Onwards and Upwards
Our Mountain Club has a dedicated following. Owning the David Fricke mountain cottage in the foothills of Snowdon is an added bonus – used by Year 8 for Snowdonia Schools, the DofE, CCF, the Mountain Club and other school trips.
The Snowdonia School is the venue for Year 8 (Shells) outward bound activities for 5 days, introducing them to the outdoors, and serving to extend the Year 7 Terriers programme. The latter concentrates on outdoor education in curriculum time, with 100 pupils, 9 staff and 20 Lower Sixth instructors, and comprises two parts. For the First Class Terriers Certificate, pupils learn about disciplines such as navigation, emergency procedure, mountaincraft and water safety. Then, from March onwards the participate in adventurous activities including climbing, canoeing, shooting, problem solving, survival skills, and everything from the National Navigation Award to kiting and camp cooking.
All this equips students well for regular major 4-5 week expeditions every 2 years, which have recently provided trekking and outdoor activities from Tibet to Ecuador, Chile and Iceland, with India planned for 2009.