(March 2024)

(February 2024 - Secondary School)

(February 2024)

(January 2024 - Primary School)

(November 2023 - Primary School)

(November 2023 - Secondary School)

(November 2023 - Primary School)

Team building (November 2023 - Primary School)

Kingswood at Grosvenor Hall was absolutely fantastic. The staff were exceptionally welcoming and could not do enough for our group, right from our leader who made the experience memorable for our young carers to the catering manager who catered to every individual person's needs and requirements. The accommodation was clean and catered for all of our needs, the food was plentiful, nutritious and enjoyable and the activities had kept our young people busy, were fun, engaging and catered to all of our learning outcomes, including confidence building, self-esteem, creating new friendships, life skills, team building, problem solving. the list is endless (October 2023 - Secondary School)

Even though this is a very large Kingswood Centre, everything was well organised from arrival to us leaving. The activities were good and the instructors were great, food was decent enough and the rooms were fine. Centre is just a little tired and a lot of other groups there too. Some areas needed cleaning as there were old wrappers and food left around. Other than that, a good trip! (October 2023 - Primary School)

Team building, resilience, kindness, aspiration and respect (October 2023 - Primary School)

(October 2023 - Primary School)

there was quite a few issues with accommodation :dirty damp, some very good leaders but some not able to be age appropriate Incident where student was hurt and no staff had a first aid kit (October 2023 - Secondary School)

(October 2023 - Primary School)

(September 2023 - Primary School)

Team building, outdoor activities (September 2023 - Primary School)

(August 2023 - Primary School)

(July 2023 - Primary School)

(July 2023 - Primary School)

(June 2023 - Primary School)

(June 2023 - Primary School)

For a outdoor education and residential. Great for improving teamwork skills. (June 2023 - Primary School)

The centre and activities are well run. The dining hall was not well run and the buildings are feeling a little dated. (June 2023 - Primary School)

(June 2023 - Primary School)

(June 2023)

(May 2023 - Primary School)

Team building, problem solving and independence (May 2023 - Primary School)

(May 2023 - Secondary School)

(April 2023 - Secondary School)

Mostly focused on team building activities. We also did some bushcraft skills and learnt facts about fire lighting and shelter building whilst doing the activities (science related). Some of the activities fitted in well with PE as we learnt orienteering, fencing and climbing skills. (March 2023 - Primary School)

(March 2023 - Secondary School)

(March 2023 - Primary School)

Group work demands that the children learn good communication skills and support each other with the activities (January 2023 - Primary School)

(November 2022)

(November 2022 - Primary School)

(November 2022 - Primary School)

(October 2022 - Primary School)

(October 2022)

(October 2022)

Food was lacking nutritional value; food was not always in sufficient quantities to meet the needs of consumers; food was often cold when received; accommodation was functional and clean. General facilities were good and clean. Toilets in the Learning Hub were incredibly smelly, as was the main corridor (smelled like a badly cleaned public toilet). (October 2022 - Secondary School)

A broad range of activities that our children thoroughly enjoyed (October 2022 - Primary School)

(October 2022 - Primary School)

(October 2022 - Primary School)

(October 2022 - Primary School)

The activities are great. (September 2022 - Primary School)

(September 2022 - Primary School)

Outdoor Activities (September 2022 - Secondary School)

Also building resilience and confidence. (August 2022 - Primary School & Secondary School)

A good time was had by all the children. (July 2022 - Primary School)

(July 2022 - Primary School)

(June 2022 - Primary School)

(June 2022 - Primary School)

(June 2022 - Primary School)

We use Grosvenor Hall for building independence, team work and the physical challenge of high ropes, raft building and canoeing etc. (June 2022 - Primary School)

(June 2022 - Primary School)

(May 2022 - Primary School)

(May 2022 - Primary School)

Outdoor education, leadership, building confidence and resilience. (May 2022 - Primary School)

(May 2022 - Primary School)

fantastic range of activities, (May 2022 - Primary School)

(May 2022)

Teamwork skills (April 2022 - Primary School)

(February 2022 - Primary School)

(January 2022 - Secondary School)

Good experience overall. Could have been a wider range of activities. We will choose the adventure plus package next time to have more say in our activities. (December 2021 - Primary School)

(November 2021 - Primary School)

(November 2021 - Primary School)

I believe that due to the pandemic, experienced staff have left and Kingswood are now in a position where they are recruiting and training. Staff could have been more engaging with the children. (November 2021 - Primary School)

