Inspiring learning through outdoor education and adventure
Description
A trip to Kingswood is a life changing adventure. For over 35 years, our transformative school trips have encouraged primary and secondary school pupils to build confidence and resilience by taking on fun challenges.
Experience a taste of adventure at our very first Kingswood residential activity centre. Staffordshire was originally purpose-built for residential school visits and overlooks the picturesque beauty of the Wrekin and Clee Hills.
Staffordshire is ideal for younger visitors and provides a whole lot of fun in a compact centre with activities designed for primary school students. All facilities are within easy reach of the main buildings, making close supervision simple for party leaders.
Facilities
•Outdoors: Adventure apparatus including zipwire and abseiling, archery, bushcraft and a fun and challenging low ropes course
•Indoors: Flexible indoor space for all weather activities including problem solving and team challenges
•Other facilities: Diner, shop, social hubs, party leader lounges, indoor classroom spaces
•Security: Boundary fencing and security gates around the centre
Accommodation
Staffordshire has standard dormitory style accommodation. Rooms range from 6 to 12 bed dormitories, with gender-separated bathroom and shower facilities and party leader rooms close by. Sheets, duvets and pillows are provided for all guests.
Reviews
Overview
4.3
85 reviews
Excellent
51%
Very Good
35%
Average
8%
Poor
2%
Awful
4%
Children participated in a range of activities, supporting the development of social skills and team work. Students built resilience. (March 2024 - Primary School)
(March 2024)
(March 2024 - Primary School)
We did NCS with them which was a really good programme (November 2023 - Secondary School)
(October 2023 - Secondary School)
(October 2023 - Primary School)
I would recommend this for any bonding experience. (October 2023 - Secondary School)
I wouldn't recommend this venue. Some of the activities were good, but there have, in my opinion, been declining standards over time. (October 2023 - Primary School)
(October 2023 - Primary School)
(July 2023 - Primary School)
(June 2023 - Primary School)
Kingswood Trip Evaluation:
Positives
Many of the staff are professional, well prepared and quickly build positive relationships with the children.
Many of the activities were well resourced and well run. Staff helped the children (and adults) to feel confident and safe.
The high, physical activities (climbing, zip line etc) are excellent
The programme ran relatively to time with good routines
Our rep (Dan) checked in several times and worked to make changes to the programme where needed/ requested (marshmallows and zip line)
Development points
Food- very limited, especially if vegetarian/vegan. Beef gelatin marshmallows with no veggie option. Hot choc was like drinking warm water.
Programme of activities- mixed quality, mostly very good depending on leader.
Some activity leads were poor at building relationships with the children. One in particular seemed poorly prepared and unprofessional. (June 2023 - Primary School)
(June 2023 - Primary School)
(June 2023 - Primary School)
Kingswood was a great venue for our residential visit. Although the building is dated and could do with an upgrade on some of the equipment, the staff were very engaging this year and the children enjoyed the range of activities the centre had to offer. (May 2023 - Primary School)
(May 2023 - Primary School)
The centre provided some well thought out group activities and, overall, the organisation of the visit was well timed to coincide with similarly aged children from other schools. There are concerns about some safety aspects of climbing, including the wearing of helmets during the climbing and the zip wire (which was extremely fats) (May 2023 - Primary School)
(April 2023 - Primary School)
(April 2023 - Primary School)
(March 2023 - Primary School)
(March 2023 - Primary School)
(March 2023 - Primary School)
(February 2023 - Primary School)
(January 2023 - Primary School)
(January 2023 - Primary School)
(January 2023 - Primary School)
(December 2022)
(December 2022 - Primary School)
(November 2022 - Primary School)
A well organised venue where the trained staff led on all activties. We were busy from the moment we arrived to out departure. Safety considerations were fanstastic and all staff expressed the safety rules with the children throughout all activties.
