The Dearne Valley Centre – a 50-acre site and the new flagship Kingswood centre in the UK – has opened its doors on 12 March and welcomed its very first schools and student groups from around the UK and abroad.
Located on the site of the former Earth Centre, just five miles West of Doncaster, the Dearne Valley Centre is one of the largest outdoor learning facilities in the UK, boasting state of the art facilities and buildings on a site that has lain dormant since 2004. The facilities have been adapted to provide onsite accommodation for up to 320 school pupils, as well as a range of exciting activities designed to advance outdoor learning and educational progression.
As part of this exciting new development, Dearne Valley Centre offers three fully equipped IT labs that give teachers the opportunity to incorporate IT into the residential experience. A new Bush craft area has also been planned to help pupils learn about the natural environment and an outdoor classroom designed to encourage pupils to work in and gain inspiration from the natural surroundings.
All activities available, including high and low ropes, zip lines and climbing towers, offer graduated levels of progression to ensure pupils are challenged to try something new, and in doing so, build their confidence and self-esteem.
By combining education and sustainability to recognise and re-discover the Centres potential, both in visiting pupils and the site itself, the Dearne Valley Centre has managed to successfully maintain many original features of the Earth Centre and incorporate the site’s rich history into its present philosophy.
Renovation work at the site, which started at the groundbreaking ceremony on 8 October, took sustainable construction company Willmott Dixon less than four months to complete. The Dearne Valley Centre will be officially opened after the first schools come on site to trial the centre on Monday 12 March.
Kingswood Head of Education, Matt Healey said: “It is an honour to be able to resurrect the former Earth Centre and adapt the site to become one of the leading outdoor education facilities in the UK. With newly developed programmes specifically designed to prioritise learning outcomes, the activities offered at the new centre, all of which are academically beneficial and matched to the curriculum, will prioritise the experience of the pupil and put them at the centre of the learning process. We hope our programmes go beyond the traditional outdoor activity centre and offer pupils the opportunity to learn through doing – and in doing so, gain confidence through their success.
Using activity as a conduit to reach and raise academic achievement, the new Dearne Valley Centre seeks to work closely with schools to recognise their needs and develop programmes that are aligned to the learning outcomes prioritised by the curriculum.”
Kingswood recently held a highly successful week of preview days to welcome prospective visitors to the Centre, with representatives from over 500 schools and organisations visiting the site. Dearne Valley Centre manager, Brian Kitson said: “We received a fantastic reaction from the teachers on site over the last week, with many surprised by the sheer scale of our new flagship learning facility and the wide range of activities on offer. The new Dearne Valley Centre has been developed with the goal of integrated learning at its heart, allowing schools and instructors to seamlessly combine the learning process with outdoor activity.
It’s really important to us that local schools have the opportunity to experience the centre and all of the facilities available, so we are all really looking forward to welcoming our first class of Doncaster students to the site on Wednesday.”
With the Dearne Valley Centre opening on 12 March, school bookings can now be made by calling 0800 6556564.
