Beach School Refresher

We are currently in our really busy period for taking schools out onto the fabulous Yorkshire Coastline, with fossil hunting, rock-pooling and general fun sessions. But we have also been taking teachers out for fun days without their pupils for CPD days.

A number of our team are Forest and Beach School qualified and we whilst we are not able to provide accredited training we are able to offer great fun and great value refresher days and CPD sessions for teachers. Recently Rich and Hazel took staff from West Heslerton Primary School out for the day. We asked Hazel to write about it and she gave us a seaside postcard answer! You need to know it rained a lot…but if this looks interesting then get in touch to see what we can offer.

Hazel and Rich at the Seaside
Hazel and Rich are off for a very special day out at the seaside! But what to do first? They can build rock towers, investigate seaweed, make magnificent sandcastles and play games on the beach… and all with their friends from West Heslerton Primary School! It’s going to be a lovely day!
A lot of interesting things are happening on the beach. There are people making shelters, cooking over a campfire, building sand sculptures and hunting for fossils in the Jurassic sandstone. Everyone is having a great time.

The tide is coming in. It’s nearly time to go home. There’s just time for a last ice-cream.

The next day, a postcard arrives for Hazel and Rich. It’s from Rachel, the head teacher at West Heslerton School:
“Just wanted to pass on thanks from everyone at Heslerton CE for a great day Beach Schooling! We are busy planning activities ready for the new term, getting excited already.
Thanks to you both for organising such a great event.”
Hazel and Rich are delighted, and are already making plans for their next very special day out!

Forest Wildlife Watching

The exciting news just keeps coming at Hidden Horizons…we are delighted to say we will be running unique forest wildlife watching sessions in partnership with the Forestry Commission in the heart of their woods in the North York Moors National Park.  Making exclusive use of a brand new purpose built hide overlooking a badger sett we aim to bring you face to face with some amazing woodland creatures.

We are running weekly trips as well as offering sessions for schools, groups and private bookings, for these just email contact@hiddenhorizons.co.uk or ring 01723 817017 for details  To book a place one of the weekly trips just click the poster below.

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Our Stardome is up and running…

As we mentioned here this blog page will be very shortly replaced with our brand new website, but we have some really exciting news that just couldn’t wait that long…we are the proud owners of a brand new inflatable, immersive stardome. We are very grateful to the North York Moors National Park for supporting this new acquisition, and we will be telling everyone more about this collaboration very soon.

This 4m diameter indoor planetarium can fit a class of 30 primary aged children plus a teacher or two. We will, in time for the new school year in September be launching a brand new space and astronomy package that will feature the star dome. We are still discovering new and amazing films for the dome, including many from the British Full Dome Institute and also the stunning 30min ‘From the Earth to the Universe’ from the European Southern Observatory .

Whilst we prepare the new package we have a special offer for the rest of the 2016 school year…book a full day of the dome for your school for just £275, for schools within 30miles of Scarborough there will be no travel expenses to pay either (please contact us for a price if you are outside the 30miles). We will run the 30min ‘From the Earth to the Universe’ as many times as we can in your school day, so you can benefit as many pupils as possible. Whilst the show has obvious links to some specific areas of the curriculum we are sure that all pupils will find the experience a truly memorable one.

If you are interested in this offer, which is only available for sessions from now until the end of the 2016 school year then ring 01723 817017 or email contact@hiddenhorizons.co.uk

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Sign up for our newsletter

It’s been a while since we posted an update, apologies for that! We have been really busy with events, school sessions and some consultancy work. We are also finally getting around to sorting out our proper website, so this blog will (in early 2107) become redundant.

In order that we can keep all our loyal followers and customers upto date with our plans and events we are setting up a new email newsletter, this will not replace our existing Facebook and Twitter output, but it will allow us to send you news and offers before they go public. To join this list just click on the image of one of our Celestial Exploring events below and follow the instructions.

Dalby Safari – Summer 2016

Summer Events 2016

This is a very short post…just to let everybody know all of our events for the summer of 2016 are listed on our Eventbrite page just click on the image below for fossil hunts, rock-pooling, mini beast hunts and dinosaur footprint walks.

