Covid-19 Update

Catch up on what our staff and Centres have been doing during the pandemic to help the Young People of our communities.

Working with young People

It has been a few weeks since we had to contact many of our groups to postpone or even cancel your upcoming visits to White Hall and Lea Green, so we would like to update you on what’s been happening. We were deeply disappointed to have to close to schools and businesses and would like to thank you for your support and kind words during this time.

All of our instructional staff are continuing their work with young people, and are now providing support and educational activities and an emergency care environment for children. They are currently helping look after Children in Care at our Centres, utilising our self-contained cottage and Meadow Lodge units. The instructors themselves are co-ordinating activities in the grounds of the Centres to help these individuals. We have been posting updates on social media about these activities and other ideas you can do with your children at home during this time - so have a look and get involved if you need more resources to keep that boredom at bay.

Both White Hall and Lea Green centres have also been working in partnership with the Disability Fostering Team and both centres have begun to work with fostering families offering site-run activities, restricted services and support for them.

Clearly we remain in the grip of covid-19 measures with the safety of children and our staff our primary concern. At this time, we are unable to say when we will be able to run courses but rest assured we are really looking forward to being able to welcome you all back, as soon as it is safe and practical to do so. In the meantime We are really pleased to have been able to         re-arrange bookings next year for many of you, and hope we can help the schools who haven’t yet been able to.

Help for Schools

We are aware that schools and teachers are doing their very best to provide a service for the vulnerable and the children of key workers and are also aware of the daily increase of these teaching staff having to self-isolate. Therefore, we are offering help to those that may need it. Although we have a priority of looking after children in care during this time, we urge any schools or parents to get in touch with us, if you need help to use any of our resources and we can do our best to help and find a solution for you. Don’t hesitate to contact us!

white.hall@derbyshire.gov.uk                                               leagreen.admin@derbyshire.gov.uk

Welcoming New Staff

Our newest members of the White Hall Team!

Welcome Ella Vogel

Originally from Northumberland, Ella spent a lot of her childhood exploring the hills and coastline of the North East. This gave her the foundation for her love of the outdoors and natural world. 

She started her journey into outdoor instructing a few years ago after around 8 years working in the environmental conservation sector.  Ella sees adventurous activities and environmental education as two very complimentary topics, that are explored well side by side. She hopes that her background in zoology and conservation will help to enhance the sessions that she will deliver at the centre.

When she isn't at work, you may find Ella fell running, mountain biking or climbing. She is a keen artist and works on wildlife paintings and pet portraits in her spare time.

She is already enjoying being part of the White Hall team, and is excited to see what the future holds!

Welcome Foong Chee

Foong Chee has recently joined the White Hall team as a catering assistant.  She is originally from Malaysia and has been  in the UK since 2005. Before starting at White Hall she has worked in different schools, developing her catering skills, most recently at Tideswell School, and we are very glad to have her as part of our team.

She has two children who she spends a lot of time with taking them to their football and athletic clubs. When they have spare time they do a lot of activities like bowling, ice-skating, badminton and baking.

She is enjoying being a member of the team and is looking forward to being able to cook for our residential groups as soon as she can.

The White Hall climbing wall donation

We have received a generous donation of £6000 to update the climbing wall. The updated wall will be named in memory of Sir Jack Longland, the former director of education for Derbyshire County Council whose vision led to the creation of White Hall as the first local education authority outdoor education centre. The updating includes, recovering the matting, re-painting the walls, creating a slab (which will make the wall more accessible to a greater number of users), improving the lighting, improving the layout of the climbs and creating a fitting memorial to Sir Jack. White Hall is extremely grateful to the donors that have allowed this exciting project to happen. Please follow our social media pages in the upcoming months to see our progress on this.

New bushcraft and STEM adventure area

We have been busy improving the centre and grounds over the last few weeks. One of the things we are particularly pleased about is our new bushcraft area, a peaceful and calm area with a real sense of being in touch with nature. It is here that is the starting point to learn how we can live within our environment and the area engages participants in back to basics skills such as using natural methods to light a campfire and making a drink or cooking outdoors. We will also use this area as one of our outdoor classrooms for STEM Adventure activities when the easing of lockdown permits.

