New partnership set to benefit thousands of pupils

Over The Wall Camp and Embark Federation have announced an ambitious new partnership, which is set to benefit thousands of Derbyshire pupils.

The national children’s charity, which provides life-changing residential experiences for children with serious illnesses, has teamed up with Embark and its extended family of schools across Derbyshire.

Together, they aim to create unique and enriching experiences for students, support families, and offer professional development opportunities for staff within both organisations.

The partnership was recently announced during an event at Over The Wall Camp’s Ockbrook site, near Derby.

Around 50 headteachers from Embark Federation and its extended family of schools gathered to tour the facilities and explore future opportunities.

At the heart of the partnership is a shared vision to transform Over The Wall Camp’s Ockbrook site into a high-quality residential activity centre.

This facility will be available to Embark schools for up to 39 weeks of the year when it is not used for the charity’s core programmes.

During the visit, headteachers were inspired by the scale and quality of the facilities.

Discussions explored the potential for school residential activity camps, day-use access for enrichment activities and the development of alternative provisions for pupils requiring additional support outside mainstream settings.

Kevin Mathieson, chief executive of Over The Wall Camp, said: “We are genuinely excited about our partnership with The Embark Federation as it extends the use of the former Ockbrook School with a child-based focus and provides so many win/win opportunities for both organisations. We hope this is the start of a long and fruitful partnership.”

Matt Crawford, from Embark Federation, said: “Our core purpose at Embark is to help everyone in our school communities to love learning and love life.

“Over The Wall Camp creates life-changing experiences for children facing serious challenges and brings joy to them and their families.

“There’s a natural alignment in our values and purpose, and we’re hugely excited about the opportunities this partnership offers. We’re very grateful to Kevin and the team for making us feel so welcome.”