Youth Team Building

'Thank you so much for providing us with such a fantastic day!' Isobel Morely Smith: Housemistress

We were asked during the summer to run a teambuilding event for Sherborne Girls. It was thought by the school that the girls would benefit from quickly developing a sense of teamwork and support amongst each other at the start of the school year, so they decided to contact their local teambuilding experts. Sherborne Girls required the following for their event for 70 girls:

• One day event to take place at their school to reduce transport costs
• The event to encourage teamwork and support amongst the girls
• Help the new girls to get to know their surroundings as well as each other
• Encourage older girls to develop friendships with the new girls
• The event had to be fun as well as develop some team themes and aspirations
• Help to establish the need to communicate with each other effectively
• Provide opportunities for some girls to take on a leadership role

We felt the girls needed to have a mixture of practical team challenges set up around the grounds of their school as well as a series of information gathering tasks designed to help the girls get to know the layout of the school as well as the history of their surroundings. These various challenges were supported by a series of reflection and review sessions, facilitated by our trainers to help the girls establish the learning they were gaining as well as give everyone the opportunity to voice an opinion on the team building challenges, leadership and their team mates.

The day consisted of:

0900: Cumulus Crew members arrive to set up challenges and check the puzzle trail developed by Cumulus

1000: Sherborne staff receive briefing on the day and guidance notes for some challenges

1030: Girls arrive, introductions, team allocations

1035: Team Celebrations: A quick session to warm up the group and generate a lot of laughter

1045: Planning: Teams receive briefing on the team challenges, objectives, resources for them to then plan their day

1050:The Challenge:

• 10 teams have to earn as many points as possible during the day in order to use on resources or buy ‘extra time’ for a final challenge
• The teams participate throughout the day in the following:
• Treasure Hunt: for the girls to scavenge as and when they want to during the day
• Cerebral paper based problem solving conundrums: for the girls to complete as and when they want to during the day
• School facts quiz: a number of questions relating to the history of the school and other snippets of information
• Puzzle Trail: a cross between an orienteering trail and a fact finding mission
• Team Problem Solving Tasks: scattered around the grounds of the centre will be practical challenges, staffed by Cumulus Crew

1245: Team Talky Time. The teams convene in various groups with Cumulus Crew staff to discuss the morning within an active reflection and review session to help the girls consider their team work. To motivate the girls, this will also help the teams to generate points for their groups of teams.

1300: Lunch Break

1400: Hoop relay: Fast paced challenge for the teams to earn extra points and also to help them remember the points discussed before lunch

1415: The Challenge continues

1600 Drain Game: The teams all come together to line up for this final challenge race

1615: Final scores + Team Review

1630: Finish