UKSA Funded Visit Sees Isle Of Wight School Pupils Gain Life-Enhancing Skills

Sixth form students at St George’s School have benefited from life-enhancing experiences thanks to a funded visit to UKSA.

The Isle of Wight based charity which provides water-based adventures, education and world-leading maritime training, was able to fund 25 students from the school where all students have additional needs.

UKSA offers young people, of all abilities and needs, activities where they can learn skills for life in an aspirational and safe environment with bespoke programmes designed to build confidence and encourage teamwork.

These use water sports with the great outdoors as a catalyst for positive outcomes.

The charity measures six Skills for Life throughout the course of its visits; communication, decision making, teamwork, self-belief, determination and resilience. 

David Stephens, class teacher at St George’s School who led the visit, said:

“I cannot praise UKSA enough for the opportunity our sixth formers have been provided and without its funding would simply not have been possible.

"Before Covid, our students had stayed overnight on Hayling Island but this was the biggest trip of this kind for a number of years, particularly for sixth formers."

The group of 16-19 year olds visited UKSA in Cowes from Monday to Friday on day visits, spending the week taking part in an outdoor learning programme which gave the opportunity to try activities which included dinghy sailing, kayaking, paddleboarding and raft building.

Not only do the visits to UKSA build resilience and teamwork during their time there and create transferable skills to use afterwards, it also creates new conversation starters amongst the students on their return to school.

Students from St George’s were further inspired when greeted by four former students who are now employed by UKSA.

David added:

“This experience has made such a difference to our students. They have all come away saying how much they enjoyed it, even those who believed they would not."

To find out more about UKSA, funding options and the group residentials, visit www.uksa.org