(November 2021 - Secondary School)

It was a good trip for the Yr 7 pupils and great it took place early on so they could get to know each other (October 2021 - Secondary School)

(October 2021 - Secondary School)

The centre has much improved in terms of he quality of it's activities and food in recent years. (September 2021 - Secondary School)

(September 2021 - Primary School)

Well organised, (July 2021 - Primary School)

(July 2021 - Primary School)

Good overall (July 2021 - Primary School)

improvements in catering have been made. Instructor recruitment and training is still in hand and there were some issues with trainers not in right place at right time. Management of centre were highly visible and keen to help (June 2021 - Primary School)

Really helpful staff. (March 2020 - Primary School)

Children loved it. (November 2019 - Primary School)

(November 2019 - Primary School)

(November 2019 - Primary School)

(November 2019 - Primary School)

Prior to the visit- the centre staff were very accommodating in altering our requirements as necessary. As a school, we felt that our chosen ratio of having 3 adults (2 school staff and 1 centre staff) worked well when considering the distance of some of the activities away from from the main centre (and other groups). (October 2019 - Primary School)

(October 2019 - Primary School)

From: JRE Sent: 09 October 2019 08:11 To: complaints@inspiring-learning.com Cc: carolynne.ward@inspiring-learning.com; dwt; Donald Wykes Subject: Kingswood Grovesnor Hall Tour ref K1319J0136 Dear Rachel / Carolynne, I am writing to you to outline a series of issues I have surrounding our recent visit to Kingswood Grovesnor Hall on the weekend of the 5/6th October. Unfortunately this is now the second visit we have had to the centre this year that has led us to complain. Following our previous experience earlier this year I had a number of conversations with members of your Customer Service team, specifically Shelley Forsdyke and Millie Seago, during which I expressed my concerns over whether these issues would be addressed for this booking. I was repeatedly reassured that there would be no problems with any further bookings and that feedback had been acted upon. Unfortunately this did not prove to be the case. On arrival at the centre the group was greeted by the Course Leader Dominic who simply handed over a pack after telling us where to line up in the sports hall for activities, that we had to be strict with dinner times and for a fire drill to line up in the sports hall or if the fire was in the sports hall to line up on the netball court. Our group leader later discovered that he should have been discussing an evening activity led by him but this did not happen and she was only notified of this by the leader of the Obstacle Course activity while they were participating in this, an evening activity that was ultimately missed as the groups spent over fifty minutes queuing past their allocated time for their evening meal. The group were told where to put bags and given keys to classrooms but not provided with a map of the site or told where anything was and were in fact left to themselves to explore the site to find out where everything was situated as no-one offered to show us around. The group were also not advised of the check out procedures and had to work out themselves what to do with their bedding. Our group leader said alarm bells should have rung at the start when she was asked by another instructor who the group leader was and joked with that if it was Dom it would be like 'organising a piss up in a brewery'. The accommodation block we were allocated for this visit was the Cambridge block where the toilets were so dirty that on arrival our group leader had to request bleach to clean them with. The rooms were generally very shabby with handles not being secure and in one instance actually falling off. There was no heating in any of the rooms, meaning they were cold and damp, forcing teachers and students to sleep in coats, jumpers socks and woolly hats. One of the teacher rooms had bugs crawling over the desk while another had mushrooms growing in the bathroom. Two students' rooms had bugs actually in the beds. None of the students rooms had locks on the inside and corridors were entered by key code locks at either end. While I understand this may be acceptable for parties of younger students we clearly stated that we were bringing a party of 15 year olds and therefore this would be regarded as a safeguarding issue. The fire alarms in this building were also clearly not working as during the groups stay the fire alarm went off five times across the two days. During the night the fire alarm went off, a fact that our group only discovered the following morning as it had not sounded in their accommodation block and no member of staff had alerted them or checked on them during this time which is a significant health and safety issue. Twice the fire alarms disrupted meal times meaning that the group were unable to finish their meals before moving onto activities in order to keep to the schedule provided. When the fire alarm went off during dinner our group went to the assembly point and made sure everyone was present. No staff came to check on them and the instructors that were about eventually contacted the office to find out if they could go, no one bothered to enquire whether the group had finished their meals at this point. There were also further issues with timings around meals as serving times were allocated but not adhered to. Our group arrived for breakfast on the Sunday morning at their allocated time of 7.30 however spent over 40 minutes queuing. When they eventually reached the servers breakfast items had run out. There were also a number of problems with the other facilities on offer. In terms of the classroom facilities, these were also in a state of disrepair, like the bedrooms, with door handles which were falling off (at least three of the five rooms were affected) and locks that the keys did not unlock, on two occasions the groups had to seek assistance to get into the rooms as a result. While our group enjoyed the activities there were a number of significant health and safety issues that our teachers picked up on and has to speak to Kingswood staff to address. As requested prior to arrival the students had been split into five groups for activities, due to a reduced number of attendees the centre had reduced the groups to four but not informed our group leader. This meant that when it came to activities there were a group of students that were left without a leader or activity and rapidly had to be distributed ad hoc amongst the other groups. The instructor for the evening activity of Jacobs Ladder, Olivia, was very poor with little enthusiasm and no interaction or encouragement with / for the students, bearing in mind this was the end of the day and it was cold and dark by this point the pupils were bored very easily. While I accept that organisational errors can occur the health and safety issues were much greater. The abseiling tower only had floodlights on one side meaning there was just enough light to abseil safely but un-clipping safely took longer on the unlit side. During the Leap of Faith activity it as discovered at the top of the activity (so after ascent) that one of the students had been wrongly harnessed, luckily this was just before the student participated in the leap itself. In addition to this two groups were collapsed together for the Leap of Faith after another instructor decided to finish their activity early. This meant that some students did this activity three or four times while others in the group only did it once, maybe twice at most. Furthermore the two male instructors on the Leap of Faith were so busy playing music and chatting to our female students that they allowed students to wander around in the area with no helmets on while other students were completing the activity above them something our members of staff had to point out contravened health and safety regulations. Once again, I would like to express my grave concerns over the issues that have arisen from this visit especially as I was assured when the booking was made that the experience of our last visit would not be repeated. In fact, in many ways this visit was worse than the last visit. I look forward to hearing back from you as a matter of urgency to discuss these matters further. Kind regards, Jessica Reynolds Assistant Headteacher (October 2019 - Secondary School)

