The children came to us on Monday and Tuesday for two days of outdoor activities. We built dens in the woods, swung around on hammocks and played loads of outdoor games including Swedish Kubb! The children made their own healthy bannock breads with natural ingredients and we made pancakes for lunch too, all cooked over the campfire. We spent as much time as we could exploring nature and interacting with it, and even our lunches had a foraged theme – some of the braver children tried eating a stinging nettle!

Then on Wednesday night everyone came for an overnight camp, with sleeping bags and teddies in tow. The weather was a little wet but nobody seemed to care! The highlight of the overnight camp was the amazing night walk where we found traces of deer in the woods, a fresh sparrowhawk kill, and listened to the sounds of bats echolocating as they swooped above our heads.

This camp was possible thanks to Social Farms and Gardens, a fantastic organisation who encourage communities to get outside and grow together. They have partnered with the Hilden Fund to get more children outdoors and enjoying nature together, and they kindly provided the funding to allow this camp to go ahead. We are very grateful for the support.

Thank you also to Yuliia and Ash from Torbay Community Development Trust for all their help in co-ordinating, making lists of children, finding spare sleeping bags and organising transport; the amazing Karina and Anya who came as volunteers, we couldn’t have done it without you; our own team Rich, Jo and Elaine who worked so hard throughout the camp; and finally to Freddie and Alex who took on the role of peer helpers and made sure all the children felt happy and safe.

What a great camp!

Alternative Education Tutor

Job Description

Alternative Education tutors support our young people by planning, delivering and evaluating 1-1 and small group sessions. The programmes we run incorporate activities such as art, gardening, science, environmental education, forest/beach school and bushcraft, with an outdoor element always at the heart of the programme. They are differentiated both at programme and session level to maximise engagement and to ensure our offer is student-centred. The young people we work with on these sessions are usually struggling to access mainstream education and require high levels of individual support.

We are not purely an intervention service and we aim for all our students to leave our programmes with an external qualification or award of some type. The successful candidate will be delivering accredited lowland and environmental leadership courses at L2 and L3 and will hold an outdoor walking leadership qualification – for example South West Summer Moorland Leader or Mountain Training Lowland Leader. You will also have a background working with young people with SEND. This role will involve working with young people on a 1-1 basis in remote locations and you will also be required to drive young people to sessions in your own vehicle.

The postholder will primarily work during the week at term-time, although we also run weekend community sessions and holiday projects through the school holidays and you will need to be available for these sessions as and when required. This is an exciting time to join us because our woodland site is rapidly being developed for educational use and we are looking for people to help us realise our vision for the site.

Responsibilities

The post holder will have the following responsibilities and duties:

• Planning and delivering a programme of activities, either on a 1-1 basis or with small groups as required.
• Assessing young people’s documentation (eg EHCP) to ensure activities planned are differentiated for the student’s needs.
• Ensuring session costs remain within an agreed budget.
• Collecting and transporting young people in own vehicle as required.
• Keeping accurate records of the student’s provision plan and completing any other required administration as required (eg half-termly reports, attendance at or reporting to reviews, evidencing awards)
• Managing safety and risk on their sessions and reporting any areas of concern to their supervisor.
• Following all Taleblazers policies and procedures, particularly those with reference to safeguarding, and raising safeguarding concerns in an appropriate and timely manner.
• Contributing to the blog and social media.

Person Specification (Essential)

• Outdoor walking leadership qualification – for example South West Summer Moorland Leader or Mountain Training Lowland Leader
• Experience of working with young people with special educational needs (min 1 year)
• L3 First Aid qualification (Outdoor or Paediatric)
• L2 Safeguarding
• Other Mountain Training/Forest School qualification
• Student-centred approach
• Enjoys working with young people outdoors
• Ability to work and plan independently
• Empathic, calm, patient and friendly
• Can do attitude – wants to make a positive difference to young people
• Buys into the wider ethos of Taleblazers and shares our interests

Person Specification (Desirable)

• Previous employment in SEN-facing role
• Teaching qualification
• Experience and training to support working with specific SEN presentation(s)
• Experience in advocacy, counselling or student support
• Experience of assessing EHCPs, designing interventions and reporting on their outcomes
• Willing to contribute to organisational development

Please contact rich@taleblazers.org.uk for more information and an application form.

Application deadline: 20/07/2024

Expected start date: 01/09/2024

Our session leaders are experienced SEND professionals, and our camps aim to give every child the opportunity to spend quality time in nature. We aim to give as many children as we can a wonderful experience that they will remember for the rest of their lives.

