Avon Tyrrell Blog

Avon Tyrrell - December 11

2011-12-01T08:07:00.001Z

Theend of year draws near and we are now preparing the Avon Tyrrell House for thefestive season. The Housekeeping team will undoubtedly decorate the Houseamazingly and with our beautiful Christmas trees the House will look very festive.

Wewill have a Christmas Fayre starting at 4pm on the 7^th December andthen at the weekend we will be hosting a family Christmas weekend withactivities supported by HCC that will enable children and young people with disabilities and/or additionalneeds to experience and participate in a host of outdoor and arts and crafts activities as well as evening fun activities. Wealso have it on really good authority that Father Christmas will make bothevents, yippee…..

Wildlife WatchGroup haverecently visited and there was a really good turnout for the volunteer groupwith some new faces and some old. The group carried on clearing the bracken atthe Avon Tyrrell SINC site and clearing the ground back to bare soil. The areais really starting to take shape and the group made a fire to burn all of thebracken and to keep warm. The group were still a little cold so they had acompetition to warm them up! This involved using a Kelly Kettle to boil waterso they could all enjoy a hot chocolate. After initial difficulties getting thekettles started they were soon blazing. The hot drink was very much appreciatedby all. Finally to wrap the day up the group made bird feeders using PineCones, seeds and peanut butter. It was a fun day and everyone enjoyedthemselves.

We have nowestablished an Activity Instructor post to Coordinate Inclusive Activities forall visitors to Avon Tyrrell.

As part of Alex Robert’s 2011 NVQ 3apprenticeship at Avon Tyrrell, Alex chose to work with groups and individuals withdisabilities, working towards making their even more accessible and inclusivetime whether participating in adventurous activities or not. Based on thesuccess of his work and the great feedback he was receiving from groups, Alexwas able to demonstrate how important having someone with these skills is tothose who visit us.

His time required him to manageresidential short breaks for families who have someone with a disability, andcreate an experience that is assessable to the whole family by coordinating anadventurous and non-adventurous residential programme for up to 150people. He also worked with specialist groups gathering informationbefore they arrive, liaising with them during their visit, working with them asthe lead instructor and seeking feedback post visit to ensure that the entirecentre is growing and learning with each and every group that visits.

Groups have commented on how usefulit is to have someone passionate and skilled enough to work directly with thegroups to guarantee every part of their visit has the requiredattention. Groups have also observed how much Avon Tyrrell is developingover time with the accommodation and access becoming more accessible providingpositive feedback on the “Can do” attitude the entire Centre has when aiming tomeet the needs of all groups that visit the centre.

We have some very excited groupslooking forward to their next visit here at Avon Tyrrell and we are veryexcited to see these develop with particular interest in looking forward to thenext inspirational residential in two weeks' time.

We havealso had an enjoyable visit from a group of young people from Ringwood SheilingSchool. Earlier in the year they had createdsome lovely flowers that are currently brightening up the Field Studies Avon Tyrrell Garden having participated in a competition with other local schools to design something for our Garden. As a thank you for their lovely craft workwe provided them with a tour of our site, a chance to re- look around theGarden that now displays some of their work and take part in some fun activities such as making rainbow cards andspotting some animal tracks. We had a lovely day with the young people and hope to see them again soon.

You are mostwelcome to visit and see what we are up to or to find out more about AvonTyrrell Outdoor Activity Centre and the many varied opportunities we offerplease 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 Update - 4th November 2011

2011-11-04T16:48:00.001Z

Well another week draws to a close and despite the heavy rainat time in the week the schools using the site have had an excellent time. The picture below certainly shows howbeautiful the different trees make Avon Tyrrell so interesting.

We continue to invite school teachers and group leaders to come and visit and have lunch with us andsee why Avon Tyrrell is such a unique and enjoyable outdoor Centre to use andstay at. If you represent a school orgroup and have never been here and are interested in coming to visit us, please call Sharon on 01425672347 to arrange a time to suit you. Please note we cannot do Mondays and Fridays as these are our normalchangeover days.

Halloween Evening at Avon Tyrrell certainly was scary for afew and what an enjoyable experience those who came had. Two of our apprentice instructors, Jess and Jamieput on a magnificent event that everyone enjoyed, see the feedback and thescary pictures of our ghouls…. We even provided a meal for the children from our witches kitchen and no it did not include frog legs and rat tails! Maybe you will be brave enough to attend nextyear? An to top it off the eveningraised £500 towards our tractor appeal, fantastic:

Thanks for the fab Halloween night, the kids loved it andI'm still having nightmares about the mummy arising from the coffin, fantastic work from everyoneinvolved.

The best outdoor center going :-)

nowhere is better thanthis place

You aremost welcome to visit and see what we are up to or to find out more about AvonTyrrell Outdoor Activity Centre and the many varied opportunities we offerplease 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 October 2011

2011-10-23T13:50:00.000+01:00

Avon Tyrrell Update

Winter is on its way and although a little chillier we stillhave enjoyed some good weather. AvonTyrrell remains busy with residential and day visits from schools and young peoplegroups as well as families and friends. We have now had our main sports court surface upgraded with a rubberizedsurface and this will make it a great surface for groups to use. We have also managed to replace two of oursettees in our 6 berth lodges for the comfort and enjoyment of visitors, so wehope you like them if you are using these lodges.

We have recently had a visit from Nat West employees whovolunteered to help for a day and they continued the work on our heathlandarea. The team did a great days work andcleared a great amount of vegetation which included revealing the views across The new Forest, which have not been seen for many years from this area.

Jaguar/Landrover apprentice staff also kindly organised adigger for half a day to do some work on the heathland and this made a goodstart on the work and we hope to get a digger in to do some more work in thenear future.

We have also launched our tractor appeal, as with 65 acres ofgrounds to manage and maintain we are in desperate needs to get a decenttractor to ensure we can maintain and develop the grounds for the benefit andenjoyment of our visitors. We are hoping to raise £35,000 and would appreciate any help in reaching this total.

You aremost welcome to visit and see what we are up to or to find out more about AvonTyrrell Outdoor Activity Centre and the many varied opportunities we offerplease 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 October 2011

2011-10-07T08:39:00.001+01:00

Avon Tyrrell Update

So much happening again that we want to tell you about, fromvisits from Blue Peter to having British Peddle Car Champions in our midst andthe great efforts from B&Q volunteers in completing clearing the vegetationaround our main lake. And whilst allthis goes on we are enjoying a visit from Scholing College and Robert PiggottJunior School. And wow what great weatherwe have had which has ensured our outdoor pool has been used right into earlyOctober.

Last weekend we had a visit from Blue Peter who were filmingfamilies from the Children’sChronic Arthritis Association Charity, who visit Avon Tyrrell annually and enjoy aweekend of activities and support meetings for families. Barney was here all day withthe families and the feedback we received was a huge thank you to all the team for such a fantasticday that ran so smoothly. The families all had an amazing time, and so did the filmcrew!You can watch the visit on Blue Peter Monday 10^th October, BBC1 at 4.30pm.

Inlate September, 3 members of Avon Tyrrell’s past and present staff – ChristineBlackburn, Amy Blackburn and Steph Mills went to Curborough race circuit toenter the 7th and final race of the British Pedal Car Racing season. This was a7 hour endurance relay race, which starts in daylight and finishes in darkness. 28 cars entered the starting grid and theyfinished 16th competing against men’s teams, mixed teams and junior teams mostof which had 4 team members. The teamwon the ladies trophy and for their efforts over the season they also won theBritish Pedal Car Championship ladies trophy too. Excellent Peddling Ladies and we hope to seeyou racing again next season.

TheB&Q volunteering teams have continued their excellent work around our mainlake, with more hard work and great team spirit. On two separate days the Compliance Team andthen the Finance Team finally completed clearing the vegetation from theovergrown pathways around the main lake and the lake pathways are now fully accessible. We now want to improve the quality of thepaths so everyone can enjoy walking around the lake. A magnificent effort from B&Q staff andwe are so very grateful. And not contentwith clearing around the large lake, a small team from the B&Q TrainingTeam also did some fantastic work helping start work around our ornamental pondand overgrown garden beds by the Queens tree.

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

Remember… experience – learn – develop

Avon Tyrell 25 September 2011

2011-09-25T17:04:00.002+01:00

Avon Tyrrell Update

My ‘O’ My, we continue to work hard on trying to make Avon Tyrrell awonderful outdoor centre for everyone to use, but ensuring what we do is verymuch focused on young people. This lastweek we have enjoyed the company of Hampton Primary School and a Princes TrustGroup from NewhamCollege as well as other group’s including some with disabilities, and from thefeedback we received all had an excellent experience and learningopportunities.

We have also trialled tree climbing at AvonTyrrell as an activity for 2012 and first impressions we believe this will be anenjoyable new activity that will give young people a unique experience,learning opportunities and superb views of the forest and surrounding areas,and most importantly, safely. We stillhave some work to do and fundraising to buy the equipment but we are confidentyou will see this activity in 2012 at Avon Tyrrell and we hope will be used by many groups.

Yet again we have had help in our grounds inmaking improvements. Firstly the B&QRetail Finance, Value Chain & Strategy Team worked on the pathways andvegetation clearance around the South of our lakes helping to open the pathwaysand accessibility and consolidating work already completed by other B&Qteams. An very good days work wascompleted, and we were very appreciative of the work.

