A Look Back On A Successful School Year At ASC Portland

Summer holidays are in full swing now at ASC Portland with sailing courses, activity days and much more. In amongst all this let’s take a moment to look back on the last school year and celebrate some of the amazing achievements of our participants!

Check out some of our highlights from this year below:

15 schools attended regular sailing and multiactivity sessions throughout the year. These series-built students’ confidence and independence as well as allowing them to work towards RYA certificates, which many of the participants achieved. Of these schools 53% were fully or partially charitably funded, breaking down barriers and opening watersports to those who would not normally have to opportunity.

“The sessions have made a real difference to the confidence and attitudes of our students, both on the water and in the classroom” – Atlantic Academy Secondary Teacher. 

2 action pack residentials saw over 100 students from Reading Blue Coats and Westonbirt School getting involved with action packed days on the water. Many of the students were new to sailing and were able to achieve their RYA Stage 1 during the residential. More experienced sailors were challenged to achieve higher RYA Stages and even try out some high-performance boats! Other pupils chose to take part in multiple activities trying out giant paddleboarding, kayaking and sailing across the week.

“You guys are incredible, thank you for being so inclusive to all our students, we will see you again next year!” – Westonbirt School Staff

Another successful year of our partnership with the Chesil Trust aiming to get young people from Dorset ‘On the Water’! We welcomed 30 schools to the centre to take part in half a day of sailing or paddlesports. The sessions were charitably funded by the ASF and the Chesil Trust allowing students from all backgrounds to take part in the activities. The sessions were truly inspiring for these young people, and we have seen lots of children come back to take part in sailing courses and continue building their skills.

Breaking down more barriers, we welcomed 4 groups of students with SEND from Chilton Bridge School to the centre. They got involved in sailing and paddlesports, growing in confidence, independence and coming away with a great sense of achievement. We also partnered with ASCape to give over 20 students with SEND the opportunity to get out on the water. From this we have been able to offer a week of holiday activities to the participants, allowing them to enjoy even more time on the water in an environment that is inclusive and designed to support all needs.

We ran another successful Maritime Education Programme with students from Wey Valley School. The programme is funded by Dorset Police and aims to introduce young people to careers in the maritime industry and give them transferable life skills through watersports. This year we ran three trips to visit maritime industry experts including Portland Port, RNLI and Portland Marina, alongside watersports and STEM. They had the opportunity to learn about these industries and have talks on different aspects of the businesses from industry experts. The students had the opportunity to get out on the water and get involved with sailing, powerboating and paddlesports. They also took part in scientific field work and local conservation during their sustainability sessions.

“[The students] loved these sessions, their level of engagement is incredible even in the sustainbility sessions, they just love learning in a way that suits them, thank you!” – Wey Valley Teacher.

This academic year marked the start of our brand new Sustainbility Programme, exploring human impacts on wildlife and biodiversity. We ran 30 sustainability sessions and took part in the Dorset Outdoor Classroom Day, reaching in total over 260 young people. As part of the sessions we collected water samples to test for pollutants and undertook 6 litter picks around the National Sailing Academy, collecting over 1000 peices of litter.

We had two incredibly successful regattas, IAPS and the Millfield Regatta. Over 25 schools attended the days and we got in some action packed races. During the under 11s race at IAPS we even had the appearance of a few dolphins, which went down really well! Congratulations to all the schools that took part and to Walhampton School for acheiving first place in the IAPS U13s and Oakwood School for winning the U11s racing.

And these are just the highlights we have had so many other incredible sessions running thoughout the school year. If you know a school or group that would like to get out on the water or take part in our Sustainability Sessions next academic year, get in touch! We are able to cater school packages to the needs of the participants so can create a day that is perfect for you students.  

by Holly Jones, Senior Instructor at ASC Portland

Holly studied marine biology and oceanography at university and has experience working in marine conservation and scientific research. This allows her to give the students a thorough insight into the field and answer lots of the questions they might have during the sessions. She is passionate about showing young people the incredible biodiversity we have here in the UK and why it is important to protect these areas. She hopes this programme will encourage young people to take an active role in combating environmental issues.