Available Dates:

19th-22nd August (7-16 years)

Our four day programmes generally run as follows:

• Monday (10am-3pm): Meeting with the children at Treacle Valley for some fun outdoor games, and some sensory activities to switch on our senses and learn about some of the creatures we might find in the outdoors. Lunch is our special bannock bread, cooked by the children over the campfire!
• Tuesday (10am-3pm): Exploring the woods and taking part part in environmental activities and games, with some creative and artistic activities thrown in as the day goes on. Today is pancake day, don’t miss the spectacle of Rich attempting to toss a pancake without either burning it or flipping it into the fire.
• Wednesday/Thursday (5pm-midday, overnight camp): What an experience! Sunset games, fireside storytelling, a walk in the woods at night, marshmallows, breakfast around the campfire. For many children this is their first experience of camping and being away from home and they are always so excited and happy to join us. Children are accommodated in our giant bell tents and will only need minimal camping equipment – a sleeping bag and a torch – everything else is provided.

The format for young people aged 11-16 is similar but the activities are more mature and have a bushcraft/conservation focus. We generally include activities such as firefighting, knife and axe work and tracking with this age group.

The full programme costs £120 per child for the full four days. We can offer sibling discounts if you are booking places for more than one child. Our holiday clubs run at a small loss each year and we do not currently receive any external funding to provide them, but we want to be able to offer these experiences to as many children as possible. We understand that times are tough for lots of families, so if you would like your child to join our Treacle Valley Adventures but cost is an issue, then please let us know and although we can’t promise we will see what we can do.

For more information, please contact Rich at rich@taleblazers.org.uk or to book a place please complete the Microsoft Form below.

We have also ‘twinned’ our new toilet with a toilet in Nepal through Tearfund’s Toilet Twinning scheme, so a Nepali village has also benefitted from the installation of our loo! Rich and Elaine have a soft spot for Nepal, having spent some time out there in the early 2000s, so we loved to be able to support this brilliant scheme.

However, we intend to be running Taleblazers for a very long time! This means that DSRT could be waiting a long time before sharing any financial success. We have therefore decided to make a donation of £250 as a New Year’s gift to DSRT, as a kind of interim statement of our ongoing investment in the community and our desire for other organisations we love to benefit from our success.

Dartmoor Search and Rescue Team are a voluntary charity who help the emergency services to search for and rescue lost, missing, injured and vulnerable people. We most frequently associate them with finding lost walkers on the moors but they are also active in helping to find vulnerable people such as people with dementia, children and people experiencing mental health crises. Over 90% of their income is from donations and we are delighted to be in a position to support them.

At the same time, we have also decided to donate £100 to one of our favourite charities, the John Muir Trust, who conserve, protect and restore wild places across the UK. We share their passion for wild places and their John Muir Award programmes are central to our education work.

We will run alternate weeks at our bases at Treacle Valley and at Cockington with a different focus each week. At Cockington we will run an art-based programme, while our Treacle Valley sessions will be focused on traditional crafts and conservation. We want to create friendly and welcoming spaces where you can come and meet other families of children with SEND, learn some new skills, be inspired and have some fun.

Children are very welcome to attend and depending on their age and numbers we may provide alternative activities for them so that parents can relax and enjoy the sessions.

To sign up, please complete our Microsoft Form by clicking here!

Mental Health Benefits

• Stress relief: Crafting can be a great way to relax and de-stress. The repetitive nature of many crafts can help to calm the mind and body.
• Improved mood: Engaging in creative activities can boost the production of endorphins, the body’s natural feel-good chemicals. This can help to improve mood and reduce anxiety.
• Increased self-esteem: Completing a craft project can give you a sense of accomplishment and boost your self-esteem.
• Cognitive stimulation: Crafting can help to keep the mind sharp and improve cognitive function.

Physical Health Benefits

• Improved hand-eye coordination: Many crafts require fine motor skills, which can help to improve hand-eye coordination.
• Reduced pain: Crafting can be a distraction from pain and can help to reduce its intensity.
• Improved sleep: Engaging in relaxing activities like crafting can help to improve sleep quality.
• Strengthened social bonds: Crafting can be a great way to socialise and connect with others.

Additional Benefits

• Creativity: Crafting can help you to tap into your creativity and explore new ideas.
• Productivity: Crafting can help you to be more productive by providing a focus and outlet for your energy.
• Mindfulness: Crafting can help you to be more mindful and present in the moment.
• Sense of community: There are many crafting communities online and in person where you can connect with other people who share your interests.

Why not come along to a Taleblazers session and try some of our crafting activities for yourself? 

We also looked at the waterfalls and filtration leading to how clear the water was falling down the cliffs, and had some fun letting the cold water run through our fingers.

The big task of the day was the tarp line and Karl and I arrived early to get the rope in place. We harvested some saplings from the newly-levelled car park area and the team got to work sharpening these into points to use as stakes. Chris meanwhile was salvaging some boards to build a raised fire pit, removing old nails and screws and working with Hollie to cut them to size. It was an amazing team effort with everyone chipping in and showing the children how to use the knives!

The results are fantastic, I can’t believe that this overgrown patch of woodland has become such a wonderful space in such a short space of time and I am so grateful to everyone for all their efforts.