We also were joined by Jaguar Landrover Apprenticesfor the weekend and sponsored by their apprentice are MAD charity, they spentall day Saturday helping clear the vegetation form our SINC site to te NorthWest of the site and reclaiming land that we can return to heathland andutilise for our Field Study sessions. The apprentices and the charity supporters that came with them workedastonishingly hard and completed a huge amount of work. It was also very rewarding to have youngpeople giving up their time at a weekend to help improve Avon Tyrrell site forother young people and we are very grateful to the apprentices and thesupporters for arranging the work. Theapprentices have also very kindly agreed to raise funds for a minibus for theAvon Tyrrell Centre to be used for young people using the Centre and it will be configured so it can beused by those with a disability. The apprentices also enjoyed some Activities on Sunday as a thank you from us for their magnificent work.

Our charityUK Youth feel very lucky and privileged that so many people freely give theirtime so we can provide more for young people, and it would be good if just occasionallythe media reported the positives that happen as we are sure it would thenencourage more people to do good things to help others. J

To find outmore about Avon Tyrrell Outdoor Activity Centre and the many variedopportunities 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 Update 15th September 2011

2011-09-16T16:07:00.006+01:00

Interesting week at Avon Tyrrell, with plentyhappening. Starting with the grand opening of our Centenary Garden which hasbeen built by participants in our EcoHealth Project. We have had materialsdonated to help build the garden from a number of supporters and in particularthe B&Q at Castlepoint in Bournemouth have been very helpful. The garden isan oasis of peace and tranquility and everyone is welcome to visit it andenjoy. You will find it located next to the Avon Tyrrell training room.

The official opening onWednesday was attended by current and past EcoHealth participants as well asmembers of staff and invited guests who have supported the project. Despite thepoor weather everyone enjoyed themselves and after a short opening speech fromLouis Bonney, who was responsible for raising funds for the project, Rogerunveiled a commemorative plaque.

Our Forest School was busy over the summer.Aiming to improve social, physical and emotional development through theinteraction with the natural environment and through self led play. The youngpeople are given ideas and knowledge from the Forest School Practitioners andwere set up to achieve the tasks which they took part in.

Over the 6 week program theyoung people got to take part in a variety of activities; from shelter buildingto fire lighting to having a monkey party. The children had the opportunity totake part in group activities or to go off by themselves to play or explore.

Over the 6 sessions the group really began tobond. They came together and worked really well as a team and learnt when togive each other space. Watching the children grow in confidence each week wasgreat, especially as they started to push the boundaries and come up with newideas.

On the final week we had a cookout and all ofthe young people enjoyed collecting and sorting the fuel for the fire, lightingthe fire and preparing the food to cook. They made a pizza and cooked hotdogs.For desert we enjoyed some rather yummy (if a little messy) smores.

Some of theparents gave us some wonderful feedback in the change of their child over theprogramme, how they had grown in confidence and couldn’t wait to come back eachweek and how they had begun to deal with their emotions in a more acceptableway. A very worthwhile programme which we hope to run again in the future.

And Finally since Maythis year we have had a number of B&Q groups have been clearing thevegetation to the South of our lakes with our maintenance team so we can returnthe grounds to their heritage and open the pathway up around the lake so allvisitors have full accessibility. Well this week we have had the digger in andpulled out all the roots so the hard work done remains permanent. Wow what adifference, we have returned the grounds to close to their origins and createda nice spot to enjoy the lakes from and for the fisherman to fish from. Why notvisit Avon Tyrrell and see what a difference has been made.

From here to here J

Remember… experience – learn – develop

Avon Tyrrell Sept 9 2011

2011-09-09T10:11:00.000+01:00

Avon Tyrrell Update

Well nexttime you visit see if you can spot the kind donation from B&Q of the ‘GreenPig’…. It really is not hard to miss and hopefully will make you smile.

We haveenjoyed the company of Sutton Veny Primary School this week and it waspleasurable to see the children appreciating their stay in our lodges whilstutilising our dining facilities in the main house. The school did a good selection of activitieslearning from their experiences.

On Tuesdaya group of Volunteers from the B&Q KITS Team continued the work in clearing thevegetation to the South of our lakes with our maintenance team. Our aim is to returnthe grounds to their heritage and open the pathway up around the lake so allvisitors have full accessibility. We nowhave a digger coming in to get the roots out of all the unwanted vegetation sothe hard work done by B&Q will be lasting. Another great days work and a big thank you to the KITS Team.

Now no one cansay we do not have many characters at Avon Tyrrell but ‘Smurfs’ well that hasto be unique to our Centre. If you are visitingand spot them please let us know as pictures are very rare indeed!

To find out moreabout Avon Tyrrell Outdoor Activity Centre and the many varied opportunities weoffer 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 Update September 2011

2011-09-02T14:07:00.001+01:00

Hi all, we hope you are enjoying the Summer?

Gosh what a night Wednesday was.... A strange overpowering smell from our cellar resulted in the turnout from our local fire brigade backed up by their hazmat team to see what the problem was. Once the team investigated the strange smell was identified as a fridge that was leaking gasses and not as some of the staff thought, the maintenance teams sandwiches! The fridge was removed and is now in the process of being disposed of. We would like to extend our appreciative thanks to the local fire brigade for their prompt turnout and investigation and identification of what the problem was.

In the last couple of weeks those very nice people from B&Q have been back to work on the project to the South of our lakes with our maintenace staff. The teams from HR Shared Services and Finance have seen the major accomplishment of the bulk of the vegetation that was required to be removed being completed. We now have to get a digger in to remove the roots and landscape the area back to as close to the original Grade II landscape as possible. We will also now work on improving the access path and providing seating places and extra fishing platforms. Still plenty to do but what a fantastic job B&Q volunteers have done. We are very grateful. And if anyone has a spare £80k we would like to build in this area a continual rail high ropes facility for use by the local community and all our visitors, we can dream....!

And finallydo you know who this is.... She has a special birthday next week and whilst wewould not like to tell you how old other than it is between 39 and 41 J we would all like to say HappyBirthday Kath have a wonderful day.

Remember… experience – learn – develop

Avon Tyrrell Update - August 2011

2011-08-09T10:47:00.000+01:00

Hi all

I thought I would start by letting you know thatwe do listen to your feedback at Avon Tyrrell and whilst I am sure you all knowwe are a charity, UK Youth, and therefore have to manage our money well, whenwe can do something to improve what we provide we will do it. So I am very happy to let you know that wehave managed to replace the chairs in Avon Lodge and this now makes thecommunal area with the leather sofas and flat screen tv a very nice spaceindeed for the lodge users. We have alsomanaged to buy from eBay a chiller deck for our shop and can now providesandwiches, salads milk and various other chilled items for our guests. We hope you will agree these two purchaseswill help improve the Avon Tyrrell experience for users.

We have notstopped there as last week we were also very fortunate in having threecorporate volunteer groups all of whom worked their socks off to help improvethe grounds and help work towards restoration of the Grade II listed grounds. We are very grateful to all the three groups named below, thank you for your hard work.

We startedwith 50 volunteers from IBM who helped with one team clearing an area ofvegetation by our heathlands which has SINC status to help restore the heathland. The second team helped work on restoring ourpicnic shelter near to the main lake and the final team worked on opening anarea of our bike track which was becoming unusable. Everybody worked extremely hard and theyfinished the day by playing on our high ropes or building a raft.

Thefollowing day we had a smaller team of 8 volunteers from Ethicon Endo Surgerywho did an excellent days work clearing an area to the North of the main Houseto reveal the outside courtyard wall that was approached by the Holmoak trackwhen the House was originally built.

TheThursday saw another group of Volunteers fro B&Q continuing the great workprevious B&Q volunteers had been doing in clearing the vegetation to theSouth of our lakes so we can return the grounds to their heritage and open thethe pathway up around the lake so all visitors have full accessibility. The area they cleared had not been seenbefore by even the longer serving members of the staff and everyone agreed whata difference the work being done was making.

Avon Tyrrell Update July 29 11

2011-07-29T13:05:00.004+01:00

Hello All,

The summer holidays have arrived and with it we have many differentprogrammes running and offering a wide opportunity for all ages. We have been spending as much time aspossible to try and ensure ourgrounds are looking as good as they can and ourEcohealth Project Team have been particularly busy maintainingthe areas around the House. If you arenot aware you are all welcome to come and use our café and enjoy a drink or experienceour wonderful food whilst sitting on the terrace. If you wish to explore the grounds furtherand see what we have to offer and are not a resident in our Full board House, Self-cateringLodges or Camping, please just ask for a visitors pass from Reception, there isno cost.

As part of our effort to improve the grounds the B&Q stafffrom the company’s headquarters at Chandlers Ford near Southampton have beenvolunteering as departments to do a Corporate Volunteer Day and they have beenworking on a project to the South of our Lakes. Yesterday we had two teams in and whocompleted our first milestone of clearing one of the land spurs that are a partof the lake boarders with a fantastic days work. We said thank you for the teams hard work byletting them build some rafts and play on our lake and also do somearchery. Great days effort by all thankyou.

Now I am sure you are wondering what is happening with Boothe baby goat, so why not check out this short video, guaranteed to make yousmile. http://tiny.cc/v33uj

2011-07-15T09:45:00.002+01:00

Anotherweek of the summer has passed by and the weather has remained good allowing allour visitors to enjoy the full benefits of the Avon Tyrrell 65 acres of groundsand facilities. This week we have enjoyed the company of, Barnhem, South Batersley, Parayhouse, Pokesdown and FreemantleSchools, who have been staying in either our Main House, Lodges or camping.

