Adventure, enrichment and the challenge of accessibility

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Growing up in the 1980s, one of my favourite books was Quest for Adventure, Chris Bonington's anthology of exploration and expeditioning. More than four decades later, its ideas continue to influence my thinking, my holidays, and my work in outdoor learning.

In the book, Bonington defines adventure as a step into the unknown, often in the natural environment, involving risk, uncertainty and responsibility for one's own success or failure. Participation is voluntary, the risks are self-imposed, and the consequences fall primarily on the individual undertaking the challenge.

Bonington acknowledges that adventure can take many forms and refers to writing the book as his own ‘adventure of the mind’.  Some adventures are brief and intense; others are lengthy expeditions requiring months or years of preparation, yet the underlying characteristics remain the same. Whether describing a solo climber, an ocean sailor, or Neil Armstrong taking the first steps on the Moon, Bonington argues that adventure is driven by a willingness to explore the unknown and discover something about ourselves in the process.

Equitable adventure

Recreational participation in the outdoors continues to grow yet, despite this increase, access to adventure (and the outdoors in general) is far from equitable. Bonington discusses the need for sponsorship to fund expeditions, and in many respects this is no different from the challenges faced today by schools, youth groups, and individuals attempting to access adventurous experiences. Whatever your age, cost can be a significant obstacle.

This becomes particularly relevant when considering the Department for Education's Enrichment Framework (EF) where the inclusion of adventure might be interpreted as official recognition of this traditional understanding of adventure. However, the framework also requires all aspects of enrichment to be open and accessible to all young people, placing adventure in an awkward position. If cost is often inherent in adventurous experiences, how can schools fulfil their obligations to provide accessible enrichment while still offering authentic adventure?

Defining adventure

Perhaps the answer lies in considering both perspectives. The outdoor learning sector has spent decades exploring what constitutes adventure in educational settings, while young people themselves experience adventure differently depending on their prior experience, confidence and interests. Any discussion of entitlement must therefore recognise both the characteristics of the experience and the perspective of the participant.

Adventure is not an entirely fixed concept. Previous experience, motivation, confidence and interest all influence how adventurous an experience is perceived to be. What feels adventurous to one person may feel routine to another, and simply participating in an activity traditionally labelled as adventurous does not guarantee an adventurous experience.

I am comfortable navigating in the mountains, but dancing places me well outside my comfort zone. Challenge is clearly relative, but does feeling challenged automatically make something an adventure?

This distinction matters because the EF asks schools to provide access to adventure, not simply to challenge. While uncertainty, discomfort and personal growth may be characteristics of adventure, I don’t think that they are not necessarily sufficient to define it. The question therefore becomes not whether adventure matters, but what counts as adventure in educational terms.

The outdoor learning sector's distinctive contribution is not simply access to activities such as climbing, paddlesports or expeditions. Its expertise lies in creating environments where uncertainty, challenge and managed risk can be experienced safely and purposefully.

Adventure, context and student voice

The EF places considerable emphasis on context, student voice and choice. This reflects a recognition that enrichment cannot be delivered through a one-size-fits-all model. For adventure, this means that even where schools share a common understanding of what constitutes an adventurous experience, pupils will engage with and experience those opportunities differently. A residential that is transformative for one young person may feel routine to another. Context and student voice are therefore important considerations in how adventure is interpreted and delivered, but they do not remove the need for a shared understanding of what adventure is.

What this means for schools

The inclusion of adventure within the EF thus presents schools with a challenge. On the one hand, adventure is explicitly identified as part of the entitlement offer, yet on the other there is relatively little guidance about what it should look like in practice.

Different definitions of adventure carry different expectations and associated costs. Before schools can provide equitable access, they need a clearer understanding of what young people are entitled to experience.

A spectrum of adventure

One way of addressing this challenge is to view adventure as existing along a spectrum. The outdoor learning sector has long recognised that adventure is not a single activity type, but a range of experiences characterised by varying levels of uncertainty, responsibility, risk and self-reliance.

At one end are highly structured experiences supported by adults. At the other are journeys, expeditions and experiences requiring greater independence and engagement with unfamiliar environments. Forest School, outdoor pursuits, residential visits and expedition experiences can all be understood as occupying different positions along this spectrum.

Such an approach retains the core characteristics traditionally associated with adventure while offering schools a flexible framework through which to think about progression, entitlement and access.

The continuing role of the outdoor learning sector

The EF presents both an opportunity and a challenge for the outdoor learning sector. The opportunity lies in the explicit recognition of adventure as an important part of young people's development. The challenge lies in ensuring that adventure is understood in a way that is equitable, inclusive and accessible to all pupils. If adventure is defined too narrowly, schools may struggle to fulfil these expectations. The sector therefore has a vested interest in helping schools develop a clearer understanding of adventure while continuing to advocate for the distinctive contribution of outdoor experiences.

The outdoor learning sector's distinctive contribution is not simply access to activities such as climbing, paddlesports or expeditions. Its expertise lies in creating environments where uncertainty, challenge and managed risk can be experienced safely and purposefully through activities that also connect naturally with other elements of the EF, particularly engagement with nature and the environment.

For these reasons, a school's enrichment offer can, and I would argue should, include opportunities for adventurous outdoor activity in the classical sense of exploration, uncertainty and challenge. However, this should not be regarded as the whole picture. The challenge is not to broaden the definition of adventure until it encompasses every form of personal challenge, but to develop a clearer understanding of what young people are entitled to experience.

The outdoor learning sector has spent decades helping young people engage with uncertainty, risk, self-reliance and exploration through residentials, expeditions and adventurous activities, and has an important role to play in helping schools interpret and deliver that entitlement. Its expertise can help schools and policymakers think more clearly about the relationship between uncertainty, challenge, risk, exploration and personal growth, and how meaningful access to such experiences can be achieved for all young people.

Join the conversation on LinkedIn: How should we define adventure when it becomes an entitlement for all young people?

Further reading

Equitable access:

• Sport England 'Outdoors' research

• Routes to Nature: Unlocking local access in England and Wales

• Outdoors for all

Enrichment framework:

• Government response to the Curriculum and Assessment Review (2025)

• Enrichment benchmarks (2026)

A really good read:

• Bonnington, C. (1981) Quest for Adventure. Hodder & Stoughton.