Avon Tyrrell Week 20

Well what a week, Monday/Tuesday in the Lake District at our UK Youth national conference with a theme around youth unemployment and the challenges and initiatives to support young people in seeking employment.  And at any event of this nature there is also the networking that can be done, and for me also the enjoyable ICT clinic for staff, which did run a little late into the evening….

And then on the Tuesday after the conference three of us managed a spin on our mountain bikes into the Lake District Mountains and what fun we had.  I tweeted on the route with my tweeting skills @AvonTyrrell the journey into the great outdoors can begin and it can lead to adventure in magnificent places such as the Lake District Mountains.  And then I was homeward bound to Avon Tyrrell driving through 6 hours of rain, but it was so worth it, because I do so enjoy being in the Mountains.

Being away always brings the inevitable catch-up so I have spent the last two days and evenings catching up on the continual plethitude of paperwork involved in managing our centre day to day.  But do I mind, no, because we do have the ability to impact on so many young people each week and make a difference.  We work in a wonderful environment and can be proud of Avon Tyrrell as it is a place for all to enjoy the outdoors, experience, learn and develop.

Across the site great things continue to happen at Avon Tyrrell with our new sewage plant now being installed as our old one finally fell over in late April.  Fortunately for us our UK Youth Trustees had approved a replacement and all was in place to start work, so we have managed to keep operating while the work is done.

 

And more exciting news, to continue to develop and support the work that the charity does with cycling, and don’t forget our president Nigel Mansell, sponsors a professional bike team that display our charity colours, we are going to work in partnership with a local bike shop, ‘Gone Biking Mad’.  We will on site be able to provide more professional bike services, bike hire and a bike shop for the users of Avon Tyrrell, and the local community.  Very exciting.

 

There is much more happening here at Avon Tyrrell so if you can why not come and see, it is such a cool place.  Our charity, UK Youth, has made such an effort to make an accessible outdoor venue for all and because we care so passionately about making a difference for young people we absolutely keep our costs affordable because we want everyone to have the opportunity to experience, learn and develop at Avon Tyrrell, enhance life skills and support employability and personal development in the future.

Hopefully see you soon, and please come and say Hi

Best Wishes dw
Remember… experience – learn – develop

Avon Tyrrell Blog - Week 16

dw Weekly Blog

My oh my! – the UK Youth Outdoor Activity Centre, Avon Tyrrell,  is a 'majestic' place to work and the week has gone so quickly. What have we been up to?  Well; we continue to worry we have not picked up all the House roof drainage to stop it going to the sewage plant, which is about to be updated.  The maintenance staff have done a fantastic job working through a 120 year old drainage system to get it resolved once and for all.  And if that was not enough, we have had to put in a new power supply for the pool heating system, so our pool will soon be up and running; we want to see the sun please as the pool is outdoors.

Marketing – we have worked hard to find the right format to ensure we get our message across, with a core theme that ‘Avon Tyrrell’ is the venue which hosts the UK Youth Charity, Outdoor Activity Centre.  We think we are winning.  So look out for some new branding and marketing material, and we would like to know what you think.

L We have written letters to a big organisation who wants to be very unfair with their charges to our charity.  They are stating that we cannot leave them without a large penalty even with 3 months notice. When you get charged £220 for the removal of two small bags of waste you know the costs are ridiculously extortionate for a charity that wants its money to be used for young people, and not making big companies rich, so we have made a stand, wish us luck…

The Avon Tyrrell Team delivered a successful Inspiring You weekend for families who have a family member with special needs.  Here is a flavour of the feedback and I hope you understand how proud this makes us feel that we can say ‘we did that!’ And the 'Bench' this was something they made for Avon Tyrrell:

"Avon Tyrrell, well what can I say!!! Wicked, fantastical, epic awesome are only some of the words used by the kids to describe it here.  This weekend was especially special because......."

"Im just giving feedback about how Fab this weekend was for my family of 6. It was the best weekend away may family has ever had, family life in my family is challenging to say the least, but this weekend was a godsend the children were in their element.  I have never met such nice and friendly staff who are simply the best, they were so encouraging and friendly it was like one big family......"

 

  Other highlights of the week…

·         The Customer Services Team continue to work hard to implement Cinolla booking system with some great positive  changes that provide good reporting functions and a better booking experience for those that use Avon Tyrrell.
·         The Café has had a revamp and look out for some new menu’s
·         The staff have received their new polo shirts and fleeces and are looking very smart.

And finally we hope you have a grand weekend.

Best Wishes dw
Remember… experience – learn – develop

Week 15 at Avon Tyrrell

dw Weekly Blog

My week – hectic, busy, exciting, rewarding, I could list many superlatives, the fact of the matter is, as any Centre Manger would tell you, it is one of the most rewarding jobs anyone can have.  It is worthwhile as you are a part of a team that touches and influences many lives, and in particular our focus as a charity, UK Youth, is supporting young people to gain life-skills and accredited awards that build confidence, resilience and help broaden their opportunities in life.  Avon Tyrrell is such an outstanding outdoor centre to support this.