Lastweekend we were privileged to host the UK Youth Voice conference a youth ledorganisation within UK Youth that is dedicated to giving 16-25 year olds avoice. The Annual Conference is exclusively for young people and it was anopportunity for young people throughout the UK to come together, meet newpeople and discuss the issues relevant to their lives and futures. There wereworkshops promoting participation and getting the voices of young people heard.The Conference gave a platform to young people to express their views andformulate their opinions it also enables participants to make changes to theirlives and communities.

Alsolast weekend was the annual BritishPedal Car Grand Prix around Ringwood withteams of up to fourdrivers per car whizzed around the 1km circuit of This thrilling race which consisted of 2 hours of racing with 52teams racing. We are proud to say that the grils team that won comprisedof two of our staff Stephanie Mills and Suzanne Haynes, so very well done toyou from all of us at Avon Tyrrell UK Youth.

Andfinally this week we had a senior management team from Ethicon Endo-Surgeryvolunteer their services to help with a project to improve our grounds andfacilities particularly for the young people who use Avon Tyrrell. Theteam worked very hard clearing a new location for a second bushcraft area andbuilding a fire-pit area so a fire can be lit safely. The eam worked verywell together and completed the task a little earlier than anticipated whichallowed hem to enjoy 2 adventure activities, archery and low ropes as a thankyou before leaving us and heading home. Great job done and muchappreciated by us all here at Avon Tyrrell UK Youth.

To find out more about Avon Tyrrell Outdoor Activity Centre and the manyvaried 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

2011-07-06T08:05:00.005+01:00

Hi Hi,

Well I am sure the most important thing you want to knowafter the surprise birth of ‘Boo’ the baby goat is how she is doing after herdramatic start to life. Matt & Nicthe staff who own Roger and Flo, Mummy Goat and Daddy Goat, had a worrying 3days as Boo’s start to life was not as would have been expected, taking twodays to stand up and struggling to drink from mum. The intervention of vet number 2 who actuallyknew about farm animals made a dramatic change to Boo’s life as she was lackingminerals and proteins and after some injections and a lot of support from thestaff who live in, who fed her day and night ‘Boo’ is now looking very healthyand we are mighty pleased to have the addition to the Avon Tyrrell family.

The weekend also saw the return of those very nice peoplefrom Mercury1 IT service company, http://www.mercury1.co.uk, who volunteered their services to help on a project to improve the grounds forall our visitors, and particularly the young people who use our facilities.Whilst some of the group were not as fit as they have been, with a broken handand a bad back this did not stop the team from putting in a mighty effort, withparticular mention to Murray Frestone the photographer friend of the group who worked like a Trojan, http://www.murrayfreestone.com . Theteam completed the roof on our Round House and built a secret garden in ourBushcraft Area and they also dug out the bog garden in the Environment Area.All in all the Team did magnificently well and those who use Avon Tyrrell andourselves are very grateful to them for giving up their weekend and doing suchfantastic work.

Remember… experience – learn – develop

2011-06-29T20:42:00.002+01:00

Hi all,

Very busy time of year for us here at Avon Tyrrell and the staff are working their socks off trying to ensure everyone’s experience at Avon Tyrrell is enjoyable and memorable. Whitley Primary School is with us this week and our lodges are full with various groups and we have campers in the grounds as well, so there is an exciting buzz around the site as everyone enjoys the fine weather and facilities and activities we have.

Exciting things happening this week, well during the weekend just gone the staff rescued two long eared baby bats with the help and assistance from the RSPCA. The bats had found their way into our Training Room but after some assistance and water they were returned to the wild.

Not content with long eared baby bats we had a grass snake move into our swimming pool plant room which has scared the hats off of one or two staff…. We think the snake has now moved on.

And then at the end of last week we had the good company of the Central Replen Team from B&Q who kindly gave up there day to do a corporate volunteer day with us. Once again supported by our Maintenance Team they continued the clearance work along the South of our lakes and put in a magnificent days hard work clearing a huge amount of vegetation and revealing more of the original landscape of the grounds. We rounded the day off by running a session for them to build rafts and paddle around our lake, trouble was they were a little worn out so did not paddle that fast.…. A very enjoyable group to work with and thank you for your great effort.

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 Update - 10 June 2011

2011-06-10T16:21:00.000+01:00

Much to tell you about this week, where to begin. As always we like to mention the schools who are visiting and this week it is Park Lane Primary School in the Main House with Shawfield Primary and St Joseph’s Schools using our Lodges. The children have enjoyed a windy week but the staff have commented how good they have all been and how much they have enjoyed their activities.

The Enduroman event is in full swing finishing this Sunday. What is Endurorman, well 20 athletes are over 10 days completing 10 Ironman Triathlons in and around Avon Tyrrell. This means each day they are doing a 2.4 mile swim, 112 miles on a bike then a 26 mile marathon. Phew is that awesome or what? Now not everyone can do ten so after 5 days there is a 5 day event with the same distances back to back, then 3 days out from the end there is the triple but they do it differently as they do each distance in one go, ie 7.2 mile swim, 336 miles on the bike and 78 mile run and then on Saturday there is the double which also groups the distances together. So far it has been fantastic to watch and see the athletes performing, some often late into the night before getting one or two hours’ sleep and starting all over again. If you are free this weekend come and watch it is amazing stuff to see these athletes or sign up for next year’s event….

And we have had a volunteer team from the B&Q Store Design Team who were supported by our Maintenance Team, wow what a great hardworking team they were, as you can see from the pictures. And despite all their hard work they still had some energy left to enjoy a session on a couple of our adventure activities, kayaking and archery before heading off to one of our lodges for well-earned rest and a BBQ. The Team really made a difference to the project we are working on to the South of our lakes, it’s now clear to see what is happening. This work will make a difference and improve the grounds and access to all users of the site.

Oh and one final thing, who’s this sitting in the ‘Bosses’ chair… we do like to encourage staff to have goals.

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 http://www.avontyrrell.org.uk/

Remember… experience – learn – develop

Avon Tyrrell Update - May 2011

2011-05-27T19:53:00.000+01:00

This week we enjoyed the company of Streatham & Clapham and Burton schools in the Avon Tyrrell House and in our lodges Cedar School stayed. The weather has been good and this has allowed a full adventure and environment programme to be run on and off site. The staff have remarked how good everyone has been and interested in what they have been doing. The ‘Experience’ enjoyed at Avon Tyrrell really do contribute to ‘Learning’ and 'Developing' as an individual and as a group or a team.

We have also been fortunate enough to be joined by two B&Q corporate volunteer groups this week who are supporting the major restoration work of the grounds on our Southside of our Lakes. This will enhance the views, improve accessibility for all site users, allow us to manage the area and restore the marsh areas to support our wildlife and environment programmes. The start point was:

The first B&Q group from an HR department was dominated by ladies with Nick as the token male and they started the project on Tuesday and worked very hard indeed. One of their team also assisted in making some picnic benches for our strawbale classroom viewing balcony. In fact they worked so hard that when it came to have a play on our adventurous activities they were too tired to do so and instead chose to escape a little early and go home and relax. We did feel a little guilty at working them to hard but they did do very well for such a small team and really made an impact, thank you.

The second B&Q group from the B&Q Home Delivery Contract Team was very much a strong male team with a few ladies and they were on a mission. They really wanted to do a lot of work in the day, which was very fine by us, and they did ,wow what an effort….

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 http://www.avontyrrell.org.uk/

Remember… experience – learn – develop

Avon Tyrrell Latest 19th May 2011

2011-05-19T12:46:00.000+01:00

We have enjoyed the company of Locks Heath School for the last two weeks and they have been wonderful guests of Avon Tyrrell. They have participated in a wide range of activities provided by the staff of Avon Tyrrell as well running their own self led activities. It is always good to see so many young people enjoying the outdoors and often indirectly learning from it, which we believe will support their life skills.

We, as in our charity UK Youth, are very fortunate to be a current B&Q charity partner. As a part of this relationship we have a number of departments from the Headquarters near Southampton undertaking corporate volunteer days, where we host a group by providing breakfast and lunch and allowing the group to undertake some of our adventurous activities all for free, in return for some very hard work on one of our many improvement projects. Last Friday we had a visit from the B&Q Marketing Team consisting of 30+ who undertook to work on two of our lodges to improve them for our visitors.

The team, supported by our maintenance staff, set to work at 9am splitting into 3 groups. One team dismantled the Avon Lodge large balcony, which was beginning to need many repairs, and completely rebuilt it and what a brilliant job they did.

The second group built four picnic benches to provide outside seating for the lodges, and again led by our very able Nigel they did a fantastic job completing the benches in plenty of time and then supporting other teams.

Finally the largest team went into one of our older lodges and completely gave it an internal makeover. What a transformation, with freshly painted walls, replaced kitchen doors and draw fronts and providing a number of soft furnishings to make the lodge more homely. What a huge visual difference was made and in such a shorts space of time with hard work from all the team.

We and the people who visit us are very grateful for the fantastic work completed by the B&Q Marketing Team, thank you.

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 http://www.avontyrrell.org.uk/

Remember… experience – learn – develop

Avon Tyrrell Update - April 2011

2011-04-29T11:59:00.000+01:00

Gosh another glorious week at Avon Tyrrell and we had the pleasure of Bartley School, who had an enjoyable few days with us and were, under the guidance of Phil Grant, impeccably behaved visitors.

