A day in the woods
In Nature
A day of purposeful and collaborative team time in the ancient Ashlyn Woods, South Cambridgeshire.
"Thank you both for facilitating a day that allowed us to think afresh, discover and laugh together in such a beautiful setting. All of this undoubtedly contributed to a stronger team dynamic, allowing us to go further into some big challenges of change and heavy workload more confidently. It was truly a day of rich learning and enjoyment, and we are deeply grateful to Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination."
Alasdair Cant, ACA Training, September 2021
These days offer teams time to meet together in nature, enabling everyone to reconnect, strengthen relationships and plan for the future. With delicious food, warm fires, comfortable chairs, and fresh coffee, this is team time without the formal structure and pressure imposed by the more usual corporate days out.
a fresh perspective
Never before has the importance of time out in nature been so valued by us all. A day of creative team time in the woods will give everyone a completely fresh perspective. We provide slow time and a unique space to reflect, re-connect, and re-ignite your curiosity and imagination. You will leave with renewed strength and energy, greater sense of personal power, and a deeper connection with colleagues.
Time And Space
People can become defined by their roles, seniority, and the structures of our usual work environments. Sometimes individuals will project a tightly controlled work-self, which can make it hard to connect with others on a deeper or more authentic level. Ultimately this can impact how people perform within teams.
Added to this are deadlines, longer working hours, and stress and this means there can be little time and space within a business for people to get to know one another on a more human level. Our well-being as a society is suffering with more and more days lost to health issues.
Typical ‘away days’ often do little to strip away these layers, focussing still on frenetic activities and tasks which have little longer term impact when people go back to the office. A day in the woods with us is in real contrast to this approach – it is about being seriously playful with time and space for everyone to reflect and re-connect first and fore-most with themselves, and subsequently with their colleagues.
We will explore the beautiful and unique surroundings of the woods creatively together at a gentle pace, taking time for ourselves and each other.
"I noticed how much I enjoyed being creative"
How It Works
Each day is unique and planned to suit your needs. We work with multinationals, start-ups and social enterprises and will arrange a briefing call to agree your aims before shaping a plan for your day in the woods. Creative and collaborative activities will be interspersed with time to talk together around the fire and opportunities to walk and explore the woods around you. Here is an example of a model agenda.
The cost for the day starts from £125 per person plus food, depending on the size of the group. Reduced rates available for social enterprises and education partners.
"Holding our annual team away day at the woods was a great decision. It took us right out of our comfort zone but in a calm and enabling way. We learned about each other and connected on a deeper level."
Sarah Reakes, Managing Director KISS
Being comfortable
ensuring your safety
We have thought carefully about how to ensure your day is as safe as possible in terms of Covid 19 risks. All events will adhere to the latest guidance from Public Health England. There is plenty of space for you to maintain appropriate distances from as soon as you arrive and park your cars and throughout the day. Everyone can take the space they need to feel comfortable and to help others feel comfortable too.
the food
All our days are catered by the wonderful Garden Kitchen, an award-winning independent café that creates nourishing and delicious snacks, lunches and teas from locally and ethically sourced ingredients. Here’s an example of their current lunch dishes you can choose from but menus can be adapted to suit your needs. All food is served individually in 100% Biodegradable packaging. current menu.
kitchen & shelter
There are generous spaces under cover if the weather isn’t smiling on us and a fully equipped kitchen with fresh water so that we can cater for all your needs.
toilets
There are plenty of composting toilets each enjoying its own unique woodland view.
and the fire
Fires are essential for these days out in the woods. They will be lit for your arrival and there for you throughout the day.
Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination
CCI is an arts, education and well-being charity. We have been working in the outdoors with communities for the last 15 years, learning together how these spaces enable creativity and well-being. Below is a short film that illustrates these qualities. Young children and their families and educators are at the heart of our programmes (read more of this work here) and we target our work at communities in disadvantaged areas of the county whilst also researching, publishing, and sharing accounts of the work locally, nationally, and internationally.
Income raised from these days will directly support the work of the charity and make sure more children and young people and their communities are meeting in nature.
visit our site
Ruth Sapsed is the former director of Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination. As the creative producer of their work, she is interested in facilitating the development of creativity in everyone, young and old.
Filipa Pereira-Stubbs is a Cambridge based creative practitioner with thirty years experience in dance & health and in community arts. Filipa devises and delivers arts, dance & health programmes in the community, in clinical settings, in museums and galleries, and outdoors in Nature.
