Outdoor Education

Building skills in resilience, teamwork and confidence

Our dedicated Outdoor Education department serves the whole school. Outdoor experiences – from activity days to bushcraft weeks camping in tepees – are at the heart of the Colfe’s journey and have enormous personal and social benefits.

They are exciting, they are challenging, they have enormous personal and social benefits, and everyone from Year 3 (age seven) onwards takes part.

Year 3 have two activity days of pond dipping, raft building, low-ropes courses and zip wire at Bewl Water in Kent. In Year 4, pupils participate in two days of activities at Grangewaters in Essex, experiencing archery, sailing, climbing and abseiling. By Year 5 pupils are ready for their first residential trip and spend four days and three nights at Bradwell Bay in Essex, where they experience adrenalin-filled challenges on high ropes and the 3G swing, alongside teamwork exercises and bonding around a camp fire.

These experiences prepare pupils for a week-long visit to Dorset in Year 6, where pupils camp in tepees in stunning locations and experience sailing, kayaking and coasteering along the spectacular Jurassic coastline. The course comes during the last few weeks of pupils’ Junior School careers – serving as a great finale as well as whetting their appetites for Outdoor Education in the Senior School.