The great event of the week for staff was the arrival of Roger the Goat and Flo the Goat, who have had a magnificent enclosure built for them by their new owners Mat and Nic. The staff have taken an instant like to the goats and have enjoyed seeing them being taken for a walk across the site by Matt and Nic. I think it will not be long before they become our official mascots at Avon Tyrrell.

Site Update

We have been working very hard to get our mountain bike trails ready with their new routes and the gravity and pump track will be ready to use in the next couple of weeks. For all you keen cyclist out there we very much recommend experiencing our biking facilities and the surrounding New Forest trails and roads. And of course you can always make a short or long holiday break of it by staying in one of our lodges or utilising our camp site.

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 http://www.avontyrrell.org.uk/

Remember… experience – learn – develop

Avon Tyrrell Latest 13th April 2011

2011-04-13T16:45:00.004+01:00

If we did all the things we are capable of doing; we would literally astound ourselves.- Thomas Edison

Inspiring - making somebody feel more enthusiastic, confident, or stimulated; a powerful word and used often by our staff and part of our ethos when working with groups or individuals. This is one of our key pillars for outdoor learning and that is to inspire those who use Avon Tyrrell to want to do more and to learn more; be it adventurous or environmental activities, living with a group, self-reliance and much more; but without presenting information in a formal manner. This we believe is something we are good at, but accept we must continue to work on and that we will always be learning as expectations and needs of users change. Maybe instead of the daft spam we get every time we publish our blog someone out there may venture an opinion on the importance of outdoor practitioners inspiring learning whilst working with groups or individuals?

And last week we inspired 20 young people to start their journey towards the Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award with our first meeting at Avon Tyrrell for the New Forest Open Centre. Those who attended started their skilled section and spent some time learning to paddle canoes and kayaks. We have plenty more interesting evenings planned so if you are interested in joining our group please contact Suzanne or Nicola via the details at the bottom of our Blog.

Easter holidays are now upon us and we have lots of children enjoying our fundays, more information can be found on our website or you can contact us on the details below:

http://www.avontyrrell.org.uk/page/fundays2.jsf?cid=7019

It’s a great way to entertain the children over Easter and they have a wonderful opportunity to learn and experience new opportunities at Avon Tyrrell.

Site Update

We are very pleased to see that our Reed Bed has begun to spring to life and all is working well. Also the final touches have been made to our pathways and fishing swims to improve accessibility to our activities.

And finally our tipi’s are now up and being booked so if you would like to experience something new then why not try the tipi’s, check our website for more details: http://www.tyrrelltipi.org.uk/page/Tyrrells+Tipi+Information.jsf

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 http://www.avontyrrell.org.uk/

Remember… experience – learn – develop

Avon Tyrrell Latest 25th March 2011

2011-03-25T16:39:00.000Z

How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives - Annie Dillard

What a great quote and with the last of our HCC Inspiring you weekends for families who have a member(s) with a disability last weekend what a perfect analogy. Those who attended enjoyed an early spring weekend and the pictures below give you a good story of an inspiring weekend, and we will be working jolly hard to find further funding to support more weekends in 2011/12:

Our bushcraft was very popular and it did not matter what your ability was there was great chance for everyone to do something not experienced before and most importantly get something from it.

Fishing was as ever, very popular and it had an excellent therapeutic effect on participants. All fish caught were safely returned to the lake and there were many stories of how big the fish were that were caught......

We also had a bird display on the Sunday which everyone enjoyed learning about the birds and especially about the origins of the owls 'Twit Twoo'

ITV meridian TV also visited and you can see a short piece about the weekend at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUru_fNy83Q

Also we did not want to finish without showing you the creative work produced by Beechwood School this week whilst staying, it’s a credit to the children’s imagination and inspiring how creative they can be with just a little encouragement and guidance.

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 http://www.avontyrrell.org.uk/ or follow our twitter http://twitter.com/#!/y7dw

Remember… experience – learn – develop

We had lots of boating opportunities for participants and the variety ensured everyone could have ago, and clearly enjoy exploring our large lake with all its wildlife.

Avon Tyrrell Latest March 2011

2011-03-14T12:55:00.002Z

Avon Tyrrell with a wide variety of groups visiting us. We have supported two Disability Weekends sponsored by HCC which have been hugely popular and successful enhancing the Centres reputation as provider of outdoor adventure for all abilities. We continue to receive feedback such as below:

Subject: Autism weekend just gone

Hi - Just wanted to say how much kids enjoyed the weekend especially put on for children with autism and their families. The instructors are all very good which is something i have found consistent on each occasion when i have been to Avon Tyrell, particular thanks to Matt for getting my son out from behind the climbing wall and being so very patient. Thanks to all instructors and all the staff, Ann and catering staff for a really good weekend. - Vicky (mum to Michael, Hannah and Maya)

Site Developments

Winter Maintenance Projects continue including a rolling Avon Tyrrell House painting programme for rooms and group communal areas and upgrading of toilets.

We have relocated the Shop into the Reception Area by opening the floor space up, this has given us a very nice retail space and it is now always open when Reception is.

The Fundraising Team raised funds to remove vegetation from the Avon Tyrrell Grade II listed grounds SINC sites and return them to heathland, and whilst work was limited to small areas, a great deal of work in these areas was completed over 4 days to assist with improving the grounds

Our recent disability work has helped gain extra funding from HCC to improve disability access to the site by improving the track to the lakes and upgrading the pathway from the boating lake to the zip wire. We are also in the process of building 4 fishing swims with disabled access and buying a mobility vehicle to assist disabled users to get around the site, this is all funded by HCC and wUK Youth and will be completed by the end of March.

The fundraising team also raised a considerable amount of money to build a cycle pump track within the boundaries of the Avon Tyrrell mountain bike track that can be used by the local community. Work has begun and should be completed by the end of March. The money is also being used to upgrade some elements of the mountain bike track.

DofE

Saturday 12th March iwas the launch date of the Duke of Edinburgh Award New Forest Open Centre at Avon Tyrrell and voluntary, supported by members of the staff. If you are interested in doing your DofE then please contact us as we have an exciting programme for 2011 planned out:

Learning outside The Classroom (LoTC) Quality Badge

And finally we are very happy to report Avon Tyrrell Outdoor Centre has achieved the Learning Outside the Classroom Quality Badge. This is an excellent achievement by the staff and the advantages for external site users is that we have been externally assessed and met the criteria for supporting outdoor learning and therefore they do not have to complete as much documentation to visit us as an approved centre, so we expect this to support our selling programme.

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 http://www.avontyrrell.org.uk/

Remember… experience – learn – develop

Avon Tyrrell Latest 15th January 2011

2011-01-15T15:37:00.001Z

The New Year is here and we have now been back at work for 2 weeks and we have welcomed our first House Guests, Basingstoke Area Youth String Orchestra and Percussion Ensemble who are filling the House with wonderful music. Our lodges are also being used but it is still too early for campers.

We continue to work on our plans to have a Duke of Edinburgh Award Open Centre and we hope to hold an Open Day on the 5th February between 10am and 2pm for anyone interested from the local area. So if you are interested please do come along and see what it is all about and you will also have a chance to explore our grounds and have a go on some of our activities. If you want more details please contact us on the details below.

We also continue our work on improving our facilities and with generous donations we have now been able to remove our old jetty and the underwater obstacles supporting and surrounding it and we will be replacing it with a new floating jetty within the next few weeks. The jetty will be accessible for all and will allow easier access to the lake for all when using Kayaks or Canoes.

We have also been fortunate enough to be granted funding from HCC Inspiring You fund to build some large fishing platforms which will also be accessible for all and we have money to improve the access to these platforms and the access track.

We have also welcomed our 6 Apprentice NVQ 2 instructors and 2 European Volunteers from Iceland and Norway.

There is much happening to continue to make Avon Tyrrell an exciting place for Young People in particular to visit, enjoy and experience outdoor learning.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 http://www.avontyrrell.org.uk/

Remember… experience – learn – develop

Avon Tyrrell Latest December 2010

2010-12-22T12:58:00.010Z

The snow is falling and the forest resembles a Scandinavian winter and despite the weather our staff have continued to operate the centre and guests have visited and enjoy the scenic winter wonderland of Avon Tyrrell. We are open right through Christmas and we hope that all our Christmas visitors have a memorable and fun filled enjoyable Christmas and New Year with us.

Our Inspiring you weekend ran a week ago with absolutely no snow and what an enjoyable weekend it was for the families with a member with a disability and our staff alike. The weekend was very successful and we can look back on the highlights and the life changing moments that remind us that we have the best jobs in the world!

We saw the BOMA chair used for the first time by a disabled parent who blessed us with a lovely quote, "for once my family had to keep up with me…usually it’s me who has to try and keep up with them!"

And.... Santa made a call to see the children on the Sunday morning.....

We do have two more weekends organised for February and March and if you would like to know more please do contact us on the details below.

Also last month our senior team got an upgrade! they all took part in our walking group leader training so we can start leading groups on expeditions in the new forest. they had the lovely Dartmoor weather with continual rain, strong winds and freezing temperatures but despite that they had an amazing time and can't wait to lead groups all over the new forest in 2011

And to round off last weekend on the Sunday afternoon we had a very enjoyable Christmas Fayre with many visitors to our event. We had stalls, rides, singing form the local New Forest Ensemble Choir, Punch and Judy and of course Santa made it back for the afternoon. Thank you to everyone who supported the event and attended.