(October 2019 - Secondary School)

Some really great instructors but not are as enthusiastic and encouraging as they could be Food wasn't great (October 2019 - Primary School)

(September 2019 - Primary School)

Very tired venue. Needs TLC. Some staff very helpful, others were not. Activity programme was not good and was a struggle to modify. Pre visit organisation was poor with contacts difficult to get hold of unless answering a routine enquiry. Will not be visiting again. (July 2019 - Secondary School)

5 STARS ~ The instructors are always so brilliant with our children! 2 STARS ~ Issue this year the timetabling of canoeing and raft building and the response from management! Didn't think the food was quite as good as in the past! (June 2019 - Primary School)

Good selection of Activities, all children had a chance to overcome a challenge for themselves and meal times, all children were eating and had a good range of food to choose from. But no hot chocolate, rooms weren't ready on arrival and weren't able to get into the room until later in the day. (June 2019 - Primary School)

(June 2019 - Primary School)

Activities were amazing for the children, however the programme structure, accommodation and food needs improving. (June 2019 - Primary School)

(June 2019 - Primary School)

The quality of the accommodation was very disappointing - no running water for teachers. (June 2019 - Secondary School)

The children absolutely loved their time at Grosvenor Hall as they had nothing to compare it to. However, as staff, we were quite disappointed by Kingswood's poor communication and organisation this year. They also made a very significant change to the activity timetable which meant the children were paying more but participating in far fewer activities. This change was shared far too close to the trip We had to speak to several people from quite high up at Kingswood before they attempted to rectify some of this. (May 2019 - Primary School)

The focused activities such as the zip line, 3G swing and high ropes were all very good and children thoroughly enjoyed them. However, less focused activities called 'course director times' were very unstructured and were not well planned, meaning visit leaders had to step in instead. I think this needs to change for next time. Additionally the facilities need updating with some TLC as the toilets were not clean or well kept (pain peeling off the walls, dirty towels on the floor etc). Finally the food in the canteen was very bland with not many healthy options. The food hall was also very loud for our children due to the amount of people there, although our children coped especially well. Overall, I still think it is a good place to go for residential but I think a few points need to be passed onto the organisers. (May 2019 - Secondary School)

Disorganised and left thr young people waiting that led to them becoming bored and making it difficult to engage them. Issues started to arise as result. (May 2019 - Secondary School)

