NCS in Wales

A group of over 70 children have enjoyed a week at Kingswood Colomendy in Wales, taking part in the annual NCS Festival.

On the opening day, the group travelled to Wales before taking part in outdoor adventure activities at Kingswood Colomendy. The following day, there were workshops on teamwork, wellbeing and public speaking in the afternoon, with an outdoor cooking exercise in the evening.

With the week in full swing, the youngsters took part in a Bite the Ballot and Parliament Workshop in the morning, which was followed by a community mapping session in the afternoon.

The group split into teams on the penultimate day of the trip in order to complete various adventure activities before enjoying the NCS festival in the evening.

On the fifth and final day, there was an introduction to social action session in the morning before heading home. 

Simon Penhallow, NCS Operations Lead was delighted with how the week went and said, ‘It’s been really good overall and as the week went on, the young people started to enjoy their time on programme more and more. One participant was adamant they wanted to go home on the first day, but he stayed the duration and really enjoyed it in the end. He also managed to blow everyone away with his public speaking skills during public speaking training.’

A number of youngsters were also full of praise and Gabriel, aged 16 said, ‘It was a really good week and I thoroughly enjoyed my time in North Wales. The staff were really friendly and I feel as though I made a number of friends during my time there.’

Another youngster who enjoyed her time was Nic, 17 from Manchester and said, ‘I had a brilliant week with NCS and the activities were excellent. I really liked the cooking task that we had to complete and the facilities were really good too.’

Designed for 16 & 17-year-olds, NCS is a youth programme that runs every summer and autumn, during school holidays.  

The experience is all about emboldening young people, by giving them the buzz of being an adult (without all the responsibilities). On NCS, participants live away from home and get a taste for independence. They mix with a new crowd of people and take on exciting challenges together. The experience helps young people to develop skills that will set them up for life after school.