As we sign off for 2010 we want to thank all of you who support us and visit us and hope you have a wonderful Christmas Break and a most prospurus New Year.

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 http://www.avontyrrell.org.uk/

Remember… experience – learn – develop

2010-12-08T16:12:00.001Z

Hi all,

Just a very quick blog to say Santa Clause was spotted last week during all the snow checking the routes in and out of Avon Tyrrell House and we think this maybe as he is due to visit us this Sunday. We hope to see him for breakfast when he will be saying hello to all the families participating in our disability adventure activity weekend.

And then we hope he will also pop back in the late afternoon and meet all the children who be attending our fun packed Christmas Fayre, with Punch and Judy and a Fairground Ride as well as indoor stalls and Christmas Carol singing and some lovely food from our kitchens.

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 http://www.avontyrrell.org.uk/

Remember… experience – learn – develop

Avon Tyrrell November 2010

2010-12-01T09:30:00.000Z

The leaves have fallen the nights have drawn in and it’s not warm in the mornings as we move inescapably towards the end of another year.

However for the fish in our lakes this is not such a problem and yesterday 1200 fish were released into our small lake, which were kindly donated by the Environment Agency. The EA were joined by the Holy Family Catholic Primary School from Southampton who were staying with us and kindly offered to help release the fish into the lake.

Recently we have seen the departure of our European Volunteer Student, Jana, back to Slovakia after a year with us and we are going to miss her as she was a very helpful and willing volunteer who was a credit to the EVS project. Here she is pictured with our excellent new Head Chef who assisted Jana in creating a typical Slovakian Lunch for staff and guests before her departure.

We have also recently had a visit from volunteers from UPS who spent the day removing overgrown vegetation from between the two lakes so the area remains open and the wildlife have suitable wetland to play in. We are very grateful for the work completed by the UPS team who worked hard. We said our thank you by feeding them well on the day andalso let them play on our high ropes, which they all enjoyed. If any corporate group would like to do a volunteer day at Avon Tyrrell please do contact us on the details below, its actually good fun, promise....

Our Eco Health Project continues to work hard looking after the grounds and they have now erected their Polly Tunnel in preparation for the start of increasing their vegetable production for next year. The plan is that they will supply our kitchen with some fresh vegetables when they can. This will help towards the Avon Tyrrell sustainability plan.

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 http://www.avontyrrell.org.uk/

Remember… experience – learn – develop

Avon Tyrrell Update

2010-05-17T17:24:00.002+01:00

Well the Geese are back and Avon Tyrrell is busy and the weather has been so good that we actually would like a little rain just to water the site foliage, preferably on a Sunday afternoon or Monday morning when it won’t spoil the stay of guests.

We can finally tell you that our reed bed is now complete and the 1000 reeds are busy doing what reeds must do to help clean the discharge from our sewage plant. This also represents the completion of two very ‘Eco Friendly’ projects in the past year, the other being our straw bale classroom and sensory garden.

Old Reed Bed - start point

New Reed Bed

Planting The Reeds

Harry Planting 1 of the 1,000 Reeds

We have not finished there either as in the next week we will also be installing two further composting toilets making a total of three onsite.

Strawbale Classroom which also has a Composting Toilet

The Housekeeping and Maintenance Team are also working hard on improving the House Bedrooms to ensure they are more welcoming for those guests that use the Grade I Listed Avon Tyrrell House during their stay. We have spent the winter making the lodges more comfortable and welcoming.

To find out more about Avon Tyrrell Outdoor Centre and the many varied opportunities we offer please contact us on Tel; 01425 672347 or email info@ukyouth.org or view our website http://www.avontyrrell.org.uk/

Remember… experience – learn – develop

New Play Pen

Inspiring You Activity Festival for Disabled Young People

2010-03-24T09:27:00.010Z

The weekend of 13th/14th March was weather perfect for Avon Tyrrell to host the Hampshire County Council Inspiring You Activity Festival for disabled young people and their families. The idea behind the weekend was to allow families who have a child or children with a disability to have the opportunity to experience outdoor activities together as a family and to encourage further participation in the future. There was the opportunity to stay at Avon Tyrrell or visit for the day and total numbers for the weekend was 600 participants.

This was a great opportunity for the families to do things together, a luxury not often afforded to families who have a member with a disability. It was marvellous to see brothers and sisters actually taking part in things together.

We had a full range of activities open and available from the zip wire to the climbing tower, high ropes and low ropes as well as water activities and bush craft. Outdoor activities were supplemented with external activity providers which included storytellers, arts and crafts, and Hampshire Libraries providing books and storytelling. There was a juggler on hand to entertain and a street dancer to show the families a few ‘cool’ moves.

Some of the quotes from families, who attended the weekend were as follows, and sum up for us why we did it and why the weekend was a huge success:

‘A fantastic weekend. It was so good to see my son attempting new things and discovering he could not only do them but enjoy them as well! Thank You’

‘A big thank you for the activity weekend. We had a fantastic time. All the family needed a boost like this and not just the member with special needs’

‘We were really impressed by the patience and helpfulness of the Avon Tyrrell Staff’

The staff of Avon Tyrrell and those from Hampshire County Council, who supported the event worked incredibly hard and long hours to make the weekend as enjoyable and rewarding as they could for those attending, and it was because they wanted to, and not because they had to. Their reward was the happy smiles of the children and their achievements.

We sincerely hope we will have the opportunity to run another weekend of this nature. Having talked to families we know there is a demand and we are sure other counties if they saw how appreciative and successful the weekend was, would also be interested in providing such an event for this community. We of course would be happy to help so if you are reading this and are interested please call us.

Remember… experience – learn – develop

Leo the Head Chef Retires

2010-02-02T10:47:00.014Z

If I was to say ‘Leo’, nearly every visitor who has stayed in the Avon Tyrrell House would know who I meant; for he was until last week our Head Chef, but sadly he hit the retirement age of 65 and he retired after 20 years, 1 million meals and as many yep, yep, yep’s.

We did not let Leo go without a special send off, which started with a get together with about 50 staff, some old employees and the personal attendance of Dave Clarke from Hampton School and Jinty Williamson from Fair Oak Junior School.

We started the farewell with John Bateman the UK Youth Chief Executive reminding everyone about Leo’s long and loyal service to UK Youth and the quality of service Leo had provided, which was reflected in the fact we rarely received a complaint about the food he served. John presented Leo with an engraved pocket watch, which Leo was thrilled with. Dave and Jinty then said some kind words and gave Leo some gifts from their schools which Leo was very grateful for.

Leo was then desperate to say something and tell a story or two, anyone who knows him will know he has a story or a joke to tell. He said some kind words about the good times he had experienced and how much he would miss us all, especially the young people who visit us.

We did not finish there; we then had a big bag of something for Leo, starting with a rug, then a long greatcoat followed by a pair of shades and a flying hat. Leo was intrigued, especially when we gave him an envelope that he opened, which to his delight had a voucher for a helicopter ride; he then realised this was booked for 40 minutes time.

Not to worry as after a quick cut of his reirement cake, Sam Roberts was there and had kindly offered to drive him across in his 1934 Ford Model Y Tourer open top. So we bustled him outside and off he went to catch his helicopter and see his beloved New Forest from the air, and complete a flypast over Avon Tyrrell as the staff looked on and waved goodbye.

It is without a doubt a reflection on how highly regarded Leo was as Head Chef by the amount of tributes we received, and good wishes for his retirement from all those who have experienced his culinary skills over the years. He is an exceptional character who will be missed by all and we all wish Leo a very happy retirement.

.....And in case you wondered we have found a replacement for Leo in Hayley Hibberd who is now officially Head Chef at Avon Tyrrell who is already learning the call of the Head Chef, yep, yep, yep, (none of us really know what it means).

To find out more about Avon Tyrrell Outdoor 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

22nd November 2009

2009-11-22T20:36:00.010Z

Despite our best intentions it has been too long since we blogged and whilst we can happily say this is because we have been very busy with all of us working hard and longer hours than we sometimes would like, that is because we all still passionately believe in what we do for our charity UK Youth here at Avon Tyrrell.

We have seen a number of schools come and go over the last few weeks and they have all been a pleasure to have to stay, as well as the youth groups and carer groups that have used our self catering lodges and activities.

Sadly the end of October saw the departure of our three GAP students, Kate, Cleo and Jenny who have been absolutely fabulous over the past year. They have been no trouble at all, well apart from..... and then of course there was the time when they..... Anyway all three have been great characters and we will really miss them, and of course we now await the arrival of our new Gappies in January who we are sure will equally be as good fun. Bye Bye Girls and Thank You from all of us.

Claire Moir and Duncan Coleman have been busying running our first group through our Forest School programme at Avon Tyrrell with fifteen 15 year 8 boys from Mountbatten school near Romsey. For the past few weeks as part of a 10 week programme funded by the Ernest Cook Trust they have visited every Wednesday morning and so far have participated in fire lighting, shelter building, knot tying, open fire cookery and basic knife work as well as developing their communication and team work within the group. Throughout the programme the group are taking on more responsibility and gaining independence in the tasks that they undertake. During the second half of the programme they will be continuing to develop these skills, with the aim of them being able to take the lead role in the planning and delivery of their sessions. We have some great opportunities for schools to participate in our Forest Schools so please contact Claire on 01425 672347 or email info@avontyrrell.org or visit the Avon Tyrrell website, http://www.avontyrrell.org.uk/

We have also held our first wedding reception in a very long time which began with the bride and groom arriving by zip wire. We hope to have some photo’s of this in the future as the weekend was a very unique event held in a very special place, and the feedback we received from all who attended was very positive indeed. We all wish Stefen and Becca a very happy and fun life together.

