SEND, SEMH and Nurture Groups
Inclusive and adapted SEND climbing experiences in Milton Keynes
Climbing sessions at Climb Quest Milton Keynes are adaptable to make a positive impact for a wide range of special educational needs and disabilities, and social, emotional and mental health needs. To date, this has included:
- Students with Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome
- Speech, language and communication needs
- Mainstream school children with SEND and/or challenging behaviour
- Children with an Education, Health and Care plan (EHCP) for social, emotional and mental health needs
- Nurture groups from mainstream schools as well as specialist SEND and SEMH schools
- Moderate-to severe learning difficulties
- Hearing or visually impaired students
- Physical disabilities aided by our climbing assistance hoists
Climb Quest Milton Keynes is particularly suitable for SEND groups, with a combination of over 20 amazing looking walls that are suitable for all abilities and confidence levels. Your students will benefit from award-winning customer service and support from the friendly Climb Quest team.
Indoor climbing has never been easier or safer. Climbers are clipped into a safety rope system, called an automatic belay device. These take in the slack as you climb and then lower you gently to the ground.
Find out more below about the benefits of Climb Quest climbing sessions for your students and the climbing session options that we can offer your school or college.
PE Curriculum Links
Your students can experience an engaging activity in a stimulating, challenging environment that encourages them to get active. They will also become more physically confident by improving their balance, agility, co-ordination, strength and fine and gross motor skills.
Your students will be taking party in an adventurous activity that challenges both individually and within a team.
Climbing is also an excellent activity to help build character and embed values such as fairness and respect.
Wider Curriculum
Climb Quest sessions provide opportunities to apply learning from the classroom into real life experiences, for example mathematics skills through keeping score and problem solving. Climbing activities can be adapted to incorporate topics from subjects as History, Geography and world knowledge.
Personal Development
Climb Quest sessions produce a whole host of positive personal development outcomes including:
- Building confidence and self-esteem through gaining a sense of achievement and progression
- Resilience by being determined, trying multiple times and overcoming challenges
- Working outside of your comfort zone in a friendly, safe and supportive environment
- Understanding ways to get better and recording progress
- Problem solving and making decisions to get further up the climbing walls and take on climbing challenges
Interpersonal Skills
Climb Quest sessions also help with your students’ interpersonal skills including:
- Positive social skills such as patience, turn taking and listening
- Developing stronger positive relationship with their peers
- Working as part of a team towards a common goal
- Improved communication through team challenges
- Learning how to encourage and support others
Climbing session options
There are plenty of reasons to come for a one-off climbing experience, be that to give students a first taste of an adventurous or climbing activity, as a reward trip, new class bonding or as part of your Activities Week.
However, the positive outcomes are greatly amplified with our climbing courses, as students become more confident with the environment and climbing activity, complete a series of challenges, can compare their performance with previous sessions and can demonstrate improvement to achieve their personal best.
Select from the tabs below to find out more about our one-off climbing sessions and climbing courses, as well as links to our Visual Story for visiting Climb Quest and to the range of Recount Resources we have produced for schools.
One-off Climbing
Your booking gives you exclusive use of the climbing arena during your session.
Our standard school sessions last for 1.5 hours and have a maximum capacity of 40 climbers – the first half consists of a briefing and harnessing, and then 1 hour of climbing. These start half past the hour during the school day.
One-off SEND Sessions
We tend to run SEND sessions for 1 hour with a briefing and the harnessing on the arena, and normally have much smaller group sizes than for whole class exclusive sessions. These start on the hour.
Freedom to climb with instructor assistance
Your students are free to climb the walls they choose, with support and encouragement from our instructors. This is a perfect introduction to climbing, as your students can discover the different walls at their own pace and gain in confidence and ability over the session. Our instructors are on hand to provide assistance and encouragement throughout.
Team Building - Mountain Challenge
If you are looking to incorporate a challenge or team building element into your session, we have a variety of exciting challenges for your group to take on.
One example is our Mountain Challenge, where the group can compare how high they climb with the equivalent height of famous landmarks and mountains, such as the Eiffel Tower and Ben Nevis. The feeling of achievement and success reaches new heights linking how high you have climbed to real life epic landmarks. This can be adapted according to subjects you are studying in class, such as the Amazon.
Costs for One-off sessions
For an exclusive climbing session during the week costs are as follows:
Class climb - £15 per person, minimum of 15 climbers
SEND climb - £20 per person, minimum of 5 climbers
Climbing Courses
Our climbing courses are typically run as a six week half term activity, but can be adapted according to your timetable. The course content can be also adapted according to the needs of your school and the students taking part. We have two course frameworks, with the content adaptable for both, according to the needs of your school and of the children taking part.
Option 1 - Discovery Course
This is perfect for Key Stage 1, Year 3 and 4s and SEND groups.
The course focuses on building confidence and fun, while at the same time providing a structure that helps physical confidence, personal development and interpersonal skills. The course can be customised according to abilities and requirements of the climbers as well as any specific objectives you have from the activity. If you are bringing Years 5 and 6, we can discuss with you whether our Discovery or NICAS Clip is the best fit for your group.
Download an example Discovery course
Option 2 - NICAS Clip
This is perfect for secondary school age groups and depending on your group, Years 5 and 6.
Climb Quest Milton Keynes presents a fun, safe, inclusive way for students to work towards a nationally accredited climbing qualification, with the NICAS® Clip programme. NICAS® (National Indoor Climbing Award Scheme) is The Association of British Climbing Walls Training Trust (ABCTT®) is a small educational charity who deliver progressive incentive schemes that provide a gateway from indoor climbing into a pathway of life-long participation in climbing and mountaineering.
Climb Quest offers a 12 week course that covers both the NICAS® Clip Foundation and Advanced programmes. This can be split into separate 6 week courses to suit your schedule.
If you are bringing Years 5 and 6, we can discuss with you whether our Discovery or NICAS Clip is the best fit for your group.
Download the NICAS Clip Course Overview
Costs for 6 week course
Class Groups
£60 per person (or £10 per session if the course runs for a different number weeks), minimum of 15 climbers
SEND Groups
£90 per person (or £15 per session if the course runs for a different number weeks), minimum 5 climbers
Visual Story
We have worked with various SEND group leaders and teachers to put together a Visual Story for visiting Climb Quest, so your students can find out more about the centre in advance.
Visit our Visual Story page.
Recount Resources
As an activity after your climbing session, we have produced a range of recount resources aimed for primary school students, for you to use.
