Hudnall Park Outdoor Centre

What will students see and do?

Hudnall Park Outdoor Centre serves school groups across the Hertfordshire area and beyond. The centre offers a wide range of activities and workshops to support learning outcomes from early years to secondary pupils.

Students can experience day visits or a residential school trip, with accommodation sleeping up to 39 visitors across five bedrooms of varying sizes. There is also campsite accommodation set up during the summer months, with 20 tents accommodating 80 people.

The broad spectrum of activities at Hudnall Park varies from specific educational classes to adventure activities. Subjects catered to range from geography trips to art, while adventure activities are diverse and include sessions such as mountain biking and obstacle courses.

In addition to the on-site activities, Hudnall Park is able to arrange adventure activities off-site. These include land-based activities like caving and climbing, or water-based activities like canoeing, raft-building and sailing.

With 85 acres of outdoor space to explore, students can connect with the great outdoors while learning and having fun.

How does the trip link to the curriculum?

The team of qualified staff is well prepared to deliver activities with curricular outcomes, including for subjects like art, environmental studies, geography, literacy, numeracy and science.

The curriculum links range from early years to secondary. They also prioritise developing personal and social skills.

There are many activities designed to meet Key Stage 1 learning outcomes. For example, in the ‘First Steps in the Environment’ activity, through discovering a range of habitats and natural materials, children will develop observation and communication skills.

‘Art in the Environment’ is suitable for KS1 and KS2 and meets learning outcomes for art at these levels.

The ‘Group Development through Problem Solving’ activity meets outcomes for KS1 and KS2 PE and PSHE. Pupils will also develop an awareness of personal strengths and co-operative working.

For KS1 geography curriculum outcomes, the ‘Geography on Foot’ activity is designed to introduce map interpretation, as well as estimating distances and describing environments.

The ‘Words in the Wood’ workshop helps KS1 literacy pupils to extend their vocabulary and develop their awareness of the natural world.

‘Numbers in Nature’ is for KS1 numeracy, and the outcomes include solving number problems, recognising patterns and using mathematical equipment.

There are also a wide range of activities suitable for Key Stage 2. For example, for KS2 citizenship, the ‘Sustainable Living’ workshop will introduce concepts of sustainable development, particularly in relation to water cycles.

‘Geography Jog’ will get KS2 pupils using orienteering equipment confidently, as well as reading and creating detailed maps.

‘Walking with Word’s teaches KS2 literacy students focused descriptive writing skills, as well as communicating a point of view.

The ‘Natural Number Wonders’ workshop has KS2 numeracy outcomes, including drawing inferences from data collection.

There are three levels of orienteering skills workshops: basic, intermediate and advanced. All are suitable for KS2 PE, with increasingly advanced challenges.

For KS2 science, pupils can take part in workshops themed around animal, plant and habitat investigations and rocks and soils.

The education team is able to adapt activities to be suitable for older pupils as well, depending on your desired outcomes.

During residentials, pupils can take part in any combination of the aforementioned workshops, as well as a wide range of adventure activities, fom archery and ropes courses to zip lines and building shelters.

All of these activities have personal development outcomes and can also be adapted to meet curricular outcomes.

Subjects covered

Details of risk assessment

All activities are risk-assessed according to Learning Outside the Classroom quality standards – a benchmark for UK school trips.

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