Dallowgill: The Residential Centre That’s Changing Lives
Dallowgill, the Trust’s residential centre is a place for students to thrive as individuals and develop independent skills while away from home. Would you believe that the origin of this outstanding centre was created from one of our CEO’s personal experiences?
Recently, Paul Tarn, CEO, was interviewed on Radio 5 to talk about Dallowgill and how it came to be. He stated that his love for the Lake District started when he was just eleven years old. Paul even announced that his first experience in the mountains “changed his life” and that he continued to return to the peaks of the Lake District “almost every weekend” when he got his first job.
After enjoying what the views of the Lake District had to offer and looking back on how much his residential experience benefitted him, Paul decided that he wanted to help his community by spreading that enjoyment with all the students across the trust.
Should these opportunities be free?
During the interview, Rick, radio station host, talked about the importance of having residential trips being accessible for all students and whether that should be centrally funded by the government to allow equal access to all students regardless of their background. After talking about Dallowgill with Paul, he asked what the cost would be for a student to go on one of these trips to which Paul stated that “it is a small charge, but no one is ever turned away”.
Paul Tarn“When you speak to people, they only talk about school trips. That residential experience they had away from home.”
It was the unopposed determination from Paul despite people saying that he was “mad” for attempting to revive the centre just shows how much of an impact that residential trip had on his life and his school journey, and how he wishes that same positive experience on all students that stay at the Dallowgill centre. When the centre was first sponsored by Paul it only consisted of one room that could house very few students. So, he redeveloped the site to create a newer state of the art residential centre with neighbouring facilities for students to use when on site.
Paul also got involved with the community around Dallowgill such as Local farmer who sold a part of his land for the purpose of the DofE programme that takes place every year. The centre has already benefitted 2.5 thousand students across the trust.
We can’t wait so see more of the amazing opportunities Dallowgill has to offer.