Finally, you often talk to her but not everyone gets to meet her, so for those of you out there who have asked who is Anne, please see below our very own Anne who works in the Customer Services Department.

To find out more about Avon Tyrrell Outdoor Centre and the many varied opportunities we offer please contact us by Tel; 01425 672347 or email info@ukyouth.org or view our website http://www.avontyrrell.org.uk/

Remember… experience – learn – develop

Avon Tyrrell 11th October 2009

2009-10-11T16:37:00.015+01:00

Well hi all, what shall we focus on today, I guess as last week we received some emails from the Council of Learning outside the Classroom this is what we should look at. They invited us to become a member, which we duly did, as we are passionate about using the outdoors to enhance learning and experiences. We think that one of the quotes from the LOtC Manifesto is a good reminder to those responsible for Young People to think about what the Manifesto says;

“Every young person should experience the world beyond the classroom as an essential part of learning and personal development, whatever their age, ability and circumstances”

We have always had that ethos here at Avon Tyrrell, but maybe people read the above and think of only school aged children, well we think young people reach beyond the school leaving age and we therefore cater for such groups, so our range goes from primary school all the way to the oldest young people and beyond.

We have the facilities to work with all these groups in an educational environmental setting and we can focus on educational development, personal development and teambuilding and much much more, and we never forget the element of fun that’s needed. We have the perfect environment here at Avon Tyrrell and we want everyone to enjoy what we have, and use our site because it is such a fantastic place. We ask you to take a look on our website www.avontyrrell.org.uk or drop in and say hello because we are determined to get that message across what a wonderful asset Avon Tyrrell is for young people and those responsible for them.

We exist to be used and we try our utmost to make Avon Tyrrell a place you want to use especially for Young People and it is a superb learning venue for all of us.

And lastly, just to let you know we have made further progress with our new environmental pond and with great help from Kate our resident Kiwi, the Eco Health Project and the Maintenace Staff the pond is now begining to become a pond and fill with water.

Remember… experience – learn – develop

Avon Tyrrell 2nd October 2009

2009-10-02T16:50:00.007+01:00

Gosh! the time just flies by at the moment and Avon Tyrrell remains very busy. We continue to enjoy visits from schools and currently we have Grange Community School and Northern Junior School staying, and everyone is getting on very well and having fun whilst experiencing the outdoors and learning from their experiences.

We also have three Princes Trust Teams on site staying in our self catering lodges and they are undertaking our 5 day programme.

Members of the Centre also recently partook in the Ringwood Carnival with a homemade float. This was led by Kathryn, our Customer Services Officer, and her willing family as well as other members of the Centre. We should say a big thank you to Kathryn’s husband Andy who kindly built the float in his own time; his help was very much appreciated. The reason for our entry in to the Carnival was to help to raise local awareness of Avon Tyrrell, as even after 60 years of operating Avon Tyrrell in the New Forest it is amazing how many people do not know we are here. We continue to try and improve local knowledge and inform everyone what a wonderful place Avon Tyrrell is, and that it should be used, but as a charity with limited resources this is not always as easy as we would like because of cost….. Any help or advice in this area is always welcome.

For those interested in the site improvements we are now working on, two projects, the completion of our Reed Bed for our sewage plant and finishing off our environmental pond by our strawbale classroom.

Remember… experience – learn – develop

Avon Tyrrell 17th September 2009

2009-09-17T16:17:00.009+01:00

This week see’s the return of schools staying at Avon Tyrrell after the Summer Holidays, and we have Wendell Park Junior School and Mortimer St Mary’s Junior School with us. Everyone is enjoying their stay and having an active time and learning lots of new things.

We also have two Princes Trust Teams on site staying in our self catering lodges. We run a 5 day programme, which is at the start of the teams course, and the aim is to develop the young people, help bond the team and encourage the team to work well together. Our experienced instructors work day and evenings with the teams aiming to have positive outcomes at the end of the week thus helping the team move forward with the rest of the time with the Princes Trust.

We have also begun our “Roll Out The Barrel Season”, this is when schools and colleges bring along new students to enjoy the day of team building, making new friends and starting the year on the right foot. In the morning the students find themselves enjoying games and activities where points are awarded for the effective team process within the group and the completion of tasks. The afternoon is a raft building adventure ending in a massive race. The students immerse themselves here with the designing, building and hopefully the successful raft being tested by the group themselves.

We also welcomed volunteers from B&Q last week to Avon Tyrrell and following on from the success of previous visits, two groups from B&Q’s Store Operations Division and members of the Systems Development and Communications Team helped build and maintain vital resources used by the young people who visit Avon Tyrrell Activity Centre, many of whom are from disadvantaged backgrounds and may never have been to the countryside before.

The group did gardening and conservation work by Avon Tyrrell’s new straw bale “eco classroom” that acts as a base for Environmental Education activities and is an example of sustainable living and building techniques in modern society. By the classroom a sensory garden is being developed, to which the team contributed to laying out paths and cutting back Avon Tyrrell’s ubiquitous rhododendrons.

The afternoon was rounded off with some fun time playing on our High Ropes Activities and as a way of saying thank you.

We have many new projects on the go here at Avon Tyrrell and if you would be interested in finding out more about bringing a group to Avon Tyrrell to do some volunteering please contact us on the following details Tel; 01425 672347 or email info@ukyouth.org or view our website www.avontyrrell.org.uk/

Remember also to find out more about Avon Tyrrell Outdoor Centre and the many varied opportunities we offer people 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 11th September 2009

2009-09-11T17:17:00.005+01:00

Last Saturday we had an Open Day and on the day the main organiser Alison Plested confessed how nervous she was that people would not come and support the event. She need not have worried; the afternoon was a success with some 800 people visiting Avon Tyrrell.

The weather held out and visitors were entertained with live dance groups including the street dance world champions Shake. We also had an excellent live acoustic session from 'Nothing But Trouble'. Visitors got to play on our activities land and water based and we had 35 stalls from the local community and traders. Our Friends of Avon Tyrrell stall was particularly busy with many questions about the Centre and people wanting ago on the Tombola. All in all despite the hard work needed to run such an event we had a fabulous day and the feedback from visitors was very positive with many asking for it to become an annual event. We think it probably will.

For those interested in numbers, The Friends of Avon Tyrrell raised £630 on the day, which is brilliant and the money will be used towards buying items for the Centre to help improve facilities for visitors.

Have a great weekend and if you want to find out more about Avon Tyrrell Outdoor Centre and the many varied opportunities we offer people please contact us – Tel; 01425 672347 or email info@ukyouth.org or view our website www.avontyrrell.org.uk/

Remember… experience – learn – develop

Avon Tyrrell 31st August 2009

2009-08-31T13:54:00.007+01:00

Bank Holiday Monday and it has been a very few busy months but I have finally found time to start writing the Avon Tyrrell Blog again. We have been very lucky and had an exceptionally busy period with many many visitors using all our facilities. The staff have been working exceptionally hard to support the daily operations of the Centre and their efforts are always appreciated, and this is also reflected in the good feedback we get from visitors. We have also continued to improve the centre for users, and most importantly we continue to listen to the feedback from our visitors and where possible and it is sensible to do so we make changes, after all we are not here for our benefit, we are her to provide a fantastic safe venue for our users.

The weather continues to be a hot topic, it often seems the accuracy of forecasting is questionable and if we made as many mistakes as the forecasters we surely would be out of business...... Fortunately it matters not what the weather does we have plenty to keep people occupied and experience new things.

The Centres latest improvements include we are proud to say, the completion of the Strawbale Classroom and is complemented by its lovely setting, and we would recommend a visit. We have also built a bridge across the lake overflow stream making it easier to cross the stream when using our extensive mountain bike trails and we have improved our landing stage for the kayaks, with the assistance from some volunteers from B&Q. We have developed 3 new elements in our low and high ropes area and climbing tower. These are the crate stack challenge, the vertical playpen and a bouldering wall, and we highly recommend them to visitors.

Finally a couple of weeks ago we had the Big Bike Bash Weekend. This was a great weekend combining a bike and live music festival and we certainly hope this festival will become a regular event at Avon Tyrrell, as it really was an event for everyone. And one of the madder things that people did at the festival was...

If you want to get in contact with us and find out how Avon Tyrrell could be of benefit to you please contact us – Tel; 01425 672347 or email info@ukyouth.org or view our website www.avontyrrell.org.uk/

Remember… experience – learn – develop

Avon Tyrrell 22nd May 2009

2009-05-22T13:40:00.007+01:00

We heard a very good slogan today, “See Your Own Back Yard before the Rest of The World” and this was from the parents of a New Zealand GAP Student who is staying with us for 9 months. What a great statement and what a good reminder to us all at Avon Tyrrell as to what a Great Back Yard we have and why so many people come to visit Avon Tyrrell. Have a look on our website, then come see for yourself, you will love it here http://www.avontyrrell.org.uk/

Another Bank holiday weekend looms and as we say farewell and thank you to Locks Heath and Beecholme Primary Schools, our Princes Trust teams and Sheiling School for staying with us at Avon Tyrrell, we look forward to a busy weekend.

