Make a Really Positive Difference
Being a Group Leader
Group leading at Robinwood is more than being an outdoor activity instructor. We use themed and adventurous activities over a three-day course to develop children and give them memories that last a lifetime. One of the things that makes us stand out to our customers is that each child gets the same Group Leader for their entire visit. This allows our team to build trust with the children meaning they get a more fun and development out of their stay. It’s a packed three day course and it’s worth every minute.
Customer Focussed
It’s not just relationships with their groups that our Group Leaders build. The ongoing rapport that our teams build with the visiting school staff ensure they return year after year with many of them feeling like part of the Robinwood family. Another unique aspect that makes us stand out to our customers is ’24-hour care’. This means that being a Group Leader will include some nighttime supervision, which is shared amongst the whole team.
Working as a Team
With lots of different routes for progression, starting as a Group Leader with us could springboard you into a career you hadn’t considered before. Our values-based recruitment process allows us to hire the very best staff based on who you are not what you know. And with our promotion from within policy we find that our staff stick around for a long time.
Being a Group Leader requires a willingness to work as part of a team to achieve our vision of making a really positive difference developing children. For part of your working week you will be with your own group of children taking them on all of the different activities. Whilst you do this, other members of your team will be working in the background supporting you. For the remainder of your working week, you will swap over. This will include a mix of some early mornings or evening work, but all within your agreed working pattern, supporting the other Group Leaders to develop their groups and for the children to have the best residential ever.
Prioritising your Development
Expand your skill set by gaining nationally recognised qualifications, paid for by Robinwood, in archery, paddle sports, and climbing, among other areas.
Off-site staff development days are run by our Senior Instructors, Training Instructors or freelance coaches. These include trips to indoor and outdoor climbing venues, lakes, rivers and caves to develop practical and coaching skills.
Enhance your Skills
Throughout the year, we arrange on-site peer learning days and off-site staff development days for every member of staff. These are paid for, timetabled days during your normal working week. These are incredibly valuable days which staff look forward to. In them, the staff learn from each other the best ways to develop the children in our non-technical activities with a focus on storytelling, reviewing and having fun.
All staff have access to a brochure full of online training courses for them to complete. Some courses are available to everyone such as ADHD Awareness and some are more role-specific such as Food Hygiene. These courses are a great addition to your group leader tool belt and the course cost is covered by Robinwood.
Relevant Training from the Start
From your first day as a Robinwood Group Leader, we provide you with relevant, high-quality training. This is delivered by our highly experienced Robinwood training team covering everything you need to know about being a Group Leader, from archery to first aid.
The Complete Training Package
Induction training happens over your first 6 weekends of employment. Between these weekends, you’ll put that training into practice to help build context around your training before putting it into practice with your own group, at around week 6 of your training.
And it doesn’t stop there! The time of year that you start determines when your water sports training takes place. Typically, Canoeing and Raft Building training occurs during our Easter or Summer breaks when the weather (and water) is a little warmer.
With our land-based activities, our goal is to have you trained to lead our Zip Wire within your first year. Your progress to this will be evaluated based on your activity assessment performance, and some participants may advance more quickly than others.
Because of this you don’t need any prior qualifications to become a Group Leader although we ideally look for people with previous experience working with children.
What Our Staff Say About Working At Robinwood
