Over the last several years we have developed the residential opportunities at Old Heath so that children in Years 4, 5 and 6 have the chance to experience residentials of increasing 'sleep-overs' and type of accommodation and activities. Covid did rather disrupt the summer of 2020 and the whole of 2021! However, we did manage two school sleepovers for Y6 and Y5 with archery, climbing wall, inflatable quaker and swimming pool party! 2022 saw us bounce back with Y4 visiting Kingswood at West Runton, Norfolk in February for three day, two night weekend. Y5 stayed in Kingwood's Adventure Lodges at Grosvenor Hall, Kent in May. June saw Y6 heading off to the North Yorkshire Moors, staying at the YHA Helmsley. We have kept this pattern up to 2025, though the Kingswood Group went into administration in February 2025 so we moved over to Overstrand Hall as PGL took over some of Kingswood sites.

The PGL sites offer a range of physical challenges; climbing wall, abseiling, zip wire, 'Jungle Vines' plus archery, problem-solving and obstacle type courses providing lots of opportunities for children to develop new skills, improve resilience and determination, and of course team work, leadership, organisational and independence behaviours. Grosvenor Hall also provides first experience of canoeing and raft building.

YHA Helmsley is a full weeks stay, arriving on the Monday via Sherwood Forest lunch stop. Then across Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we visit Helmsley Castle, National Centre for Birds of Prey, Helmsley Outdoor Pool, a day at Saltwick Bay/Whitby to hunt for fossils, rock pooling and then  Go Ape and their 'Treetop Challenge' at Dalby Forest.

Families who are in receipt of Free School Meals or entitled to Pupil Premium can be supported financially up to half the costs. We are very aware that residential costs, in particular coach travel can be expensive so we work very hard to try and limit the costs for parents and get the best deals we can.

For 2026 we have a slight change as we didn't have enough children in Y6 for our Helmsley trip, so we have opened the Grosvenor Hall trip up to Y6 who would like to revisit the centre and have another chance to challenge themselves. The Y4s will be off to Overstrand in March and the Y5/6s will be hitting Grosvenor Hall in June.