Mountain rescue

When a carefully planned hike turned into a near death experience for a family hiking in Snowdonia, thankfully our team literally ‘popped up’ at the perfect time to lead the family to safety.

Marc

Life before A+ was hard for Marc, who was homeless, bouncing between jobs, regularly using drugs and dealing with issues around self-worth that led to depression, and even an attempt at taking his own life. It felt like he was at a dead end and there was no future until what he calls “the most transformative 18 months” of his life at A+.

Greg

Back in the 2002, Greg was a young lad who came to our Total Adventure Holidays in the summer to have lots of fun. Now he’s an accomplished teacher, in a specialist unit of a London primary school for children with autism, and he’s previously set up and run a Christian school in Zimbabwe.

Josh

Because one GAP year is never enough, Josh Jones came on two consecutive GAP years, before joining the team as a qualified instructor before he moved on from full-time work with A+ in 2017. Josh worked in all of the sections of our ‘Adventure Youthwork’ over the years so many of you will know his friendly face.

 Teachers 

“I cannot express enough how the professionalism and enthusiasm of the A+ team made our whole experience so memorable. From the impromptu singing over breakfast, to the unusual talent show acts on your evening off, the children and staff thank you for your kindness.” 

Charlie Marshall, Ducklington Primary

“All the young people who attended had fun and accepted whatever challenge the A+ team threw at them. The A+ team is excellent with young people and are quick to adapt to any challenge the young people may offer. The A+ team certainly understand young people.”

Dave Broughton, North Leigh Youth Project

“An excellent team who inspire young people and set an excellent role model for all. Flexible, kind, wholehearted and lots of fun.”

Deena McGuire, Batt CE School

“We have used A+ for six years now and have always been delighted with everything the team has to offer. I can honestly say I have never worked with a more dedicated and delightful set of people. It is so refreshing to have found a company who listen and respond, and fit in with what we want.”

Louise Hallam, Kent College

Children

“What a brilliant experience I had. I learnt how to work in a team & be a good leader”

“Dear A+, thank you very much for teaching me all of the amazing skills and activities. Thank you for encouraging us and making us understand more and more about the Bible. You are all absolutely amazing people. I wanted to you all to know that we appreciate A+ beyond belief.”

“Thank you for making it loads of fun. I hope future year 6’s enjoy it as much as me. I loved everything that we did It was the best week I’d ever had in my life.”

“Thank you for using your time to make life long memories with kid’s that just want to have fun. All of the activities were outstanding. You are real role models for young Christians, also I hated the walk until we went with James and Nick, it’s so fascinating to see people with so much spirit in what they do, Thank you.”

 GAP Years (formerly called DisTIL) 

“The DisTIL year for me has been a hugely transformative experience. I entered into it as a novice rock climber and faithless university graduate. Over the training year I have learned many skills and achieved qualifications in activities such as mountain biking, archery and rock climbing. I have had a lot of fun and gained loads of experience by using these skills to run activity sessions for groups of young people. Most importantly though, I now have an exciting and continually developing personal faith as well as a greater understanding of discipleship and my own calling.”

“My journey during DisTIL has been incredible and I would strongly encourage anyone who wants to mature, grow spiritually, be more confident, learn to lead, work with young people, spend more time in the great outdoors or simply have a seriously fun year leading and taking part in adventure activities to do the DisTIL year.”

“I’ve grown a lot this year. I’m more confident and more willing to step out further. I’ve learned a lot about myself and feel like I have a much clearer idea of where I’d like to go in the future. I’ve loved learning new things and being able to pass this on to others and being able to impact lives! I’ve also made some amazing friendships and unforgettable memories this year… so thank you to all the team who I am so grateful to have spent the last 11 months with!”

“I’ll always remember these fond and funny moments as well as so many others from a year that was one of the best of my life. I hope to able to come back to Adventure Plus and volunteer when I can and in several years from now I’d like to return to see how it’s changed and also how much the trees we planted have grown!”

University Work Placement  Students

“The placement gave me a really good insight in to a typical working environment. To be honest, I believe it is probably one of the nicest kinds of environments you could work in at A+. I think I am more prepared for life after Graduating and I feel this is the type of environment I would like to work in; an open office space with people I can see and get to know every day. I also enjoyed the fact that none of the days were the same. I hope I can find a similar environment in the future although I have no idea if I will have beliefs such as the team at A+ do, it was a wonderful environment to work in.”

Corporate ‘Team Building’ Clients  

“The People Managers at Lady Margaret Hall, one of the 38 Oxford Colleges that make up the University of Oxford, spent two days and an overnight stay at Windmill Farm focusing on how we could improve our team performance. Lessons learnt we have taken back into the workplace to great effect. We highly recommend Jon Cox and the team for their ability to organise a challenging and worthwhile event tailored to customer needs.”

Jenni Collins, HR Manager

 

“All the instructions were incredible and I felt so much better about the experience because of their calm and confidence.’

Abseiling event participant