Yesterday unfortunately one visitor was taken poorly and as our staff prepared for the arrival of an ambulance we were surprised by the arrival of the air ambulance. In the end the decision was made not to take the person to hospital, although this caused much disappointment from those concerned who were looking forward to a helicopter ride. The reason I mention this is to demonstrate how well our staff react to a medical problem, as a high proportion of staff are First Aid trained and have advanced knowledge of oxygen and defibrillation. The centre although based in the rural surroundings of The New Forest is also very well supported by the local community responders and ambulance service when a medical issue do arise. We are happy to say the person concerned is again fit and well.

This week we also sent a couple of staff to run a stand at the Children and Young People Show at London’s Earls Court and we hope the two days were of benefit to those who attended the show in learning more about Avon Tyrrell, http://www.avontyrrell.org.uk/ and our charity http://www.ukyouth.org/

Site Developments this week saw our replacement shed arrive, which will be used for our 3 year funded Ecominds Project. This project starts next month in association with Solent Mind and aims to help people with mental health problems, and is funded by The Big Lottery Fund. The project will include gardening, conservation, estate maintenance and environmental projects. Outdoor activities improve the mental and physical health of the participant, and the project will improve the recreation, conservation and educational value of Avon Tyrrell for all to enjoy. We hope this project will help reduce the stigma surrounding mental disorders and help create a society that treats people with experience of mental distress fairly, positively, and with respect.

And finally, we were very fortunate to receive a visit from B&Q Store Planning Team, who volunteered their labour for the day to help out at Avon Tyrrell. The 17 strong team worked with our maintenance team and after an arrival introduction and sausage and bacon roll, they set off to tackle tasks down by our small lake which involved;

Building an oak fishing swim
Clearing vegetation to create a parking area for disability groups when visiting our strawbale classroom and environmental area
Building raised beds for the environmental garden.

It was a hard day’s work and we kept the team going with drinks, biscuits and cake as well as a hearty lunch. We finished the day by giving the B&Q staff time on some of our activities to say a big thank you for their magnificent effort in completing all that we asked of them. We achieved a lot within a short space of time and the B&Q team contributed to making our site a little better for the visitors to Avon Tyrrell.

If anyone wants more details on our corporate volunteer days please do contact us – Tel; 01425 672347 or email info@ukyouth.org

Remember… Young People need to Explore to Learn

5th May 2009

2009-05-06T11:55:00.013+01:00

Bank holiday has been and gone and I am happy to say we were very busy with all the accommodation and campsites being used, and fortunately with the good weather we had a lot of positive feedback on how enjoyable everyone’s weekend was. Last week we had two schools staying in the House, Beechwood and Ferndown First, and again the weather was kind and everyone had a marvellous time. In total we had over 100 children staying and despite the large number we managed to accommodate them and give them enough space to do their own thing as well as opportunities to get to know each other. This worked very well and helped develop social skills.

We also had a residential visit from Dairy Crest the UK’s leading chilled dairy foods company who asked us to deliver a three day programme to complement their own in-house development training. The programme would be for individuals from all across the company from a range of different positions. Through discussions, meetings and even a management visit to try the activities, a programme was tailor-made to fit the needs and desired outcomes of the organisation which was to explore the company’s values. From the feedback we received from Dairy Crest Training and Development Team and participants our programme was a success with such quotes as;

“Just a quick note to thank you all for an outstanding three days. The organisation and facilitation was top notch, as we have come to expect from the Avon Tyrrell team”

“I have never seen more powerful and effective feedback sessions as I witnessed last week. I think the five mixed group model we used was a resounding success and exceeded our expectations, we will definitely base future programmes on this model"

“You all did a fantastic job which contributed to the best programme we have ever had, this is a view shared by the entire coaching team”

For more details on what we can offer the corporate sector please visit http://www.avontyrrell.org.uk/page/corporate.jsf or contact Sharon or Mike on Tel; 01425 672347 or email info@ukyouth.org

Site Development;

The volunteer and staff lodge is now complete and in use with some very happy volunteers and staff using it. This lodge has been built and equipped and furnished in 3 months and all the staff who have worked on this project have done an outstanding job in completing the project so quickly and to such a high standard.

We will now be focusing on completing the strawbale classroom, which without too many issues should take 2 to 3 weeks.

Then it’s over to the Reed Bed to get that completed.

And after that we have plenty more thoughts to try and make this site a fantastic venue for all our visitors.

If anyone wants more details on our projects please do contact us – Tel; 01425 672347 or email info@ukyouth.org

Remember… It’s good to be outdoors and PLAY! Whatever your age or Whatever you do ....

23rd April 2009

2009-04-23T13:45:00.008+01:00

Easter has gone and we have our first school back in the main Avon Tyrrell House, and it is the local school from Bransgore. Everyone is having a good time and although the school is local to us, because of the uniqueness of the Avon Tyrrell site it still seems as if they have gone on an adventure away from home and they are getting that valuable opportunity to learn outside the classroom. For more info on Avon Tyrrell and why it is so unique and special please visit http://www.avontyrrell.org.uk/ you will be surprised.

We have also recently run a lifeguard course under the watchful eye of Bex Thomas, which was successfully completed by instructor staff and a couple of external students. The participants enjoyed using the outdoor pool and were grateful the sun shone occasionally.

The site this time of year is beautiful as we move further into Spring we see more plants beginning to bud and wildlife. I can just not express how much there is to see and do here and can only recommend you visit and stay in our main grade 1 listed Avon Tyrrell House, or our log cabins, or camp, or just come for the day. Look at our Avon Tyrrell website and see what you can do. http://www.avontyrrell.org.uk/

Remember… Experience Comes from Adventure

Avon Tyrrell 8th April 2009

2009-04-08T10:36:00.011+01:00

Well Easter is almost here and we have our daily fundays running which are a great way of entertaining children aged 8 to 12 years for a day. For more info check this link out on our website: http://www.avontyrrell.org.uk/funday_listings_2009.pdf

Last week we had visits from two primary schools, Sarisbury Junior School who stayed Monday to Wednesday and Bartley Church of England School who stayed Wednesday to Friday. Both schools brought lots of children and had a fantastic time with the weather being good all week. If you read this and want to no more about what we offer schools have a look at this web page it may inspire you to come and see what a great outdoor learning venue Avon Tyrrell is: http://www.avontyrrell.org.uk/page/schools.jsf

Development on site since our last Blog, include the rendering of outside of the strawbale classroom, which gives the final finish to the exterior of the building. Unfortunately we ran out of lime rendering and still have a small piece to do at the back, but this will be done very soon.

Also the Volunteer/Staff lodge was sprayed and we will soon begin the internal fit.

And finally, for all those of you who remember the black tarpaulin on top of one of our South facing Bay Windows, it’s gone; as we finally managed to raise the money to repair all 3 Bay Windows and we have been told they will now be fully waterproof. We await the next real rainstorm to see if this is so. Now all we need is the scaffolding removed.

Sorry just one last thing, anyone remember seeing this chap about, he is one of our instructors?

Remember… Every Experience Matters

Avon Tyrrell 27th March 2009

2009-03-30T08:05:00.008+01:00

Hello all,

Another week gone by and Avon Tyrrell has been as busy as ever. Last week we had Newlands School staying in the House and this week it was South Wonston Primary school. The Wonston teachers each morning have gone for an early morning run, unseen and unheard by the children and on the last morning their run was different around the grounds in their dressing gowns with the children watching cheering and shouting words of encouragement from their bedrooms and a couple were on the finish line timing them. Afterwards the teachers were spotted in the dining room enjoying a well earn’t cup of tea or two and desperately trying to recover…

Both schools were very well led by their teachers and helpers and seemed to make the most of their visit to us. When speaking to the children they have always been positive and said what a great time they were having, which to us is the most important requirement as we as a charity are here for young people.

At the weekend we had a cross section of Youth Groups staying in the House and Lodges all of whom got on together very well and again had a great time. It is good to also to know we are supporting a big cross section of groups and they are all making the most of their stay with us . You may be glad to know also that we do ask for feedback from those who stay and we do act upon comments as we need to know what people think of us and we are always willing to improve when we can.

In response to the question asked of our last blog “is Avon Tyrrell haunted” why don’t you come and stay with us and find out….

Again we have made little progress on the strawbale classroom, which we are all finding frustrating, yet with only four maintenance staff and so many projects running to try and improve our facilities, we have to accept that things do not always move as fast as we would like. The decking is slowly being built .

The Reed Bed work has pushed on and we now have the bunded walls almost complete. Next stage will be to build the inlet and outlet pipes and sampling point and to fit the liner and then start shipping in stone.

Internal work within the new Volunteer and Staff Lodge is well underway and our amazingly hardworking Estonian Builders will soon be returning home. The electrics and plumbing are almost complete and soon our staff will begin completing the final fitting of the kitchen and bedrooms. We now just need a man to spray the lodge so we can do the rest of the internal work. Maybe These lodges would be an answer to the UK Housing problem, as they are fantastic economical buildings which are environmentally friendly…..

Finally this week we thought you would like to see a picture of one of our Australian GAPS in a stylish hat…

Remember… enjoy everyday

AT Blog 18th March 2009

2009-03-18T15:29:00.009Z

Hi all, hope your week is going as well as ours?

