News

Underbank Activity Centre awarded AHOEC Gold Standard.

Peak are proud to announce that its Underbank Activity Centre has been awarded the prestigious AHOEC Gold Standard by the Association of Heads of Outdoor Education Centres (AHOEC).

The centre is located in Sheffield close to the Peak District and offers individuals and school groups a range of adventurous outdoor water and land-based activities such as kayaking, canoeing, sailing, paddleboarding and bushcraft activities including fire and shelter building which help people to develop valuable and essential life skills.

To achieve the recognition, Underbank Activity Centre was rigorously assessed across several key areas including customer care, learning and development, facilities and transport, ethics, safety and management, environmental sustainability, and leadership and management.

During the evaluation process, staff demonstrated their expertise by conducting a session focused on school-based canoeing instruction. In their session, the team were seen to effectively introduce and achieve learning objectives while ensuring the safety for learners.

The centre ensures the safety of those taking part through comprehensive safety measures and Adventurous Activities Licensing Authority (AALA) standards.

The team also continue showed their commitment to the environment and sustainability through various initiatives, including recycling systems, a water bottle refilling station, a nature reserve, and educational programs on Leave No Trace principles.

Operations Manager James Andrew said: “This recognition highlights Peak’s commitment to excellence in outdoor learning and its dedication to providing high-quality programs for students and the public.

“We are thrilled to receive the AHOEC Gold Standard award, which recognizes our team’s commitment to providing exceptional outdoor learning experiences.”

Astbury Watersports Centre take part in the British Canoeing Big Paddle Clean Up

Staff and young people at Astbury Watersports centre this week have taken part in the British Canoeing Big paddle clean up.

The Big Paddle Clean up is a national campaign and ran for the whole week of May half term at clubs and groups up and down the country.

The young people who were taking part in the May Half Term Holiday Club learnt how to paddle a canoe and then worked their way around the shoreline of the lake with staff and collected litter from the reeds, under trees and from the lake itself.

They also learnt about the importance of keeping the waters clean and the effect litter can have on nature on the animals that may live in and around the lake.

Fun was had by all and it was of course followed by some splashing around after all of the hard work.

Keys Group Annual Report 2022

Keys Group is pleased to announce the publication of its Annual Report for 2022, which outlines the Group’s achievements and journey since the merger of Accomplish, Keys & Peak.

The report demonstrates not only the progress to date but also the Group’s continuing drive towards achieving the vision of ‘Inspiring and supporting people to live happy, healthy and successful lives.’

David Manson, CEO of Keys Group, commented:

“It has been another year of significant change for Keys Group and everyone associated with it. As the Annual Report highlights, over the last year we have brought together Keys, Accomplish and Peak to create an organisation providing specialist care, education, support and activities for more than 2,000 people and employing more than 5,000. We have not let the integration of these three groups stand in the way of making significant progress on the priorities we set out in our last report however.

We have launched Keys Connect, our trauma informed model of therapeutic practice that is being introduced to everyone in the organisation starting with our children’s services. We have also launched Journey to Independence which provides a clear pathway supporting young people into adulthood and will be an important component of our unsupported accommodation (Leaving Care) services as they become regulated in 2023.”

The Annual Report can be downloaded from the Keys Group website or by clicking here.

Peak awarded Bronze award from ‘The Green Blue’

Here at Peak we have been working on reducing our use of single-use plastics. Looking at having environmentally friendly paper cups, not using plastic utensils and straws, cutting down on selling plastic bottled drinks, reusable drink containers, and many other changes.

Due to this, we have been accredited a bronze award from ‘The Green Blue’ Initiative. Which is working with the RYA and The Final Straw. But it won’t stop there, we shall be looking into working on gaining the Silver Award in the future. ‘

Chasewater’s Floating Litter Pick

ENVIRONMENTALLY-conscious staff from a Midlands outdoor activity centre recently took to the water for a floating litter pick to help protect local wildlife and improve the environment.

Team members from Chasewater Activity Centre, part of Peak, set off in Bell Boats to collect rubbish around the lake – a Site of Special Scientific Interest – which could not be reached from footpaths.

The team gathered no fewer than six full bags of rubbish as well as a tyre which had been discarded. Removing them from the water helps protect the birds and wildlife that make Chasewater their home including Red Winged Clovers, swans and deer.

Chasewater Activity Centre offers a range of activities on both land and water. It offers residential and day activity courses for all types of groups including schools, Scouts and Brownies and corporate gatherings.

Centre Manager Kait Bradley said: “It’s really important to us at Peak that we do all we can to protect and enhance the environment. While the lake is owned by the local council and is open to the public to use, we use part of it for our range of on-water activities at the Centre and we wanted to make sure we were doing our bit for the local wildlife and to protect the lake.

“We see so much wildlife both on and around the lake and we very much wanted to make sure we were making the environment as safe as possible for them in whatever way we could.”