your suppose to move your feet down as you abseil down the wall but some people prefer to do alternative methods.

Excellent tight rope there with our belay team working fantastically.

So we did get a little bit wet.

Great start for the week and work towards our aims; teamwork, communication, to understand and push their limitations, and most important of all, to have fun!

Gold has arrived

This week we passed our Gold Learning Outside the Classroom Inspection. 

This quality badge is a voluntary option for Outdoor Education Centres and demonstrates a standard classed as excellent in view of learning, teaching, customer care, facilities  management, safety, environmental concerns and quality assurance.

Many other organisations gain The Learning Outside the Classroom Quality badge but not at Gold Standard. This is the highest level of award that can be gained within Outdoor Education / Adventure.

Out of all the outdoor centres within the UK there are only 60 that have attained the Gold Standard Badge and Blue Peris was one of the first Outdoor Education centres to gain Gold Approval when it was launched over 4 years ago. 

The award is overseen by the Association Heads of Outdoor Education Centres ( AHOEC ) of which the centre is a member. Again this membership is voluntary but we believe it's important to strive to offer the highest provision to young people.

"AHOEC Centres have been at the forefront of delivering innovative, real, and exciting outdoor learning experiences to young people across the UK for over 50 years. This has been achieved by successfully promoting all-round personal development through outdoor education and residential experience"

The award offers numerous benefits to our customers, one of the main outcomes is that many LEA recognise the badge, the result being that schools have to complete less documentation and the process of gaining trip approval is more simple.

We are very proud as a centre and company to have been awarded it for another 2 years and it demonstrates Blue Peris and Fusion Lifestyles vision and commitment to offer the very highest quality at an affordable cost.

Wild weather!

Today the groups headed off into the mountains for some wild weather and memories they'll never forget!


There was rain, snow and some strong wind, unfortunately however the sun allocation for 2016 has been used so it was nowhere to be seen.


Nevertheless the groups were fantastic and kept motivated throughout.


Well done team!


Tonight the groups will be completing job resetting the centre ready for the next group of young people arriving over the weekend.  The group this week have been working on working and living with other so these jobs fit right in with their aims as the students are paired up for their jobs and have to work with each other to complete the tasks.


Thanks for a great week at Blue Peris, see you next year!


Heading back into Llanberis

--

Rubbish weather - great attitudes!

Well earned hot chocolate!

Heading out of Capel Curig

Making good use of the wall for shelter

Wintery