Students from Ilkley Grammar School headed outdoors for some fresh air and exercise in the Yorkshire Dales to start the new year.

For a number of years now, students from year nine have headed to Ingleborough Hall Outdoor Education Centre, Clapham, within the rugged landscape of the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

The historic hall, which is owned by Bradford Council, caters for residential school and college group visits, with youngsters following adventurous and educational outdoor programmes.

Visitors stay in dormitories, and the hall’s grounds include eight acres of woodland and a formal garden.

During the first three weeks of January, the whole of year nine visits Ingleborough Hall – around 90 students and ten staff per week.

Each of the year group’s three bands, I, G and S, go for a week, spending Monday to Friday at the centre.

All the students are put into groups and each morning and afternoon take part in an activity.

Activities organised ranged from caving, mountain biking, gorge scrambling, rock climbing, and hill walking to team-building, puzzle solving and archery.

In the evenings, the students who took part enjoyed a disco, went outside on a night adventure, and staged shows and pantomimes.

All the Ilkley Grammar students who took part were said to have returned home from the trip exhausted but very happy.