Anglesey residential cements desire for a career in outdoor education

BA (Hons) Physical Education and Outdoor Education (PEOE) students ended their first year at Leeds Beckett on a high, as they threw themselves (quite literally) into all of the practical outdoor and adventurous activities their course has to offer on a 5-day residential in Anglesey.

The trip formed part of the Lifestyle Sports module, which has involved students exploring contemporary debates surrounding the value of alternative ‘lifestyle sports’ in education and society. Throughout the course of the year, students have engaged in practical sessions involving sports such as skateboarding, bouldering, parkour and circus skills. This enabled students to consider how these types of activities might offer inclusive and rewarding experiences that differ from the traditional mainstream pursuits that so often underpin Physical Education and youth sport provision.

The Anglesey trip provided students with an opportunity to solidify their learning from the module, and to experience other new and exciting outdoor activities such as rock climbing, sea kayaking, abseiling, coasteering, as well as hillwalking in Snowdonia. They were even lucky enough to enjoy a sunrise paddle boarding session on their final morning before returning to campus. Students filmed their experiences to create their own ‘adventure film’ as part of their assessment, which will be shown at an Adventure Film Festival to mark the end of their first year at university.

BA (Hons) Physical Education with Outdoor Education student, Billy Rigby, said: “I really enjoyed our day in Snowdonia. It was such a beautiful place, and Jim, our instructor, was kind enough to teach me and Abbie to read our maps and orienteer through the hills, plotting our own path off the beaten track.”

However, this wasn’t the students’ first experience of adventure. During their first month at Leeds Beckett, the students took part in a 5-day residential trip to the Lake District. This trip provided a first taste of the ‘experiential learning’ approach that underpins the course more broadly. Based at Derwentwater Independent Hostel, the students spent the week living and working together, whilst immersing themselves in a range of activities including kayaking, hillwalking and ghyll scrambling. In addition to completing their first group assignment, the experience also enabled the students to get to know their tutors, to connect with one another, and forge the friendships that will see them through the rest of their time at university.

BA (Hons) Physical Education with Outdoor Education student, Alice Matthews, said: “My highlight of the year was when we went wild camping, which involved canoeing to an island and sleeping in hammocks for the night during the Lake District residential. It really helped prepare me for life back on campus as I got to know my tutors as well as my course mates, making me feel more confident starting life in a new city.”

Senior Lecturer in Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, Dr Scarlett Drury, said: “Since their first residential in the Lake District, the students have studied a range of complex theoretical modules including Sociology of Physical Education, Scientific Foundations of Human Movement, and Psychology of Motor Learning, as well as practical modules like Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy and Lifestyle Sports. The recent Anglesey trip has provided the students with the opportunity to reflect on their personal journey throughout the course, and to look back on just how much they have achieved since September. For many, it has cemented their desire for a lifelong career in outdoor education.”