School Sailing activities

09 May 2011

In June 2011 nine full days of sailing activities were provided for approx 210 local school children aged 10 and 11 years old as a part of the community involvement action, offering them the opportunity to learn about the marine environment in which they live and also the opportunity to experience different water based activities including sailing small 22’ day boats, a larger sailing vessel and also traditional dredging using a small fishing boat.

Offering these activities has resulted in us building on going links with local schools and the wider community, encouraging people onto the water who may otherwise not have taken the opportunity and reinforcing the links between the town and the waterside. These activities have now been completed for summer 2011 but it is planned that a further two days of activities will be provided in October 2011 for a local school unable to take part in these activities during the summer.

These activities are regularly described by the schools involved as ‘the best school trip of the year’. The trip is often linked with a wider area of study within the school curriculum, for example the school who undertakes the activities in October each year does so because it coincides with their ‘water’ topic.

It is clear that although most of the children participating in the activities have lived in one of the waterside communities alongside the river Colne for their whole life, a significant number of them have never had any real involvement with the water, some have never even been to a local beach. These activities give them the chance to discover their local history, natural history and surroundings. It also gives an opportunity to spark their interest in the water and to provide them with further information about how they can participate in water activities in the future.