Adventure Plus

Who are we?

Adventure Plus (A+) helps children and young people reach their potential and make positive life choices, whilst giving them a great time in the great outdoors! Founded in 1990 we provide adventure holidays, school residentials, DofE expeditions, Team Building and other exciting events to inspire and encourage young people (and adults) in Oxfordshire and across the UK. 

What do we do?

We engaged with 7,300 people in 2022 and we expect a continued increase in both capacity and demand now that our Adventure Base is established.

We reach young people through the following programmes:

•    Group Adventures for schools, youth organisations & Duke of Edinburgh training 

•    Adventure Impact (Aim), our specialist unit working specifically with young people with chaotic lifestyles or additional needs, those at risk of school exclusion or criminal behaviour.

•    Total Adventure Holidays: We aim to inspire young people meaning that they return every year until they become leaders.

•    Adventure Club and A+ Canoe Club enable local residents to be involved week by week.

From our base at Windmill Farm in Clanfield, West Oxfordshire, we are actively engaged in developing our Adventure Base - a unique outdoor facility with ‘indoor camping’ in our ‘Cosy Timber Yurt Village’. We now have a vision to create a fabulous range of adventure and educational facilities on our 80-acre site:

•    Urban Adventure Zone: Skate Park, BMX Zone & Parkour arena

•    Woodland bush-craft zones

•    Mountain bike skills area, on-site trails and off-site routes

•    Full-sized pitches for multi-use sports activities

•    Indoor and outdoor climbing wall, with aerial runways

•    High & low ropes courses and initiative challenges

•    Mountain boarding hill with underground caving maze

•    All-weather archery ranges

•    4-acre’ Adventure Lake’ with bridge building, camping islands & multi-boat seal launch

•    Inland artificial Coasteering facility 

Why do we do it?

Many young people growing up in our towns and cities have never even been outside their own area, let alone experienced the thrill of being in the mountains or on a river or lake, or simply being surrounded by fields. Many young people also face challenging situations at home or have additional physical, educational or emotional needs.

The current cost of living crisis is leading to a significant number of children likely to face poverty this year and more children are at risk of being held back by missing out on the activities and opportunities that help them grow confidence, build skills and develop friendships. Constant pressures from social media affect concentration span, self-esteem and emotional health, whilst increasingly sedentary lifestyles result in deteriorating physical health. 

Also, there are increasing numbers of requests for Educational Health Care Plans and specialist provision for young people with additional needs, leading to significant delays in accessing support. As a result, there are often long periods where children are out of school (Government Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Review March 2022)

In this context, there is a need to offer tried and tested, healthy, outdoor activities to more young people than ever before. We are continually striving to improve our facilities to enhance our ability to do just that so that we can maximise the benefits to them. We need to make our site inviting, exciting and first class.

What difference do we make?

Our distinctive approach helps children and young people from varied backgrounds to realise that they have a positive contribution to make, can make positive life choices and can reaching their potential. Adventure activities, team-building and outdoor education provide the vehicles for personal development and learning new skills – and it can be a lot of fun!

Time after time, we see young people growing in self-confidence, surprising themselves by what they can achieve and developing important social skills alongside their peers. 

This, in turn, often brings secondary benefits as young people overcome anxieties; improve  relationships with peers and family; change their view of authority figures and become better able to ask for and receive the support available to them. Adventure and team-building activities take young people out of their normal teaching environment and comfort zone and give them responsibility, develop personal skills and character, as well as teaching leadership qualities and team ethos. As they participate in challenging, safe activities, they are also able to embrace risk in a healthy way.

Our project for young people with additional needs is operated through our Adventure Impact (Aim) project. We are able to offer alternative provision for these children, enabling them to sustain or develop communication, social and other life skills while they wait for a registered provision. 

“Thank you for making it loads of fun. I hope future year 6’s enjoy it as much as me. I loved everything that we did It was the best week I’d ever had in my life.” (Participant)

“I’ve grown a lot this year. I’m more confident and more willing to step out further. I’ve learned a lot about myself and feel like I have a much clearer idea of where I’d like to go in the future. I’ve loved learning new things and being able to pass this on to others and being able to impact lives! I’ve also made some amazing friendships and unforgettable memories this year… so thank you to all the team who I am so grateful to have spent the last 11 months with!” (GAP Year Student)