Could you be a friend of White Hall?

 Call for Members ...

We are in the process of setting up a “Friends of White Hall” group. We would like this to be made up of enthusiastic volunteers who are passionate about the great outdoors, the White Hall Centre and educating young people.

If you are passionate about White Hall and have some time to give then it would be great to hear from you. Our first scheduled meeting - most likely via online video is 4th July.

The friends of group will come together to form a charity. We hope to have the charity up and running in time for White Hall’s 70^th anniversary celebrations next year.

Here are some of the things that we think we need. However this is not an exhaustive list and, we would be equally delighted to hear from anyone who is willing to support the centre in any way whatsoever:

• Fundraising, especially the writing of grant bids
• Volunteer instructors to help young people progress in particular activities
• Practical DIY skills to improve the facilities and grounds
• People who are able to promote the centre to others
• People who are able to support the governance of the charity

If you are interested in joining the 'Friends of White Hall' Charity then please send an email to my.whitehall@derbyshire.gov.uk or alternatively ring the centre on 01298 23260 and leave your contact details.

Please pass this information on to anyone else that you think may be interested.

https://whitehall.derbyshire-outdoors.org/friends-of-white-hall-centre/

Grab a Pizza This! 

Lea Green expand their outdoor offering with a new culinary addition...

The lockdown tidy has begun as the house and grounds undergo some improvements 

Lea Green staff have been keeping themselves busy during the lockdown by making some much needed improvements to the centre and grounds. These improvements feature a very exciting, Italian charm within the beautiful cottage gardens in the form of a pizza oven! Yes, that's right, you can now add pizza making to your list of fun things to do here with your friends. So what toppings will you choose?

Out with the Old in with the New

More improvements being currently made to the house include a redecoration project. Our staff have been getting their overalls on and their paint brushes out in an effort to freshen up the traditional looking house and make it sparkling clean ready for you much anticipated return. We have sourced some leather saddle cream which is being used on the historical period walls within the dinning room, the outside electrics have had a major overhaul to allow us to better light up the house and grounds in the dark and the current den building area has had a huge clean and tidy, making it more accessible and ready for those creative den designs when you return!

Our staff have also been hard at work in the Cottage, giving it a complete makeover outside and inside, not forgetting the fabulous pizza oven addition! The Potting Shed and Flat Lounge have been transformed into spaces with kitchen facilities including freezers, fridges and mini ovens to enable small groups to use to use it when the Cottage is in use during this pandemic period. It seems we are post Covid-19 ready and eager for your return to us.

There is still so much uncertainty surrounding when we will re-open and what it will look like. We plan to start back up with activity days until we are able to offer residential accommodation.

Our development staff have been working hard to put together programmes that can be delivered in schools, observing social distancing rules. The activities are designed to be made completely bespoke to meet the requirements of each group we work with. They can be delivered in the school setting, or at either of the Centres. The activities and programmes use outdoor learning to focus on improving the following: Self-confidence, resilience, communication and collaboration, social, physical and emotional wellbeing. We also pride ourselves on supporting curriculum outcomes, such as numeracy, literacy, science, languages, geography and art wherever possible through the use of outdoor learning.

We have developed packages that can be self-delivered by teachers in their grounds; this includes mapping of school grounds for orienteering, guidance on ‘forest school’ activities, problem-solving activities and ideas of how to incorporate curriculum subjects into them.

Pilots for a new Award

Hopes to get the County and local schools behind a new scheme for Primary Children post lockdown

One positive to this lockdown is that it has produced creative ideas and new ways of thinking when it comes to businesses and organisations and our development staff and management team have been brainstorming how we can best support our young people during the aftermath of this pandemic.

We have got some pilots for a new Derbyshire award initiative coming up and we really hope to bring this to you in the very near future. It is intended for the 8-13 years of age category and will address present day issues such as anxiety, school transitions, confidence building and improving life skills.

Watch this space! we hope to keep you all informed when we can but for the meantime let's build some excitement!!