Being part of the senior team, the week starts with teacher arrivals. When the school arrives at the Manor they are greeted initially by a Senior Instructor. The Instructors assist with helping the children to their rooms whilst the Senior Instructor speaks to the teachers, showing them to their rooms and taking them on a site tour, where they are shown around Manor Adventure.
During the week a Senior Instructor can be expected to take five sessions a day just like the Instructors. The more activities you are assessed on the more variety you get each day, so my days can be a mixture; I could be packing my bag ready for the hill walk up the Long Mynd, or getting my wetsuit on for the pond for kayaking and canoeing. I could be getting my dancing shoes on for the funky, fast moving, disco, or taking a trip to the underground maze with the old school traditional caving equipment, where we go in search of Nedwina the Olympic ballerina. Will she ever be rescued from the Welsh goblins?
A Senior Instructor works along side the Chief Instructor and Centre Manager to ensure everything on site is running well. Helping the Chief Instructor with daily staffing can be a time consuming task. I help with assessing sessions like Blind Trail, Zip Wire, etc.
As a Senior Instructor internal verifications need to be done on each Instructor every month, this is to help us as a company to maintain our high standards. For each of the activities we do there are Standard Operating Procedures (SOPS) that need to be followed. So before an Instructor is allowed to run a session they go through extensive training, this would be done by a member of the Senior Instructor team.
During my week I would also be on duty, this is where I take the role of the Duty Manager (DM), on an average day I would be handing out site work to all staff working that day. If it's really busy then I would walk around site speaking to teachers and ask how their stay has been. No day is ever the same, sometimes they find me if they have any issues, which then get solved in record time, keeping teachers happy matters just as much as the children. Sometimes sessions will have to be swapped by request from teachers, which would be dealt with by the DM, when you are DM there could be a hundred issues to deal with, like fire alarms, first aid issues, lending out the company car to a teacher. Then there are meal times; at meal times I manage the queue, and oversee the smooth running of the DIs (Duty Instructors).
Weeks at Manor Adventure go so fast. The weekly staffing is posted in the staff room and before you know it the end of the week is swiftly approaching. I am still surprised at how the months have flown by.
So far my time here at Manor Adventure has been very enjoyable. There is no such thing as an average week. The number of groups we have in determines how many sessions you will have, and sessions are the reason I work here. A good session, one where you feel the kids have had a great time and really enjoyed the activity gives you such a buzz that you feel as if you could do it all over again for them. A great session is almost the equivalent of a good night's sleep, re-energized and ready to go. Bring it on.
One of the first steps in a week at Manor Adventure is the morning meeting at 8:30. Here you learn about the plans for the day, what is going on, who might be coming to see the site, whether or not to pester Jay for that Holiday leave in a week's time. Pretty much kicks off the day, and gets everyone ready for the day ahead.
First session starts at 9 am, and from the staff notice board you learn which session you have, which group and group numbers. Meeting them at the number lines, on the tennis court, you count numbers, check you have all of them and that they have all the kit that they are going to need. Once that is all good it's onto the session.
I.Es. I love I.Es. I.Es stands for Initiative Exercises, but I always tell the kids its actually Intellectual Examinations. You should see the look on their faces! Then I tell them that I'm joking, just before they get too worried! I.Es are basically a load of tasks that the group has to complete on or around various obstacles around site by communicating with each other and working out the solutions. I start with a story about how their Manor Adventure cruise ship was sailing in the Caribbean Sea. On this cruise ship they were doing all the activities that they do here like rock climbing, abseiling, fencing and I throw in a random one like ice skating. Just because it would be so much fun!
However, their cruise ship has been hit by an iceberg. In the Caribbean Sea. Figure that one out! And they have to get to the life boats, however someone has let the lifeboats go early and they have to get from the cruise ship to the life boat by using the friendly sea turtles (a.k.a carpet tiles). They can't step in the water because of great tiger sharks, and they have to keep in contact with the friendly sea turtles otherwise they grow irate at being used as stepping stones and swim off. Also the group should keep their eyes peeled for giant mythological creatures that may poise a water hazard to their chances of survival.
I.Es are great. However much energy you put into a session is how much you get coming back at you doubled from the kids, and that goes for the vast majority of the other sessions too.
As I said the days fly by, before you know it you are half way through the 3rd session and it feels like the day is just rushing around you. Each group you have is different, and you have to appreciate that when you assess your group on the number lines. Having a different group each time means that you can start afresh with them, try a new approach, but it's always good when by random occurrence you get paired up with a group that you had on a previous session. Especially if that session you had with group previously, went really well.
Basically there are so many activities that you can do here that you can have a blast teaching the kids, and it is so rewarding to see a child conquer their fears, start to work as part of a team, or simply become a stronger friend with their mates as they see each other in a different light, and appreciate them more for it.
It's going great, here's to hoping it continues.
