At St Charles' Primary & LCR we believe that our children benefit from residential trips. These trips enhance our outdoor learning curriculum and allow our pupils to benefit from the expertise of specialist staff and to experience activities not able to be offered on our school grounds.
 

Pupils from Primary 5 - Primary 7 take part in these experiences; Primary 5 pupils have an overnight experience at the Millport Filed Studies Centre, Primary 6 undertake a two night experience at centres such as Lockerbie Manor, Ardentinny or somewhere similar and whenever possible Primary 7 pupils take part in a 4 night experience at Blairvadach Outdoor Education Centre. When our Primary 7 pupils cannot be accommodated at Blairvadach we look for an alternate experience for them. 
 

These residential experiences at outdoor activity centres can offer a wide range of diverse and exciting activities from developing practical bushcraft skills like firelighting, tracking, foraging and shelter building, to outdoor educational adventures like abseiling, climbing, archery and kayaking. 
 

As well as the physical health benefits, school residential trips have been proven to have a positive effect on children’s self esteem and confidence levels, thereby improving their emotional health and well being. The importance of allowing children to explore their environment, take responsibility for creating their own fire/filtering their own water, and generally sustaining themselves with minimal obvious adult intervention is significant.

Even the down time of a school residential where children can relax, play and widen their friendship circle is hugely important in allowing children to make their own decisions and discover who they are. For children Residential trips for schools offer a unique opportunity for them to claim their independence, make their own decisions and build new friendships.