We now will Blog to you every week with the highs and lows of Avon Tyrrell life.  UK Youth does very much want to make the Centre continually develop and so we would very much welcome dialogue and comments from you in what would make Avon Tyrrell better for you.  We cannot promise to do everything but we will do what we can within the Charity’s resources.
And as for the rest of my week:       

-          More work on Cinolla; our new bookings system

-          Working on how we use NetSuite our new Charity finance system and the integration with Cinolla

-          Looking at how we internally operate and market ourselves

-          Preparing for our bi-annual LOtC Inspection next week

-          Telling staff about fantastic feedback from Special needs Family and a letter to our chefs.

-          Contracts to sign for services

-          Dealing with a support services company who are not nice and would rather take our money than have ethics.

-          Discussing with Maintenance Staff how to improve outside toilets and showers and the plan to improve the roof drainage.

 

You get the gist!  You may ask what keeps me enthusiastic, motivated and driven to make Avon Tyrrell better and better for visitors and staff, why, of course, the people. Have a good week and please get in touch if you have something to say about the Centre.

Best Wishes dw
Remember… experience – learn – develop

And from our History Photos:

 

Avon Tyrrell August 2012

Summer rolls on, the Olympics are finally here and people are taking Holidays and enjoying the ‘Great Outdoors’. We are hugely busy with a great mixture of groups enjoying and benefitting from what we offer at Avon Tyrrell.  The staff continue to work their socks off to try and do their utmost to ensure everyone has a rewarding experience when visiting and or staying.  We ardently believe that our charity UK Youth offers this fantastic unique venue for the good and benefit of young people and that it is extremely rewarding to be able to offer many varying experience to help people with new life skills, which can have a positive affect for them.

Only this week we had one group compliment the staff on how well they worked with the group, they also said that after a number of residential trips this trip was the first time the group had fully engaged in activities, enjoyed them and felt the benefits. How heartening and rewarding for the whole team to hear compliments like that, its these moments when you know you are in the right job, without a shadow of a doubt.

And to make Avon Tyrrell a little better every year and try and maximise what we offer it is absolutely fantastic that we continue to receive corporate volunteer groups to support site improvements.  B&Q HR Shared Services have recently spent a day with us working on clearing vegetation to return an area back to the original heathland which will support our Field Studies and Environmental sessions.  It was a very hot day but the team worked impressively hard finishing off clearance of the area, which will now allow us to get a digger in to clear the root balls and allow the heathland to once again flourish.  A very big thank you to the team for all the hard work and we hope you enjoyed our chef’s food and the outdoor activities you participated in as a thank you.

We also recently attended the New Forest Show and we had a small team in the Discovery Zone, which was a shady area (the main arena was like a furnace) where young people could engage in some field study activities including our most popular one which was mini beast hunting.  It was fantastic for them to discover that not far from where they were walking they could find toads, newts, violet ground beetles, millipedes, snails and lots of slugs (to name a few!) 

The president of the New Forest Show, Alan Titchmarsh came and said hello on Wednesday and he was very pleased to learn that we were so passionate about outdoor learning.  He was nearly persuaded to make one of our popular leaf crowns, but was worried about what the Queen might think later when she met him.  When the Queen arrived by helicopter on the same day there was a buzz of excitement throughout the day: they both took time to see as much people as possible which made the Show a very special one in the Queens Jubilee year.

Finally do not forget if you are mad about bikes and want to have some fun outdoors then come to Avon Tyrrell Outdoor Activity Centre to the Big Bike Bash on 18-19^th August.  This family event is held every year and comprises of live music, DJ’s, and activities to keep the kids entertained.  Facilities include on site camping, showers, bike wash, bike doctors, picnic area, climbing, boating activities, and a cross country racecourse of 3.5 miles of single track that includes river crossings, a boardwalk and a unique lake jump.  If you don’t want to miss out on this fantastic weekend, then book your tickets through the Big Bike Bash at http://www.bigbikebash.co.uk/ticketss

You are most welcome to visit and see what we are up to or to find out more about Avon Tyrrell Outdoor Activity Centre and the many varied opportunities we offer please contact us on Tel; 01425 672347 or email info@ukyouth.org  or view our website www.avontyrrell.org.uk 

Remember… experience – learn – develop

PS:  Guess who these are?

Avon Tyrrell June 2012

We have had an interesting few weeks and despite the variable weather this has not deterred the Centre being utilised by many varieties of groups and individuals.  We continue to try and improve our service support to our visitors at Avon Tyrrell and appreciate the feedback we get.  We have little doubt about the strength of outdoor learning and increasing appreciation of the value it brings.  We would encourage all those of you who have an opportunity to come to Avon Tyrrell whether as a part of a group or individually that you make the most of the enormous amount of opportunities and experiences that can be had at the Centre to help develop life experiences.

