Outward Bound – Girls Making Waves Again!

Posted at 11:32 am on 12th January, 2022

At Flixton Girls School (FGS) we believe every child should benefit from an experience with The Outward Bound Trust. Adventure in the outdoors can be an extraordinarily powerful teacher. As well as the obvious physical health benefits, it also gives young people a belief in themselves, a chance to work as part of a team and the ability to trust and respect others.

At FGS we foster a positive culture and a can-do attitude toward outdoor education. This is an area where everyone can not only have success and achieve, but can allow themselves to be challenged. Outdoor education helps to build strength and resilience which enables our students to be successful now and in their future lives.

Our affiliation with The Outward Bound Trust (OBT) has been at the heart of the school ethos for well over 12 years, providing access to wonderful outdoor experiences for students in year 7, 8 and 10 as they extend their educational journey through their own outdoor adventures.

We are therefore so proud to have our year 10 students Outward Bound journey, from November 2021 recently feature in The Times publication and online.

With the emphasis on extending their comfort boundaries, more engaging face to face conversations, less screen time and more personal interactions the OBT courses provide our students with a safe environment to make waves again – spreading their wings and achieve, to whatever degree is comfortable for them. The courses are designed to challenge participants and build resilience. But that does not always mean getting to the top of the mountain, or jumping off a cliff. Sometimes, as their instructor explains in the article, ‘the biggest leaps in confidence are the least obvious.’

By highlighting the funding needs of organisations including the OBT, The Times and other sponsors are helping to secure the future aspirations of young people to defy their limitations - become stronger, more resilient and ready for the challenges of life. We thank The Times for promoting and sponsoring the work of OBT. We are planning for our students’ journey through outdoor education for many years to come.

Head of Communications for OBT, Ailie Carne said, ‘The Times and the Sunday Times Christmas appeal has exceeded all of our expectations. We were hoping to raise enough to meet the incredibly generous match funding donation of £300,000 we had been offered from Barratt Developments…  But incredibly our donations today are over £1 million! As someone who knows Outward Bound well, you know how much this money means and how many more young people we’ll be able to work with this year.

I wanted to message you personally to say THANK YOU for all your help. Allowing us to shadow your course at Loch Eil is hugely appreciated. Quite simply, we couldn’t have done it without you. All of the stories have been great, but I found the way Constance told the story of the challenges facing young women today and the way they embraced every opportunity at Outward Bound incredibly moving. It was one of my stand out stories.’

All the stories are available to view from the Outward Bound website.