I really enjoy working at Manor Adventure. It is hard work, tiring and frustrating at times, but even on the worst of days when I'm stuck outside in the pouring rain (or hail on more than one occasion!) I would still rather be working here than anywhere else. It is in the middle of the countryside so there are fantastic views all around. The site itself is huge and the people are great. From day one I was made to feel really welcome and was invited out to the local pub (The Stokesay - about 10 minutes away in the back of Rocket Ron's cab). No kids on site so nearly everyone came along and with 37 instructors working here we pretty much took over the lounge area. One round in and I knew these were my kind of people!
First full day and my training started. Having worked a variety of office based jobs since University my experience of the outdoor industry boiled down to a school trip in Wales when I was 14, a few White Water rafting trips and owning a North Face fleece! Everything was completely new to me but luckily I wasn't the only one who had been in this position and my fellow instructors were patient and kind. After taking up nearly two full sessions getting the hang of some basic knots the only thing was to practice, practice, practice and have a go at everything.
The following day got off to a surprising start when I was asked to jump off a rope bridge and dangle around in a harness 18 feet up in the air so others could practice rescues on the high ropes. Next I got covered in mud on the obstacle course and spent a good hour crawling around the underground maze. This was all before lunch. After lunch we had three schools coming in, so I was paired up with someone to observe arrivals and the tour of the site given to each group. After arrivals I had Wide Games; this is basically a whole session of running around with kids playing all the games you used to play at school - and I get paid for this!
Another day, another session I can't believe I get paid for; Hill Walk. This is a double session of strolling through truly beautiful English countryside 10 minutes up the road. There is a beautiful waterfall, picturesque rolling fields and a stream running almost the entire length of the path we use.
In fact I enjoyed it so much that I took my mum there on my day off.
Back into work and straight after morning meeting I was assessed and signed off in Climb and Obstacle Course. I came off that session absolutely buzzing and absolutely certain that I made the right choice in coming here.
A typical week (if there can be such a thing!) begins on a Monday afternoon with the arrival of the schools. The afternoon starts with an arrivals meeting' – this is an important meeting we have usually an hour before a school arrives. All the Instructors are told how many children and teachers will be arriving, where they will be staying and any medical conditions they have that we may need to be aware of. Once the meeting is over, we all head to the relevant accommodation blocks to clean them ready for the schools. This doesn't take long with everyone chipping in and soon there is an announcement over the radios that a school has arrived.
Greeting a school off the coach is awesome – all the children are excited and you are the first people to introduce then to Manor Adventure! It's always exciting meeting the school because you'll be working with these children all week and each group of children differs in their personalities, abilities, etc. You take them on a tour of the site telling them all the things they'll need to know to have a brilliant week and take them to their rooms. It's during the tour etc that you get a glimpse into how the week is going to go with this particular school. After the tour, they go straight into their first activity. There are no more than twelve children to each activity group, and each instructor checks the information about that particular group on the notice board in the staff room before taking a session.
Each morning before activities start there is a staff meeting. This is a chance for the management team to pass on any important messages/information and also to give feedback and review how the week is going so far. After the meeting it's off to set up for your first session. The instructors meet the groups at nine am. There is a break after every activity, fortunately, which gives everybody chance to de-prep their sessions, set up for their next ones, and if you're lucky, grab a quick coffee!
As the week goes on, the staff become familiar with the different groups of children. Learning the names of large groups of children gets easier each week! If it's really busy there can be 5 schools in, all with different programmes, all doing different activities. The range of activities here is awesome – great for the kids but also great as an instructor – you could have a day spent entirely in trees on the high ropes course and then spend the next day doing problem solving and team building activities, which are great for the children to build upon qualities of sharing, working together and developing ways of communicating. It's sometimes hard, especially during a busy period to remember what an important role you play as an instructor. The school groups spend a week doing things they may never have done or even seen before and when you're instructing gives them the confidence and courage to do it; it boosts your own confidence too.
The last activity finishes at 8:30pm, and it's time to relax! The children head to their dorms where they are now the teacher's responsibility and we head to our staff accommodation. There's a lot to do after work. An early night with a DVD is always a hit! But there are more active things to do! The other night after work I did a bit of fencing with one of the kitchen assistants! And of course there is the local pub – a chance for all the instructors to let their hair down for a night.
Sooner than you know, it's Friday. The school's last day. The groups you have worked with the most often run round with pieces of paper and pens for you to give autographs! At one-thirty it's time for another arrivals meeting – there will be more schools in over the weekend. Once again, we proceed to the cleaning cupboard to give the dorms a good scrub. During the cleaning, the children from the week are boarding their coach and we stop cleaning for five minutes to wave them off. This bit can sometimes be a little emotional – they'll never forget you and the things they've done during the week. But there isn't a lot of time to reflect – as the coach leaves the site and we head back, mop in hand, there is a radio call; The schools have arrived!– new groups, new week, new challenges and new rewards for everyone.