We are open again in April & will be offering ;

Weekend Courses ,  Day Courses,  ½ Day Courses, Tailor Made Courses, Family & Young Adult Courses, Corporate Events,  Kids Fun days & Birthday Parties, Camping, Environmental Art, Music Workshops.       New for this year;   Tree Climbing Days

We specialise in working with schools & youth Groups, mainly working with local area youth teams & schools that cater for youth with additional needs

Free Spirits Working Outdoors...Member of the Institute of outdoor Learning.                  Registered Arts Award Centre

 So we are looking for Volunteers to help get this up & running

Grove farm

Woodland Skills & Survival Centre

“Releasing potential for a better future”

 Mission Statement

To enhance the quality of life for additional needs/young offenders  youth  groups , schools and the community as a whole. To provide care and real work opportunities including respite for all individuals in need. To provide security, well being and independence and give a feeling of self worth and involvement as well as  Integration with other groups and organizations. To provide a secure environment for the personal development of individual’s requirements.  A fun and friendly environment concentrating on activities providing a wide variety of life enhancing skills and entertaining activities for a fuller life . To work with the environment in all aspects, whilst encouraging growth..........To work alongside nature.

Business summary Stage 1 

we offer rural learning opportunities and experiences for people of all ages and abilities

Grove Farm is a 230 acre farm of which 65acres is native woodland. It has about 50 suckler cows and is developing a pedigree herd of Hereford cattle. The farm is situated in the village of Stitchcombe just outside of Marlborough, Wiltshire, arguably one of the most picturesque parts of the country, we aim to promote the physical and mental well being of our clients by providing an opportunity to be creative and caring whilst exploring ideas through the therapeutic qualities of a rural working environment, To provide a supervised, structured programme of activities that offer services on a regular basis for participants, where clients/participants attend the farm regularly as part of a structured care, rehabilitation, therapeutic or educational programme.

Grove Farm  Stage 1consists of 8 acres of woodland to be used as the main site, but a further 57 acres to be used as places which will enable us to run the following activities;

                                                             Grove farm

Woodland Skills & Survival Centre

                                    Survival/Bush craft Skills & Nature

                       Awareness Programmes for Schools & Youth Groups

.

Grove Farm provides fun, safe learning experiences whilst using challenging activities to create an opportunity for young people to use their own initiative, communicate and work effectively within a team. Grove Farm programmes encourage self discipline and the development of new skills. This type of outdoor activity gives the opportunity for young people to learn to manage risks within a safe environment; building confidence and valuable skills for life.                                 

“The seeds for personal long-term survival are sown early in a person’s life and

They need to be nurtured into a pattern of coping and survival behaviour.”

“Many survivors had previously developed practical skills which enabled them to

Cope better with the situation in which they suddenly found themselves in.”

Quotes from Survival Psychology by John Leach, Lecturer in Psychology at Lancaster University.

By giving young people the experience of these valuable skills such as fire lighting, shelter building, plant identification and camp cooking we hope to stimulate a healthy curiosity of the natural environment and encourage respect and awareness for the countryside.

 Bush craft has links with the National Curriculum and on the following pages you will find information on this.

Grove Farm offers two programmes Back to Nature day and Branching out Woodland camp. If you are interested in the Open College Network Bush craft Qualification, please ask for our information pack.                                                                                                       We have public liability insurance cover of £5million.

Back to Nature Day

Our Back to Nature day or series of days can cover a number of different activities and unique experiences depending on your group’s needs and the time available. We offer bespoke programmes and will advise you on choosing the activities that would best suit your group’s needs or learning objectives

Just some of the Activities we cover

Debris Shelter & Lean-to Shelters This physical and practical team building exercise gives the participants hands-on experience of constructing a shelter without the use of tools. Building a structure from scratch provides them with knowledge, skills and a sense of accomplishment and also great excitement and firsthand experience if they have the opportunity to sleep in it too.

Fire building & Lighting Fire is an important element of a survival situation. The participants will learn how to find dry standing dead wood from the woodland and construct a Tepee fire correctly. They will also be shown where to find suitable tinder from various plants and trees and what tree a cramp ball grows on which is an excellent fungus to light a fire with. Following step by step instructions they will learn how to use a fire steel and blow a tinder bundle into flames and subsequently light their own Tepee fire. How char cloth is made and used will also be covered and other types of fire.

Instruction on health and safety of fire will be included and the importance of following these instructions will be stressed.

Fire by Friction a more challenging exercise is to successfully use the Bow Drill set and create fire by friction as our ancestors did. Pupils will be guided through the different parts of the Bow Drill set and their uses. They will be shown how to put the different parts together, what the most effective way to use the bow drill set is and what not to do. This exercise requires patience and perseverance in order to create a hot ember, which is then placed into a tinder bundle and blown into flames before placing it inside a the prepared Tepee fire. Pupils that achieve this will find this an extremely rewarding experience.

Drum Stalk This exciting exercise heightens awareness of the environment and our senses and involves moving through the trees and bushes, whilst being blindfolded, to the sound of a drum. Past participants have often been very surprised by how much they experience from this exercise and have given very positive feedback.

Tracking & Animal Wisdom During various exercises the pupils will learn about animal movements and behaviour. Through fun games and exercises they will learn how to identifying animal tracks. There is also the opportunity to look at various animal skulls and identify which animal they belong to. They will go on to discover how to move so they can get closer to wild-life without scaring animals away.

Cordage String or cordage can be made from many plant fibres. We will demonstrate how to prepare various plants and the pupils will be able to make their own cordage. This is a therapeutic skill and requires following detailed instructions but, once mastered, can become “Quite addictive” as a previous pupil remarked. We have found this to be a popular activity.

Nature Awareness Activities There are many Nature Awareness activities that we use to help pupils to understand nature and wild life. We use these fun games to reinforce what they have learnt in other activities and to introduce a new way of exploring the countryside.

Wild Plants and their Uses During a walk through the woodland we will look at various plants and find out what they can be used for or whether they are edible. This is a fascinating subject which often leads to many questions form pupils when they discover that many plants that they see each day can be used for interesting things.

Making useful utensils or fun objects from natural materials A very popular activity either making practical utensils using tools or creating natural art, jewellery or whistles using natural materials and ones imagination.

Song Lines This exciting and well loved activity discovering how the Aborigines used Song Lines to travel great distances across the desert and the bush without maps or compasses or ever having been there before. This wonderful activity encourages the youngster’s creativity to design their own Song Line as a group and then in turn after listening to other groups Song Line unravel the mystery and travel the journey to find their prize.

Camp Cooking for overnight camps Everyone will have the opportunity to take part in food preparation and cooking. Under supervision, each pupil will learn how to cook their food. The cooking will be done on the camp fire, giving the pupils the experience and skills to manage working with a fire.

Knife & Tool Safety Knife safety is a very necessary skill for many outdoor activities. During the camp there will be instruction on the safe use of knives and the law.

Sleeping in Shelters Everyone will have the choice to sleep in their own shelter or group shelter. This will show the pupils how important it is to build a waterproof shelter. This is an exciting experience and usually there is much lively talk from the pupils the next morning about the night in their shelters. We suggest that you bring tents with you so there is the option of using them if required.

Fire Keepers for overnight camps The group will be split into smaller groups and will take turns being the Fire Keepers. This will require collecting suitable fire wood and keeping the fire going.