Ufton Court

Volunteers Paint the Barn!

Ufton Court — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 10:18:55 +0000

Last week a great team of Ufton supporters descended on the barn and between us we repainted the inside. Volunteers were as young as Georgia, aged 6, up to those of us too old to give our age! The barn looks fabulous now and is ready for the new years visitors and weddings – huge thanks to everyone involved.

Trebuchets and water bombs…..

Ufton Court — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 11:21:04 +0000

Trebuchets and water bombs were the order of the day on a recent Sunday when Ufton Court teemed up with Tom Ward and his Techcamp for a fun day with Woodcote House School. The boys were split into two teams, each made a giant trebuchet and then had to experiment with angles and targets before launching into battle against each other with water bombs.

The sun shone, children laughed, teachers got wet – not bad for a maths and history lesson!

First Cabin finished for August Camps

Ufton Court — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 09:59:55 +0000

Boys determined to light their fire

: Celebrating the first cabin!

The first Ufton Adventure cabin was finished just in time for the arrival of 90 Whitley children over two weeks at the end of August. Led by Dave and Sharon the groups braved a lot of rain to have a great time that included canoeing, archery, fire lighting (without matches, in the rain to make hot chocolate and they all made it!). A wonderful group of volunteers from Microsoft arrived to make a film of the camps but unfortunately came on that Thursday of solid torrential rain however Mike worked wonders and with the addition of Anthony Upton’s amazing photos, taken on a slightly drier day, produced a short clip showing what the children did and what we are trying to achieve. One thing we all realised was the urgent need for the remaining cabins to ensure children can access and enjoy Ufton Adventure whatever the weather.

Good initial progress on first cabin build at Ufton Adventure

Ufton Court — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 18:43:58 +0000

We now have the walls and roof on our first cabin which is very exciting
and all looks set for us to be welcoming children on site for camping
and outdoor activities this August. Our biggest challenge is getting
connected to the mains water and electricity supply but we are on target
for this to be done and are hugely grateful to SSE who have given us a
generous discount on the connection charges. We had a brilliant group
of young people from Whitley staying over Easter doing Ufton Adventure
activities. The aim of the week was to help with the transition to
secondary school and we teamed up year 6 children with peer mentors from
their future schools. All was organised and run by Sheila from the
Whitley Excellence Cluster with Dave and his team leading the
activities. Everyone had a fun, confidence building time and we had lots
of positive feedback from the children and their teachers.

Young people from Whitley staying over Easter enjoying Ufton Adventure activities.

Ufton Adventure’s £50,000 Big Lottery Grant!

Ufton Court — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 18:42:52 +0000

Ufton Adventure is our new exciting project. It aims to raise aspirations and improve the life chances of disadvantaged children and young people.

In the last round of awards made in January 2011 Ufton Adventure was awarded a grant of £50,000. This means we can build our first cabin and will hopefully see children using the site this August.

Ufton Adventure has been trialled with a series of tented pilot camps in 2008 and 2009. These were so successful that we now aim to build a permanent centre in the woods adjacent to Ufton Court. It will sleep up to 32 children plus staff in log cabins. The scheme will provide local, repeated and affordable opportunities for young people to inspirational outdoor activities they will not otherwise be able to access. The Ufton Adventure experience will enable young people to meet challenges and grow in confidence; their experiences will enable them to think about the way they view themselves and their futures.