Well after some initial teething problems for a couple of days our new website finally hit the worldwide web and we are happy to say initial feedback has been good and it is working well. We must thank Mercury1 for their kind generosity to build the site and host it for us for free, without this type of support charities like ours would find it difficult to survive. Special thanks also to Tara from Mercury1 for her help and support in building the site and to Sharon who works for UK Youth and has been key to putting our pages together and redoing them whenever we have had a new bright idea. We know the new website will reach many more groups and individuals and they can now see easily what we have to offer. http://www.avontyrrell.org.uk/.

Last week we had a visit from Townhill Junior School and they had an absolutely splendid week and all the children completed successfully the Junior Achievement Award, so well done to them for doing so well. At the weekend we had the second of 3 visits in successive weeks from Greg City Academy and again it was good to see everyone having a great time. We have also seen the return of campers now our campsites are open.

It has been a fine few days working on the Reed Bed and we are beginning to see the site take shape.

As for the new Volunteer and Staff Lodge, again an amazing few days which has seen the roof fitted and the start of the first fix for plumbing and electrics.

Finally for our followers in New Zealand and Australia, do you recognise this pair and note the exclusive shopping bags……

Remember… it's good to laugh

Avon Tyrrell 10th March 2009

2009-03-09T19:06:00.005Z

Well I have been rather reminisce recently in writing the blog as we have had so many balls in the air the time has just flown by. I shall now try and cover all that has happened recently to bring you back up to date with events at Avon Tyrrell.

Starting with today and the launch of our new look website, www.avontyrrell.org.uk which I hope you will all review and pass comments that will help us develop it further if needs be. The idea of this website is to make it easier for groups, families and individuals that use us to identify the areas they wish to find information about us on without having to get bogged down with information that is not required, fingers crossed it is well received.

Where next, I will start at the bottom of the Avon Tyrrell site by the small lake and the excavation of ground next to the strawbale classroom to enable volunteers, with our Environment Team, to build an Environment Garden. This garden will be situated next to a pond to allow pond dipping studies to be undertaken on a safe platform around the pond for young people to access easily. The garden itself will have full accessibility for all users and will complement the surrounding lake and marsh area perfectly and will be s super place to learn about our environment

Meanwhile at the top of our site by the lodges we have uncovered a well, which with the assistance of a Southampton University Engineer Student we are looking at the feasibility of using to supply water to the site. This is an interesting project which may end in us doing nothing and continuing to draw all our water from our local water company, as the cost of purifying water for such a large site may not be practical. We know the water company would rather we bought their water however they have never really understood the philosophy of a charity who would rather try and keep its core running costs to minimum so we can spend more money, in our case on young people.

Next; as we are talking about money, we have extended the services provided from our kitchen and now run a limited café services for customers, which we hope will be utilised more in the summer months when we have more campers.

Since our last Blog we have had the snow and rain which saw our lakes at their highest levels ever seen by even the oldest member of staff. The levels are now back to normal and our Activities staff are no longer paddling all over the lower regions of our site.

Finally I cannot go without mentioning where we are with our new volunteer and staff lodge, which has seen the foundation pillars’ completed, the lodge delivered, and now it s being built by a crew of 4 builders from Estonia where it was made. We believe the lodge will have its ridge beam on by the end of the week which is fast considering the team only arrived last Thursday night. The staff and volunteers are looking forward to the lodge completion.

Now that was a very fast update and I promise I will be a little more diligent in publishing our Blog, especially as it is now so accessible on our new web site.

Remember you are always welcome at Avon Tyrrell.

AT Blog 14 January 2009

2009-01-14T13:56:00.008Z

The weekend saw our first House guests for the New Year and the House was ringing to the sounds of the Gosport & Fareham Orchestra and this with the use of our lodges ensured we had a busy weekend. It is always good to have large numbers in the House and there is always a special atmosphere when lots of young people get together have a good time, especially during the winter months when the open fires are lit. If you would like to see more please view our website http://www.avontyrrell.org.uk/ or for more information email your questions to info@ukyouth.org or call us on 01425 672347.

Last Thursday we ran a bushcraft day for all the staff to ensure the scenario of the day would work well for anyone who signs up to do bushcraft at Avon Tyrrell. The staff had immense fun surviving the forest and their culinary and shelter building skills were tested to the full as was their ability to work together to survive and escape the perils that awaited them…..

The maintenance team have now just about completed the revamp of the old 3 roomed Chalet Building, with its own kitchen and dining area it can be used by guests for training, meetings and birthday parties etc. The rental of this building remains very good value for money so if you are thinking about coming to Avon Tyrrell for a day visit and want an indoor space, or you are looking for a cost effective training room please give our Customer Services Team a call on 01425 672347 or email info@ukyouth.org.

Finally the big site event last week was beginning to prepare the ground for the new volunteer and staff lodge which involved the removal of the rather old and dilapidated caravans. After much effort from the Maintenance Team, then the involvement of the majority of staff in pushing and heaving to get the caravans when they got stuck, we managed to get them to our car park where we are pleased to say that we had found people who wanted to use them and they are off for a new life.

Oh and the two characters from the last blog were Suzanne Varney who works as a coordinator in the Central Services Department and Grace Tierney Baker who works in the kitchen. In this photo they were both helping out at a very successful corporate Christmas Bash which was held at Avon Tyrrell.

Remember… Have Fun

AT Blog 5 January 2009

2009-01-05T09:58:00.010Z

Well here we are 2009, new year, new ideas and we all hope despite the difficulties of the world economy, this will not stop young people having the opportunities of enjoying the outdoors and visiting Centres like ourselves. For our part we have endeavoured to keep costs down in 2009 and we are offering some great deals to ensure visitors do get good value for money and most importantly an enjoyable experience in a safe environment, be it for learning or fun. For more information on Avon Tyrrell and what great facilities and deals we offer please view our website http://www.avontyrrell.org.uk/ or for more information email your questions to info@ukyouth.org or call us on 01425 672347.

The weather maybe cold and as I write the snow is falling, but we still have some exciting things happening to start the year off. We will hopefully within the month finish the straw bale classroom, and thanks to the peoples millions giving us a £50k donation we will begin to build a volunteers and staff accommodation lodge which we desperately need, as the caravans volunteers and staff were using are falling apart. We also will begin the next phase of reinstating our reed bed to support our sewage plant and whilst we are busy learning about how to do this, we would very much appreciate any support that could be given from anyone who has knowledge of building reed beds.

We also will see the arrival of 2 of our GAP students in the middle of this week and we very much look forward to welcoming them and our new apprentices and seasonal instructors as we begin a training cycle for the new staff and volunteers. And remember if you are interested in becoming a GAP student at Avon Tyrrell for 2010 please do contact us by email, info@ukyouth.org or call us on 01425 672347.

Finally maybe you have seen these two characters when visiting Avon Tyrell, do you remember them... I will let you know who they are when I write our next blog!

Enjoy the New Year

AT Blog 2 December 2008

2008-12-02T08:26:00.005Z

Last week we had the enjoyable company of Warwickshire Association of Youth Clubs staying with an international group of young people from; Russia, Estonia, Denmark, Belarus, Norway, Turkey and Greece. The purpose of the week was in part to see how we use outdoor activities for personal and social development and use youth work techniques as part of our programmes when working with young people. The week was a success and ended with a pleasant social evening before everyone departed home.

We again have a full weekend ahead of us with a visit from Westminster Police and all our lodges are occupied as well. We do however still have some free lodges for Christmas if anyone out there who wanted to arrange a families and friends get together over the Christmas Period, the large lodges are great for this. For more information on Avon Tyrrell and what great facilities we offer please view our website http://www.avontyrrell.org.uk/ or for more information email your questions to info@ukyouth.org or call us on 01425 672347.

Last week some of the staff attended a one day internal first aid course run by our very own Mike, and everyone enjoyed the course. If anyone out there is interested in attending a one or four day first aid course in a fantastic setting made for learning please call us on 01425 672347 or email info@ukyouth.org

We have again moved the Straw Bale Classroom build on with the completion of one external end being bordered and today the outside lime rendering begins. We should complete the boarding of the other end panel this week as well. Then it is the final push to get the outside balcony built. Also we have started work on improving the interior of our Chalet to make it more comfortable for our groups and at £25 to £30 a day, use of this building is cheap….

And finally did you work out who our mystery chef was? Yes it was Leo the Head Chef, seen here with one of our other chefs, Colin.

Enjoy your week

AT Blog 21 November 2008

2008-11-21T14:45:00.010Z

This week we have had the pleasure of Northfleet Technology College in the main house and despite the jovial pranks played between staff and students it was great to have them stay.

We now have a full weekend ahead of us with a visit from Hampton Youth Project and our lodges are occupied as well. For more information on Avon Tyrrell and what great facilities we offer please view our website http://www.avontyrrell.org.uk/ or for more information email your questions to info@ukyouth.org or call us on 01425 672347.

We have said a fond farewell to Christine who has been with us over the past couple of years as a General Assistant. Having worked in almost all departments she will be sadly missed as she is off to New Zealand to catch up with her sister who is away travelling. Christine took a voluntary plunge into our lake to say bye bye to staff, mad girl……

Site projects include the continued work on the straw bale classroom which is nearly completed internally and the re-instigation of our Reed Bed to support our sewage plant. Any world experts on sewage plants who would like to give the charity some free assistance with this project would be more than welcome, please contact David on 01425 672347 or email info@ukyouth.org

Finally for all those who have visited us over the years and met this chap, can you remember his name? He sometimes says Cooool in a very funny way! Answers next week.

Have a good week all