Food was plentiful and tasty. The accomodation was basic, but met the needs of the children and staff. (October 2022 - Primary School)
(October 2022 - Primary School)
(July 2022 - Primary School)
PSHE, teamwork (July 2022 - Primary School)
(May 2022 - Primary School)
(February 2022 - Primary School)
(November 2021 - Secondary School)
(September 2021 - Primary School)
Excellent staff who engaged the children in exciting, safe activities. A compact site well suited to our group. A good range of activities. Accommodation did the job but perhaps in need of a lick of paint/modernising a little as some parts were a bit tired. An enjoyable trip. (September 2021 - Primary School)
Unable to fulfil the obligation to provide our week residential (September 2021 - Primary School)
Excellent visit to promote team work and communication in preparation for transition to secondary school. (July 2021 - Primary School)
(July 2021 - Primary School)
(July 2021 - Primary School)
Children gained a lot from this experience
(September 2020 - Primary School)
Organisation at Kingswood Staffordshire is poor. Activity groups were too large which meant children waited for long periods of time whilst getting extremely cold. The site seems to be run by a very young and inexperienced group of people. We also have questions about safety and activity regulations at the site. Unfortunately, we will not be returning. (March 2020 - Primary School)
(January 2020 - Primary School)
(December 2019 - Primary School)
(November 2019 - Primary School)
Staff excellent - activities well run and organised - timetable well thought out - rebooked for next year.
Next year need 1 more member of staff than groups - ie 6 groups = 7 staff. In emergencies, there was no adult to step in. (November 2019 - Primary School)
(October 2019 - Secondary School)
(October 2019 - Secondary School)
Although the young people enjoyed themselves, there was too much downtime between activities. Also there was not a great choice of food for the young people, in particular healthy options. (September 2019 - Secondary School)
Great staff and site.
Was very busy and other schools did hinder our visit due to behaviour (August 2019 - Primary School)
(July 2019 - Primary School)
(July 2019 - Primary School)
A good activity centre suitable for primary school children. The centre's bedrooms are large and so up to 14 children share one room. This also meant that the whole corridor shared 8 showers and one bathroom which was not ideal in the evening after activities (July 2019 - Primary School)
(July 2019 - Primary School)
A great trip that gave all children a wonderful experience (June 2019 - Primary School)
(June 2019 - Primary School)
Would prefer a contained area for our school (86 pupils) rather than sharing corridors with other schools (May 2019 - Primary School)
A lovely trip which the children enjoyed and got a lot out of. (May 2019 - Primary School)
(May 2019 - Primary School)
(May 2019 - Primary School)
(May 2019 - Primary School)
A very safe and secure centre. Lots of excellent activities.
Some details were missed on arrival which would have helped to make the trip go smoother. (March 2019 - Primary School)
Good centre and staff, however, facilities were limiting and not ideal for our large group size (February 2019 - Secondary School)
(January 2019 - Primary School)
(December 2018 - Primary School)
(November 2018 - Primary School)
The activities were organised well and no time was wasted. The children were offered different activities such as bush survival, which they really enjoyed.
However the sleeping accommodation was not 100%, the children struggled with the comfort of beds.
Overall the staff were very helpful across the whole centre. (November 2018 - Primary School)
(November 2018 - Primary School)
A good centre that focusses on giving children a good experience. (November 2018 - Primary School)
(October 2018 - Primary School)
Lovely visit, lots of hand on experience, the children loved it! (October 2018 - Primary School)
Fantastic for our children who need lots of different experiences away from home (October 2018 - Primary School)
(June 2018 - Primary School)
Staff were brilliant. Venue is rather run down and student rooms also small.
In terms of activities- brilliant and food was good too (June 2018 - Secondary School)
A fantastic time had by all children. Even though we had a few problems they were all sorted quickly and professionally. (June 2018 - Primary School)
(June 2018 - Primary School)
Great range of activities and great staff. (June 2018 - Primary School)
(May 2018 - Primary School)
Another excellent year (April 2018 - Primary School)
(April 2018 - Primary School)
(April 2018 - Primary School)
(March 2018 - Primary School)
The staff and activities were fantastic however I feel the accommodation needs a lot of money spending on it. (March 2018 - Primary School)
