Your Travel City Guide

According to Ofsted – the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills – a number of schools do not take their pupils on outdoor activity trips, which is partially due to a fear of being sued. However, it is important to remember that these activities help children work on their social and physical skills and many children miss out as costs and limited numbers of willing participants contribute to the problem.

Parents should instead be taking the initiative and organising family days out to ensure their children are not missing out on valuable activity days, as Ofsted found that during adventure courses, for example, good progress was made, helping youngsters to develop physical and social skills and work as a team.

Children often relish the challenges an adventure course presents to them, with logical thinking, problem solving and sheer courage and determination often required to make it through. If schools are unable, or unwilling, to take pupils away to engage in outdoor pursuits then it falls to the family to ensure their children are spending time developing these essential life skills.

A wide variety of adventure holidays are available with activities including adventure ropes, climbing, kayaking, mountain biking, hiking and camping. These types of holidays often prove inexpensive as they can be taken in the UK without extensive, and expensive, overseas travel.

As is so often heard, today’s generation of children need something exciting to tear themselves away from PlayStations and DVDs, and a family activity day could be just the incentive they need to get up from the sofa!  As well as helping the family to bond and getting the children into the great outdoors it also aids their social and physical development.