Raft building Barrels, planks and 16 lengths of climbing rope are all they get - the mission is, to cross a lake, get a key, which is attached to a buoy, return to land and open the treasure chest. If set up as a race - which team will get there first? How fast can you paddle without capsizing your improvised floating device? How secure are those knots? Will it last the journey? Raft Building is a fantastic team building task: the goal in front of your eyes, a hands-on task which gives everybody something to do and to focus on.
High Ropes Activities High up in the trees is where you really learn to trust your team mates. Getting up the Jacob's Ladder - impossible by yourself, but in a little team of three, helping each other, it is achievable. Not easy, but possible. Taking a Leap of Faith or walking the Cat Walk will all build on communication skills, self esteem and a unique sense of achievement - and as a bonus, you get a stomach full of butterflies! Deneholme is currently in the process of building a high ropes course - completion is expected to be in July 2010. High Ropes Activities: the ultimate combination of fun and fantastic learning outcomes. Wait and see, you might just surprise yourself with what you can do if you have the support of your team.
The Jigsaw Challenge Several different problem solving tasks, focusing on different aspects of communication, leadership and collaboration test your team's ability to overcome difficulties and focus on the task in hand. For each successfully completed task, the team gets awarded with pieces of a jigsaw, which they will put together during our review session. This can be set up as a competition between two teams or as "ONE" Team effort. The Jigsaw Challenge is a superb start to a multi activity residential or longer term programme, as it brings people together, lets them find out their own and other's individual strengths and highlights the importance of planning & preparation before entering a new challenge.
Survival of All Far more than just a bushcraft session, this team challenge combines campcraft skills, bush craft, navigation, first aid and vital team skills into one big team task. Larger teams are organising themselves into smaller teams to deal with a complex "plane crash" scenario, which requires shelter building, cooking food, locating and rescuing the injured pilot, building stretchers, administering first aid and finding "the way home". This challenge can also involve abseiling/tree climbing/raft building, mountain biking, ghyll scrambling or canoeing. A multi-activity day, full of challenges and crucial team decisions. This is a fantastic finish to a multi day residential or a longer programme, as it puts all the vital skills learned to the test - and is great fun as well!
Operation Nimrod Your group of young people will convert into a team of special agents! The world is in grave danger (story line will be tailored to your group, e.g. terrorists are threatening to blow up St James Park, the Headmaster is kidnapped etc.) and fully equipped with laptops and radios, this ultra-modern challenge will kick even those "who aren't bothered" into action. The team plans, executes, reviews and implements their own strategies, cracks clues and translates foreign messages along the way. Outdoor activities, like abseiling or Tyrolean river crossing can be incorporated. Operation Nimrod is an exciting challenge, to focus a team on a task ahead. It brings out a lot of discussion and valuable review material, particularly for older groups (15-99 years).
Ballista Challenge The team is provided with a large amount of basic resources (rope, tape, string, poles, bungee scissors and many more) to construct a device which will be built in a designated area and able to fire a tennis ball into a bucket 50 yards away. A technical task, but enjoyed by all - and what a sense of achievement when the ball hits the bucket just seconds before time is running out! A shorter task, lasting about 1.5 hrs and a good taster of what "team effort" and "roles and responsibilities" are all about. Again better suited for the older groups (15-99 years)