School residential trips in the UK?

[Bonsoir]

Does anyone have any recommendations for providers, apart from Kingswood.

There were many dubious faces when the trip leader told us that dinner would be served at 6pm.

amistillsexy - thanks for the vote of support!

Our junior school has stayed in the accommodation at Goodwood in Sussex. It can sleep about 87. Look up Goodwood estate here

Bonsoir, the timing of the meals is the least of their worries

Amistillsexy, as we live in London, Outward Bound trips are perfect!

Another possibility would be approaching a boarding school and seeing if they would let you hire their place in the holidays. My school used to have another school take over the dormitories for a fortnight in the summer and they would do trips out every day.
Don't know what the cost would be though.

Stratford -upon-Avon for Shakespeare, Warwick castle as the castle is wonderful and steeped with History and connections with several Kings and then Packwood house and Baddersely clinton and Kenilworth for the ruins of the castle all together, plenty of culture within 20 miles. There are plenty of places to stay and a few boarding schools in the area. YHA just outside stratford.

bigTillyMint - funnily enough, the group that went last year really liked the food. Maybe there are different catering options? That might explain the absolutely outrageous cost of the proposed trip...

Some local authorities have residential centres, which can be hired out to schools or other organisations. Not the right area for you (Somerset), but Kilve Court does activities but also hosts other things (maths camps, music camps) - DD went to a residential there, and we later discovered that lots of the extended family who live in somerset have had their kids go there and they all speak highly of it. Might be useful to someone else reading this thread, and perhaps another avenue of inquiry for the OP.

All we get offered is the same old, same old 'outward bound' visits; canoeing, abseiling, climbing, etc., yet they're never offered a visit to London, or any of our beautiful historic cities.

Probably because for a lot of families, cultural trips would be the 'same old' whereas watersports or abseiling aren't, and 'activities' provide more scope for team building exercises which is often the rationale for the trip. Don't most schools do 'cultural' stuff on days out (rather than residential) anyway? - DD went to all sorts of museums, historic houses, and York in primary.

Bonsoir, maybe they are deserate to eat something carby/deep fried/sugary instead of all the healthy balanced-meal stuff they have in France

Worth enquiring at Lodge www.paxlodge.org/en/home . It's owned by Girlguiding but as far as I'm aware they accept non-Guiding groups.

Bah, try that link again Pax Lodge

My DS's school do a "tudor" residential at Hooke court - link further up thread.

Lots of YHA hostels are used for accommodation and meals by school groups who then do their own thing with regard to day time activities/ trip/ visits.

bigTillyMint - do you remember how much you paid for your DD's residentials at Kingswood?

www.isleofwightexperience.co.uk have a banner up at Portsmouth. They always seem to do more than just sports - and it seems more than just the island.

We live an hour and a half from anywhere worth going on a school trip - I definitely think it would be much better to go on a topic based residential than a sporty one. In fact the thought of walking on and dangling from ropes is completely putting DS off going away when he should be excited about sharing a room with his friends etc etc

I take a residential field trip in Sussex for my year 4 class (8-9) we stay in a local hotel and visit science observatory, battle abbey and bodium castle - it works really well. Can give you details if you wish :-)

2 years a go ran a residential canal boating: started in b'ham where we went to the sea life centre before taking the boat to Bournvile, then to Coventry (cathedral) then Warwick castle, then back to b'ham.
It took a week, was a good mix of cultural, relaxing and being active. And a great way to expetance England.

We did do all our own cooking though which you may see as I down side.
Sure I still have the serials some where!

Bonsoir, I think it was in the region of £320 for 4 nights.

I've taken a number of groups to Kingswood (variety of sites from Isle of Wight to Cumbria) and never had deep fried food ... lots of carbs because they are using lots of calories but also lots of fresh fruit available on demand in addition to fresh veg at lunch and dinner.

Did the £320 include transport (if so, what sort?) and were there any excursions? Sorry to be so nosy, but we are being asked for EUR 855 (£710) for a four night trip...

It was all the transport there and back (not far - SE London!) and then the activities - all physical stuff onsite AFAIK, no excursions. The DC were in a variety of rooms - some for 6 or 4 or 2. DS said the 2man one was very tight!

Was it Grosvenor Hall?

ds has stayed at YHA while on a field trip, Juniper Hall near Dorking is well placed for outdoors and trips to London etc. ds went to a French PGL centre and they spent a lot of time out and about shopping in French markets , visiting WW2 sites etc so am sure even those type of centres can offer more than sport/activity breaks if asked. dc school did exchange visits which included kids of that age group. If they came outside of UK term time many prep schools/independent secondaries would rent out their boarding facilities.

www.kingswood.co.uk/international/day-trip-excursions

www.kingswood.co.uk/international/overnight-excursions