The staff were knowledgeable and approachable, responding to questions and requests. The activities were well organised and adapted to suit the groups of children and individual needs. Grosvenor Hall Staff formed positive relationships with the children and adults. There was a good range of activities to develop a range of skills. There were good systems in place to cope with large numbers of children at the centre. (May 2019 - Primary School)

Centre is well organised and staff worked very well with our pupils, all who have special needs. (May 2019 - Primary School)

The trip was mostly smooth. there had obviously been a shortage of staff but this had little impact on our stay. Staff were very helpful and the foodwas excellent. (May 2019 - Primary School)

(April 2019 - Primary School)

There were a number of issues during our stay, some of which stemmed from the late changes to our accommodation during our Easter Break. Some of the activities were not well organised and some were even missed. There were some issues with hygiene, for example the girls' toilets in the main building had no toilet paper despite school staff members informing Kingswood staff a number of times. We also did not receive our Kingswood visitor badges until 10 o clock on our second day, which is a safeguarding concern. (April 2019 - Primary School)

Great activities, great staff interactions with children. (April 2019 - Primary School)

The facilities have not been maintained as well as they could be. (April 2019 - Primary School)

(April 2019 - Primary School)

(March 2019 - Primary School)

(February 2019 - Primary School)

(February 2019 - Primary School)

(January 2019 - Primary School)

Very appropriate to the trip and well resourced. (January 2019 - Secondary School)

(November 2018 - Primary School)

The activities, accommodation and meals were well organised by staff at Grosvenor Hall. Activity staff worked well with the children to motivate them and keep them safe; learning key children's names and identifying children with additional needs. The accommodation was clean and secure and there was a good selection of foods at meal times. (November 2018 - Primary School)

(October 2018 - Secondary School)

(October 2018 - Primary School)

Really impressed with the challenge and support given to the school as a whole. (September 2018 - Secondary School)

Great fun day out enjoyed by all the children. One problem, not all children had time to complete one activity, but centre arranged for them to complete the activity during the lunch break. Food only average. (September 2018 - Primary School)

Enjoyable week- children really enjoyed it and pushed their skills limit and gained confidence from all they participated in (September 2018 - Primary School)

(August 2018 - Secondary School)

(July 2018 - Primary School)

Food wasn't good, accommodation was poor. (June 2018 - Secondary School)

(June 2018 - Primary School)

Accommodation and the quality of food really let the place down. (June 2018 - Primary School)

(June 2018 - Primary School)

(June 2018 - Primary School)

Really pleased with our trip. All of the staff were helpful and cheerful - making the children feel settled and secure as well as confident to have a go. (June 2018 - Primary School)

Our annual residential was excellent- good to see updates continuously being made onsite with regards to accommodation and activities. There was an issue with accommodation where our assigned accommodation was allocated to another school which meant quite a long wait trying to sort out new rooms- although it was eventually resolved. (June 2018 - Primary School)

Our experience was not as positive as previous years. Feedback was given to Kingswood to address for next year. (June 2018 - Primary School)

Our experience this year was not as positive as previous years. (June 2018 - Primary School)

We will not be using Kingswood again due to many issues beyond our control which they say were caused by computer error. This included accommodation - we were forced to sleep in an adventure lodge for the first night (which was a large tent) rather than our rooms, this was not appropriate because the teacher tent was too far away and the boys had to share toilets and showers with other schools. We also lost out on activities because their computer had adjusted our itinerary to be 5 days (Tuesday til Saturday) whereas we had booked til Friday only. There were very few toilets on site and no specific adult only toilets (except in the teacher bedrooms); there were no drinking fountains on site and only one water station for filling up bottles. The food was poor. (June 2018 - Primary School)

(June 2018 - Secondary School)

The site was not felt to be clean and it did not meet our needs with poor management and disorganisation. Examples include broken beds and broken class on mattresses found on arrival. As well as not being able to access toilets within our own secure area until after dark. Activities were fine but felt rushed and did not meet the children's needs as well as we would have hoped. Very low staff moral amongst the site staff was evident. We will not be returning! (June 2018 - Primary School)

(June 2018 - Primary School)

Excellent venue, well organised and trained staff, who adapt activities to suit our students needs. (May 2018 - Secondary School)

(May 2018 - Secondary School)

Team building activities were effective (April 2018 - Secondary School)

(April 2018 - Primary School)

Poor food, poor organisation and staffing. Terrible food. will not be using again (February 2018 - Secondary School)

Although there was a bit of waiting around on the first day. (January 2018 - Secondary School)