After School Club report - Ambassador Awards – What’s Next?

The Autumn Term After School Clubs are drawing to a close and the kids are becoming increasingly more excited about breaking up for Christmas.
The children that attend the club are full of energy, intelligence and charisma – these dynamic personalities really create a great environment for fun and learning. 

The children have shown their resilience in adverse weather conditions during the term and we’ve also seen some amazing teamwork. There is a lot of focus on sharing praise and encouragement for effort.

During the After School Club term we run a different activity every week alongside our favourite energetic games the kids love and often request.

Find out exactly what we’ve been up to this term…

Welcome Week:
We started off the term with some fun outdoors games, so that our members got to know the staff a little more and blow off some steam after being at school all day. We played “Hula Hoop Face off”, “Cat & Mouse” game and “Evolution”. In this session we introduced ourselves, the rules of the club and other fun stuff to know such as how to earn our unique club patches, The Outdoors Ambassador Award and the activities we'll be doing over the term.

Campfire Cookout Popcorn 

Some of best moments are forged with friends round a campfire, so this week children were taught fire safety and exciting new outdoors cooking skills. We learnt how to make this great campfire treat – Popcorn! We practiced how to build a campfire & watched the kernels pop in our popcorn maker! 

Bushcraft – Fire Lighting

This week we explored friction fire lighting, a challenging and traditional fire skill using Saw Drills & Bow Drills. We connected with some key ancestral survival skills and taught how to safely take risks, and understand how our natural environment supports this.

Plop Trumps 

This session was an amusing twist on the popular game of Top Trumps with the aim to explore the animal kingdom, their environment and their diets. Then (after much giggling and “gross” shout outs) we created our own Plop Trump card for our favourite or imagined animal and made their plops out of clay!

Way of the Viking 
We brought history alive with hands on Viking skills. Understanding teamwork & communication skills helped the Vikings become excellent warriors & clans, so surely, these skills can benefit us too! We made Viking Shield walls and played the traditional Danish team game of Kubb.

Tribal Necklaces 
During this craft-based session we made tribal necklaces. We learnt about different cultures and traditions from tribes around the world & the important customs belonging to them. Using knotwork skills & natural materials we crafted our own creations. 

Shelter Building 
Here we practiced our bushcraft survival skills with survival shelter building. We built on further understanding the five basic survival needs. Practising knotwork, teamwork and social skills whilst having fun building our own nature dens... sometimes in the dark!

Mandalorian NERF & Wild West NERF 
The club involved two separate story-inspired NERF Sessions:
First we called for all galactic bounty hunters & embarked on some Mandalorian style NERF action. We battled for the Darksaber & saved baby Yoda.
The next story-inspired Nerf session involved the Wild West. We played bank heist games & stagecoach robberies! We practiced sportsmanship skills, lots of running, ducking and dodging. 

World Street Games – Ringo 
Here we played a Hide and Seek Style tag-based competition from the USA. This session involved lots of physical activity with a focus on exercise and body movement. Running around hiding and seeking is a great stress relief, good for social skills and overall great fun. 

AMBASSADOR AWARDS
At the end of each term two of our members are chosen to win "The Outdoors Project Ambassadors Award". They receive a special golden patch and a certificate for their efforts! Last week our lovely ambassadors were chosen.
Here are some quotes about this terms Ambassador Award winners from our instructors…

- “This girl is caring and considerate, looking after younger members in our group and ensuring they are happy and joining in. She often offers to help out and brings a lot of positive thought to the club - well done!”

- “This person always joins in enthusiastically with activities, is quick to listen and take on instructions well and loves to get stuck in outdoors whatever the weather with a positive attitude”

- “This boy always impresses me with his knowledge & understanding of the natural world. He'll make a fine steward (carer) for the environment, is a team player, friendly & engaging peers & adults and involves himself well with activities & ethos of the club. Thank you and well done”

- “This girl is always enthusiastic, kind to everyone, and listens beautifully. She gives everything a go, and is always willing to help other children join in.”

- “I'm impressed by this boys sunny attitude, kindness and politeness. Even when he's nervous or unsure, he manages to adapt the game so that he can join in or decides to take the role of referee. Well done for overcoming your fears!”
 

What is an 'Outdoors Project Ambassador'? 
An ambassador is a representative or a promoter of a particular place or activity. In our case the outdoors! We feel they represent the club ethos well and carry our message of fun and play in the outdoors! 

Who is chosen? 
At the start of each term the leader will introduce the award and the group will discuss ideas about how you get chosen. Loads of different reasons from growing in confidence, being helpful, polite, particularly supportive to others, a team player and so on.
There are so many positive things to say about all the members who attend our club, and it is never easy for the club leaders to pick their Ambassadors!
We always praise our members efforts and achievements no matter how big or small. The award is simply that extra recognition from us for that individual for the term. 

The Award Ceremony
During a club towards the end of term we will make an effort to sit together as a group and announce the winners, with the reasons they have won. It's all kept informal and we have fun with it! The schools are also informed and occasionally they may choose to announce the award in class or in assembly. 
Good luck and remember award or no award you are valued by each and every member of the team equally. Being outside in the fresh air is rewarding for your mind, body & spirit, so technically you're already winning just by being there! 

Do we offer any other patches?

YES! All club members have the opportunity to earn unique and collectable patches when they attend any of our clubs – not just the After School Clubs.

Read more about our patch reward system HERE
 

WHAT’S NEXT?

If you liked what you read, we are now taking bookings for our Spring Term After School Clubs at the following schools:

•    St Andrews CoE (Tuesday)
•    Hove Junior School - Portland Road (Tuesday)
•    Hove Junior School - Holland Road Tuesday)
•    Cottesmore St Mary Catholic (Wed/Thurs & Fri)
•    Brunswick (Wed, Thurs & Fri)
•    Goldstone (Thurs)
•    Lancing College Prep, Hove (Wed, Thurs & Fri) Note:  on sale 6/12 at schools request

New activities for spring term 2022 include: 
Among Us * Nature Ninja * Mad Science * World Street Games * The Randomiser * Popcorn Birdfeeder Love Hearts * Arctic Survival Challenge * Nerf * Camp Fire Cookout * Knights of the Round Table & Tonnes of games: Dodge Ball, Kick the Can, Alien Invasion, Cat & Mouse + they key ingredient lots of FUN!

You can book online HERE