Group Preparation
This page will help you prepare for your visit to Storey Arms. It explains your responsibilities as a group leader, an ‘order of the day’ and links to clothing lists and other useful documents.
By organising these aspects before your visit, it will help everything go smoothly on your first day.
The Storey Arms – Information & Ethos
The Storey Arms Centre is a residential outdoor education centre owned and run by Cardiff Council, with accommodation for a total of 56 people. Our accommodation is split over two linked buildings, with communal areas including the dining area and common rooms/teaching rooms. There is also a drying room, showers and changing areas.
In the centre grounds we have a range of activity sites including a climbing tower, forest string trail, orienteering course and teaching areas. We can also access the area on our doorstep, so we have the hills, a forest and mountain streams which we can use for our centre-based day visits, as well as gorges, caves, rivers, reservoirs and a canal within a short drive for our activity days.
Ethos……….
Our day visits offer a range of teaching opportunities from curriculum-based study days to adventurous activity days. We aim to introduce young people to a new field of learning, as well as a new environment.
The experience of a Storey Arms day visit includes physical activity which is well within the capabilities of the average young person. Many of the activities offer an element of apparent risk and young people can derive great satisfaction from overcoming their concerns and gaining success.
“Enjoyment, “Adventure”, “Achievement” “Resilience” and “Friendship” are all key words at the Storey Arms and even on a day visit, the changes in young people can be quite noticeable.
You can see examples of some of our activities in these videos which describe the benefits of a residential visit.
Responsibilities of Visiting Leaders
The outdoor education element of a day visit to the Storey Arms is clearly the responsibility of the professional staff employed at the Centre. Expertise and assistance from visiting leaders is, however, welcomed.
The collaboration between Storey Arms staff and visiting leaders is essential to the success of any visit and on occasion a degree of greater responsibility is expected of visiting leaders. Some of the duties and responsibilities the visiting leader may be expected to undertake are:
Generic responsibilities:
- Maintain discipline
- Be a lead in resolving any social or emotional difficulties the students may be having
Preparing for the activity:
- Assist the students, if needed, in ensuring they have on all the correct clothing and equipment as directed by the centre staff
- Collaborate with the Storey Arms staff to ensure any medication, or additional requirements needed for any student, are organised
During the activity:
- Ensure that students behave on the minibus journey
- Help supervise the students during the lunch break
- On occasion assist the Storey Arms staff in any aspects of the day’s activities in which you feel comfortable doing so
- Collaborate as a staff team to support the emotional and physical needs of the students throughout the day
After the activity:
- Assist students, if needed, in ensuring that any wet or dirty equipment is put away properly in the allocated place as directed by the centre staff
- Make sure that students have all their belongings with them before they leave
‘Order of the Day’
Arrival
We will have agreed your arrival and departure times with you. Please note that considerable problems can arise when groups arrive either too early or too late.
Our outdoor tutors will give students a brief introduction to the Centre and an outline of the day.
Depending on the type of day visit, our outdoor tutors will give a more detailed briefing to the group, including information about the activity/activities and any specialist equipment they may need to use.
For centre-based day visits, we may ask visiting leaders to help supervise some of the tasks and we will let you know what you need to do!
Lunch
Students and leaders will need to bring their own packed lunch and drink.
For activity days away from the centre, our staff will find a suitable place for the group to eat their lunches during a break from the activity.
For centre-based days, the group can eat inside or outside the centre, depending on the weather!
After the activity
Depending on the activity, the students can have a shower before they leave the centre.
We encourage the students to help with hanging up wet equipment and putting away kit if there is time.
Departure
We will try and ensure that you are leaving the centre at the time agreed, after a final check that everyone has all their belongings!
Any unclaimed items of lost property are kept for approximately two weeks.
