Along with many other sectors, 2020 was a very difficult year for the outdoor adventure and residential sector. Government guidance in response to the Covid-19 pandemic changed quickly and often with little warning. This meant activity providers had to be flexible and adapt to already stringent operating procedures at short notice, so Cumulus Outdoors moved to adopt a new way of working to meet those challenges. As a longstanding business, with over 15 years’ experience in the sector, our expert team possessed the necessary skills to do this and we were able to pivot quickly to ensure activity sessions could go ahead.
Cumulus Outdoors’ residential centre in Swanage.
Flexible approach to planning
Over the course of the year we successfully followed all guidance, we were incredibly proud of our team and the way they embraced the changes we made to our offering. This ensured we were still able to run Covid Secure outdoor adventure activities and DofE Gold residentials without compromising on quality, and therefore continuing to maintain our excellent reputation within the sector – something we have worked hard to establish over the years.
The wellbeing of young people in our care has always been our top priority, but over this period we went above and beyond to strengthen health and safety protocol across the site. We reviewed and adapted our activity programmes as well as our accommodation and facilities to allow for social distancing and enhanced cleaning measures. The new procedures we implemented enabled us to run our popular Gold DofE residential programme throughout the summer at limited capacity. All of the residential trips that went ahead were embraced by participants and a fantastic time was had by all. We were delighted to receive excellent feedback from students, parents and staff. It was incredibly rewarding to see happy, smiling faces.
School and youth residentials tailored to your needs
One of the things that sets Cumulus Outdoors apart from other providers is our ‘ready, willing and able’ ethos. Our team have a ‘can do’ attitude and are always excited to push the boundaries and try new things. All of our activity programmes are completely bespoke and tailored around the individual needs of the school or youth group. Our reluctance to adopt a ‘one size fits all’ approach means we’re able to adapt quickly and change various elements where needed.
For example, when rules were tightened and schools were prevented from travelling to activity centres for overnight stays, we took our residential experience to the grounds of one of our existing school clients. We were able to create a progressive programme, which included adventure and educational elements without compromising on fun.
School outdoor adventure residential trips in 2021
The Cumulus team have been busy planning and preparing our facilities for school adventure residential and Field Study trips for this year. We’re constantly improving our residential centre in Swanage and have been creating new outdoor spaces, including a new target sport range, aeroball and improved bushcraft area.
We’ve also enhanced our kitchen facilities so that we can provide students with three healthy meals a day. We can accommodate up to 133 students and staff on site in our dormitories and bungalow, and there are three common rooms where students can relax after a fun filled day.
Adventure activity programmes
While we constantly adapt and innovate, we continue to offer outdoor adventure day trips from our base in Swanage, where schools can enjoy a varied activity programme, including coasteering, climbing, kayaking, tag archery, bushcraft and mackerel fishing.
Alternatively, we can come to your school and deliver, for example, air rifle shooting, tag archery and bushcraft within your grounds.