Short break geology holidays and day schools

This year, in addition to our fantastic range of events, we are very excited to be able to offer some new ways of joining us to learn more about our wonderful coastline.

Firstly we have teamed up with author Roger Osborne to offer some day schools with the Workers Educational Association. The first of these will make use of our fantastic geology collection and will be based indoors, the second will be a field trip to the coastline to see plenty of geology. These days are ideal for beginners and people with no prior knowledge, so if you have joined one of our previous trips and want to learn more these would be a great next step, follow the links below for prices, details and how to book…

Saturday 7 May – Journey into the Jurassic – Woodend, Scarborough

Saturday 28 May – Ramble at Ravenscar – The history and geology of the landscape

Roger Osborne has written a number of books about the geology of our coastline, including The Dinosaur Coast and The Floating Egg, both of which are published by his own company High Tide Publishing.

Secondly we have joined forces with Cober Hill Hotel in Cloughton just north of Scarborough to offer a number of short break holidays with our very own Will Watts acting as your guide to the geology of the North York Moors National Park and Coast. We will also have a number of guest leaders and speakers with us.  The hotel is a fantastic base, with great food and we even provide all the transport for the days out. These 3 and 5 day trips will visit classic localities, allowing you ample time to explore the geology at your own pace, find lots of fossils, enjoy the stunning scenery and make some new friends along the way.  All our leaders are very experienced, fun people who will be with you every day to ensure your holiday is one to remember for all the right reasons! For details of dates and prices please follow the link below…

Cober Hill – Geology short break holidays

 

Easter Holidays 2016

We have a great range of events for the Easter Holidays, with fossil hunting trips, seashore explores and dinosaur footprint walks all ready for you to enjoy.  Simply click on the event below to go to our booking pages for all the details…

Dinosaur Footprint Walk – Tuesday 29 March at 11am – Scarborough, South Bay

Fossil Hunting Trip – Wednesday 30 March at 1pm – Cayton Bay

Fossil Hunting Trip – Thursday 31 March at 1pm – Runswick Bay

Fossil Hunting Trip – Friday 1 April at 3pm – Boggle Hole

Fossil Hunting Trip – Thursday 7 April at 10am – Speeton Sands

Seashore Explore – Friday 8 April at 10am – Scarborough South Bay

We look forward to seeing you on a trip soon. If there are no dates that work for you then we can always run a private trip, just contact us for more info.

 

BBC Bitesize Dinosaur Footprints

Towards the end of 2015 Will Watts from our team was asked to help with some new films for BBC Bitesize all about the Jurassic Dinosaur Footprints of the Yorkshire Coast. Will had a great day with the film team and some fantastic pupils from Newby and Scalby Primary School, we added some pictures and words about the day as part of Scarborough Strata #11.

We were very excited to receive an email from Screenhouse Productions to say the films are now live on BBC Bitesize, so if you want to know more about our fabulous footprints have a watch. Here are the links to the two films…

• How are dinosaur footprints formed
• Calculating the size of dinosaurs from their footprints

We can also take you on a walk to see them, book here, or we can come to your school with all our dinosaurs and fossils or finally why not have a birthday party with a difference and come dinosaur hunting with us.

Will and some dinosaur footprints on the Yorkshire Coast.

February half-term holiday 2016

If you’re looking for something to do over the half term holidays to get the kids outside and enjoying themselves (and the grown-ups…) we have some exciting events that might just do the job.

Firstly we have two fossil hunts taking place, these are our most popular event and book up very quickly so if you are interested then act quickly, the two trips are:

Monday 15 February at Boggle Hole, 2pm start for a 90min walk book here

Tuesday 16 February at Cayton Bay, 3pm start for a 90min walk book here

Both trips are very family friendly, dogs are welcome and you get to keep all the fossils you find (if you want to!).

We are also very excited to be taking part in the North York Moors Dark Skies Festival and are using the Festival to launch a brand new event for 2016, Celestial Exploring. Join our very own expert astronomer Andy Exton for a night exploring not only our own solar system but objects from deep space.

As the weather can be an issue we are keeping three nights free for this event, 15, 16 and 17 February. If you are interested then  all the details on how to book are here. We will even be providing hot chocolate and some snacks to keep you warm!