Students with disabilities challenge their limits at Lake District adventure camp

Hopwood students with disabilities challenge their limits at a Lake District adventure camp

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Hopwood Hall College’s Skills for Life students, who suffer from a diverse range of learning difficulties and disabilities, put their limits to the test at an activity centre in the Lake District.

The trip to Calvert Trust was an opportunity for the students to get out into new places they otherwise wouldn’t be able to visit and enrich themselves with fun new experiences and challenging physical tests.

With the centre’s team based activities held in a totally new environment, the experience helped to enhance the students’ emotional and sensory development, self-confidence and social skills.

For many of the students who took part, not only did the trip represent new tests to pit themselves against, but for many it was the first time they had been able to leave the Rochdale/Oldham area.

Top of the attendees’ favourites list included the archery, climbing and canoeing sessions, with everyone able to participate in all of the activities available.

Being able to drop from 40ft on The King Swing or relax in a jacuzzi/swimming pool was something the students said they wouldn’t soon forget.

Ian Hatton, a first year Skills for Life student who suffers from severe autism, said: “It was an amazing weekend and I got to try things I’ve never been able to before, like rock climbing on the climbing wall and abseiling. I enjoyed watching my teachers scream on the zip line too.”

Two of the wheelchair-bound students brought a tear to their lecturers’ eyes when they mastered the climbing wall.

Mandy Fletcher, Skills for Life Lecturer, said: “It made me so proud to see our students leaving their comfort zones and challenging themselves to conquer new achievements, having a really good time in the process.

“When we watched two of our students, Donna Gemmell and Lindsay Courtney, leave their wheel chairs and take to the climbing wall, I think we all had a tear or two in our eyes. It is really something special to see all our students taking in and enjoying these new experiences and overcoming preconceptions about what they can and can’t do.

"It’s the confidence they gain when they have been here and the relationships they build, with people not in their class or with staff, that are invaluable.”