We must tell you that only last week our very own Mariann, who works in our Customer Services Team and is the main architect of the majority of outdoor programmes, returned to Hungary to Marry Andre’.  They are two very lovely people and we are all so very pleased for them and we all wish them a very happy future life together.  And didn't she look beautiful?

Finally our strawbale classroom is now connected to mains electric and we also have electricity available for campers using the Lake East Camping area.

The Possibility Magazine has awarded Avon Tyrrell its seal of approval and we are proud to receive this and are pleased with the article written in the magazine praising Avon Tyrrell and its accessibility for all.

We are very very happy to tell you that we have now received planning permission for our Boathouse to be built down by our main Lake.  This will make such a significant difference to the Lake area and the campers using that area as the boathouse will have showers and toilets as well as storage for canoes and kayaks and will be fully accessible.  We have now begun the process of fundraising to allow us to build the boathouse.  All donations are welcome, please!

In support of preparing the ground for where the Boathouse will be built, the very kind people from B&Q supply team came along and cleared more of the vegetation to make the area accessible.  The weather was its usual, warm, windy wet and the sun did show itself once.  The team worked very hard and achieved a huge amount, and we are truly grateful to them for all their excellent work.  The day was ended with a thank you by us and a go at their chosen activity of archery before heading home to a well earned rest. 

And if you are mad about bikes and want to have some fun outdoors then come to Avon Tyrrell Outdoor Activity Centre to the Big Bike Bash on 18-19^th August.  This family event is held every year and comprises of live music, DJ’s, a festival and activities to keep the kids entertained.  Facilities include on site camping, showers, bike wash, bike doctors, picnic area, climbing, boating activities, and a cross country racecourse of 3.5 miles of single track that includes river crossings, a boardwalk and a unique lake jump.  If you don’t want to miss out on this fantastic weekend, then book your tickets through the Big Bike Bash at http://www.bigbikebash.co.uk/ticketss

And finally, we hope you enjoy this picture as much as we do from a pupil from Bransgore Primary School who recently stayed with us.  It was at the bottom of a very kind thank you letter and we thought it was such a good drawing of Avon Tyrrell House from someone so young we would share it with you:

You are most welcome to visit and see what we are up to or to find out more about Avon Tyrrell Outdoor Activity Centre and the many varied opportunities we offer please contact us on Tel; 01425 672347 or email info@ukyouth.org  or view our website www.avontyrrell.org.uk  
Remember… experience – learn – develop

Avon Tyrrell 31 May 2012

Diamond Jubilee Weekend; and just think in 1949 Princess Elizabeth opened Avon Tyrrell Outdoor Activity Centre for our Charity UK Youth.  Amazing really as the Monarchy and Avon Tyrrell have adapted and grown throughout the years to many demands and contributed a huge amount to Society; something we can both be very proud of.

It is therefore very rewarding that B&Q chose Avon Tyrrell as a site for a commission by the muralist, Chris Naylor, to sculpt into our lawn Her Majesty’s Head in celebration of her 60 years on the throne, which took an amazing 2 days of hard work.  On completion, and to the thrill of a number of young people staying a helicopter arrived carrying a photographer who took some aerial shots of the grass sculpture.  As we are a youth charity, the photographer asked the young people from Beaufort Community Primary School and Lord Wilson School to get involved, which as you can see proved to create fantastic photographs.  We hope the Queen gets to see the photos and is reminded of the day she opened Avon Tyrrell Outdoor Activity Centre for UK Youth over 60 years ago.

While this was going on, the Enduroman athletes have returned, and starting today with the hardened few.  The athletes begin completing 10 days of back to back Ironman Triathlons – 2.4 mile swim, 112 miles on a bike and a 26 mile Marathon.  The athletes will be competing day and night and if you would like to come and spectate, you are welcome at any time.  At days 5, 7, 8 and 9, they are joined by those doing 5, 3, 2 and 1 Ironman Triathlons.

Also continuing with the Royal theme, two of our staff, Suzanne and Alex enjoyed a Royal Tea Party at Buckingham Palace.  Both staff thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon and felt privileged to attend on behalf of our Charity UK Youth.

We also continue to try and improve the welcome we offer our visitors, our Eco Health Project participants have been busy building flower beds, planting and arranging hanging baskets as well as replanting established Avon Tyrrell plant beds to help improve the aesthetics of our welcome and immediate area around the House.  We hope you will enjoy what they have done as much as we do.

… And to end, Avon Tyrrell UK Youth staff very much congratulate the Queen on her Diamond Jubilee.

 

You are most welcome to visit and see what we are up to or to find out more about Avon Tyrrell Outdoor Activity Centre and the many varied opportunities we offer please contact us on Tel; 01425 672347 or email info@ukyouth.org or view our website www.avontyrrell.org.uk

Remember…

experience – learn – develop