Residential Visits for Primary Schools

Would your class like to experience a truly unique residential visit full of 'hands on' educational adventures, exploring our 132 acre outdoor classroom? Will they enjoy building shelters in the wild woods, collecting eggs for their breakfast, or investigating a stream whilst standing in one?

Residential and visits from one night up to a week for key stages 1 & 2 provide a range of exciting activities from 8am to 8pm designed individually to meet your specific needs. We employ a range of learning styles, offering outdoor activities with relevance and understanding to modern day society in a safe inspiring environment. Almost all activities have an emphasis on individuals and groups working together, learning to cooperate and developing independence.

We pride ourselves on our unique ‘real life’ learning approach, and try to instil awe and wonder into activities to ensure lessons that will stay with our students for a lifetime. At Magdalen, you are not just a visitor, you become very much part of the centre, and our staff team take the stress out of planning and running trips, providing all risk assessments and understanding the importance of only allowing one residential school group at a time.

Feel free to visit us to experience our magical learning environment, or contact us and we will come to your school to talk and inspire teachers, parents and pupils about a Magdalen residential.

Below are a few of the many residential and day visit activities we have to offer:

Farmers In Training

Become a Farmer for a day and experience real life farming by carrying out valuable but fun day to day jobs on the farm. Favourite FIT activities include scarecrow making, harvesting and cooking vegetables over an open fire, taste tours of the vegetable patch, sowing seeds, watering in the poly tunnels, and feeding animals.

Survival in the Wild

Would your children like to build their own shelters, apply tribal face paints and experience how the early Britons would have survived? Survival in the Wild enables tribes to work together whilst they light fires without using matches, find wild food in the woods, drink nettle tea and cook a snack on a camp fire.

Jurassic Journey

The Jurassic coast provides a fascinating, fun trip, where children can explore the rock pools of Lyme Regis, go fossil hunting at Charmouth and make sand sculptures on the beach. The coast offers students a chance to explore and study cliff formations, coastal processes and sea defences, and chance for a quick paddle in the sea and an ice cream!

Sustainable Living Workshops

A range of activities based around living more sustainably, promoting a deeper understanding of environmental issues and practical, hands-on solutions to climate change. Children will enjoy making, cooking and eating pizzas in our outdoor earth oven, digging clay to make cob bricks, making solar ovens, learning about organic farming, finding good wind turbine locations on the farm and exploring the fascinating sustainably built buildings around the farm.

Earth passengers

In our beautiful woodland, your class will participate in a series of activities designed to reawaken children’s senses and to help them explore the woodland environment in more inventive ways. Earth Passengers includes painting with plants and natural objects, making a 'touch box' and a blindfold barefoot walk where children have the opportunity to walk blindfolded through the woods, to feel the mud squelch between their toes and the grass tickle their feet!

Mini Beasts and Mega Beasts

An exciting way to explore the different habitats of our gardens, fields and woods, with mini beast hunts, the Mini Beast Olympics, and games looking at mini beast camouflage and predator / prey relationships.

Rivers and Streams

Why not learn about streams by standing in one? Magdalen has a number of streams and rivers where a whole class can safely wade about in (wearing wellies), to carry out fieldwork and study river processes, features and the water cycle. Water quality can be assessed by looking at what lives in it when children use nets to dip for all sorts of weird and wonderful creatures, and identify them by using simple keys.

The Magdalen Farm Adventure

Groups will embark on an exciting discovery journey around the farm using a map to follow a trail, discovering new sights, sounds and smells on the farm. Children will carry out small tasks on their adventure, such as making sound maps, writing a haiku poem, and creating Native American Map Lines.

Village Explorer

Children can really explore a distant locality by visiting one of our neighbouring villages of Winsham or Thorncombe, interview local residents and meet and swap stories with the children of the local primary school. They can compare and contrast this community with their own school and home environments. The journey to the village is a great adventure, as we walk through fields, in woodland and over streams, with stunning countryside scenery to admire.

Together we stand, divided we fall - team building and problem solving

Learning to work with others in a co-operative way is a skill we all need. Through a series of imaginative team challenges, children will experience a variety of problems to solve, testing leadership and group skills along the way. This activity provides laughter, frustration and fulfilment, as well as enabling children to learn very relevant skills easily transferable to classroom and playground situations.

Eco Warriors

An exciting game around the farm that combines global citizenship, sustainability, mapping and excitement! Children or “eco-warriors” must save Magdalen by collecting items using a map and their map reading skills for clues. Sneaking around in groups, the eco warriors must avoid the mad property developer intent on destroying all wildlife habitats on the farm to build flats…and must try not to get caught!

Arts and crafts

Make and take home unique Magdalen mementos such as mystic Native American dreamcatchers, or a photograph frame complete with photo of them at Magdalen, or willow sculptures and decorations.

Eco-Drama

Do your children love to use their imagination and be creative? Eco-drama gives groups the opportunity to work together to create and perform short performances in our ‘Eco-Woodland Theatre’. During the interval tasty refreshments prepared over the campfire will be served!

Environmental Art

Pupils have the chance to be creative and after spending time collecting natural materials from around the farm will make an organic scene or sculpture in the woods from their materials. Children will be encouraged to think about using different canvas’ and materials to bind their sculpture together, as well as the colours and textures they use, before presenting their artwork to the group.

Living History

A vivid and enjoyable day spent living as an Ancient Greek, Roman, Saxon, Viking or even during World War Two! Activities cover food and cooking, crafts, building techniques, and methods of writing.

Maps and Mapping

Through a series of mapping activities and games, children will develop their mapping skills, starting with Native American map lines, and ending the day using compasses on our orienteering challenge. Children will use co-ordinates, micro parks, land use mapping, symbols and keys.

Our evening activities are a great way to end the day, and include:

Campfire

Wrap up warm and take torches out into the dark to sing songs and tell stories around the campfire in a magical setting.

Night Orienteering

After a short compass lesson, students will head out, using their compasses to following a route around the farm by torchlight.

The Wildlife Challenge

Using maps and teamwork, groups must find wooden stamps hidden around the farm, and using their ink pad, print the image onto their answer sheet to prove their findings, all whilst racing against other teams and the clock!

Additional hands on practical activities include solar oven making, Quidditch, story telling, outdoor cooking, wildlife adventures, bush craft, felt making, designing and making features in our recycled garden, adventure hikes, conservation projects and much, much more in our beautiful 132 acre classroom!

If you have any questions about any activities or a booking, please do not hesitate to contact us or download our information pack