Familiarisation visits

As part of our commitment to ensuring teachers are fully conversant with YHA School Trips, we run a series of familiarisation events, led by YHA staff, at centres throughout England and Wales.

These events enable teachers to:

  • Get hands-on experience of a variety of National Curriculum-linked challenges and activities
  • Gain advice on planning a residential visit with YHA and the support that we can provide
  • Explore a selection of YHA centres
  • Meet the staff and ask questions
  • Discover the benefits our trips provide for their pupils

For further details contact our YHA Groups Advisor on 01629 592 705 or email groupadvisor@yha.org.uk. 

Feedback

"I wanted to encourage schools to overcome some of the barriers that deter them from running residential trips such as high cost, risk assessments, lack of expertise and increased work load. YHA was happy to run a two-day Familiarisation Visit for school staff which enabled us to visit 3 or 4 YHA centres, see activities in action and become familiar with YHA products, programmes and staff expertise. This included transport and food! Three quarters of the schools that attended the visit went on to book trips with YHA. I am planning to repeat this next year in an ongoing effort to increase levels of learning outside the classroom."
Suzanne Meehan, Physical Education Adviser, Derby City Council

"I attended a familiarisation event where we visited a couple of YHA properties in the Peak District. This was a great experience and opportunity for me to see that there would be learning opportunities for the pupils, excellent facilities that could provide exciting activities and a safe place to sleep. Leading on from this I booked a residential at YHA Edale, which was a very rewarding experience for both pupils and teachers. The pupils had loads of fun in the outdoor adventure activities and achieved many learning experiences and qualities including teamwork and trust."
David Cholerton, Physical Education Teacher, Sinfin Community School, Derby

"I loved it! The activities were wicked and we had a right laugh with mates. Abseiling was amazing and weaselling was dead funny!"
Sinfin Community School pupil aged 11