Contact Us
Our Vision
Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination's vision is of a society of individuals and communities for whom creativity is such a valued and accessible part of their lives that it empowers them to become more fully themselves, more richly alive and more responsive to the challenging, difficult and beautiful world.
Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination is a registered charity. Our work is almost entirely funded through voluntary income thanks to the generosity of members of the public, charitable trusts, foundations, and philanthropic businesses and individuals.
This policy explains how we use and protect your data as part of our work. Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination promises to safely process and store your personal data. We strive to ensure that our paperwork and forms are clear about how we will use the data we collect.
Data plays a big role in what we do. It is fundamental for the safe and effective running of our courses, programmes and our charity. The section on 'how we use your personal information' will explain how we use data about you. As per the section on 'what we collect', you may withdraw your consent for us to process your information at any time.
What this policy is about
This privacy policy explains how Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination (we) processes your personal information ('data'). In this policy, "processes" means collects, stores, shares and otherwise uses for lawful purposes. "We" and "our" means Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination and it covers all the instances where we might process personal information of supporters, beneficiaries and other relevant parties of Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination. This policy was updated in September 2019 to reflect the new data protection legislation called the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulation (PECR).
If you have any questions about this policy or how we use your personal information, please contact us using the contact details given below.
Organisations are permitted to process data if they have a legal basis in doing so. We process data when:
• We have express and informed consent given by the person whose data is being processed; and/or
• We have a legitimate interest in processing the data; and/or
• It is necessary in relation to a contract or agreement which the person has entered into or because the person has asked for something to be done so they can enter into a contract or agreement; and/or
• There is a legal obligation on Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination to process data.
• Where Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination is relying solely on consent as the basis for processing data, we are required to obtain your expressed consent and you can modify or withdraw this consent at any time by notifying us in writing, although this may affect the extent to which we are we able to provide services to or interact with you in future.
Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination may change this policy from time to time and any such changes will be published on our website. Notwithstanding any change to this policy, we will continue to process your personal data in accordance with your rights and our obligations in law.
Your personal information: what we collect
The personal information we collect about you will depend on whether you are supporting us by giving a gift, a student participating in one of our activities, signing up to our mentor scheme, registering your child on a programme or course, applying for a job, volunteering vacancy or expressing interest in supporting us. It may include (but isn't limited to):
• your name, address, telephone number, date of birth, gender and email address;
• debit or credit card information, your bank account number, sort code and other banking information, information required to validate your identity and prevent fraud;
• your preferences and interests, we may utilise your preferences to ensure we send you the most relevant communication in the future;
• other information you provide to us from time to time which is relevant and necessary for us to collect and process
• your activity online concerning your visit/s to our website and when we send you an email
• information on your family or background, current or former circumstances, specifically so that we can assist you further or benefit from your support;
• You, as the data subject, may change your preferences or request deletion of your data at any time in writing, subject to any overriding legal obligation that we may have for its retention. We may keep such data on a 'suppression list' so we know not to contact you or process your data in future until further notice.
You also have the right to raise any issues of concern about us regarding data protection and our processing of your information to the data protection regulator, The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). Here is a helpful link to their website.
We would also never sell your information to a third party.
Supporter profiles:
We use profiling and screening techniques to ensure communications are relevant and timely, and provide an improved experience for our supporters. Profiling allows us to target our resources effectively, which we know will be important to our supporters. We do this because it allows us to understand the background of the people who support us and it helps us to make appropriate requests to supporters who may be able and willing to give more than they already do. Importantly, it enables us to raise more funds, sooner and more cost-effectively than we otherwise would.
When building a profile we may analyse geographic, demographic and other information relating to you in order to better understand your interests, preferences and motivation for giving, in order to contact you with the most relevant communications. In doing this, we may use additional information from third party sources or publicly available sources. This could be, for example, addresses, education history, listed job titles or typical earnings in a given area
How we use your personal information
We use your personal information for the following purposes:
• to confirm that your donations, purchases and fees have been processed correctly or to validate your Gift Aid claim;
• for providing the relevant information to you regarding the work we do to support young people;
• for invoicing purposes when you buy or donate to us;
• to send you administrative information, relating to our organisation and its activities, for example, information about a residential a young person is attending, where relevant;
• for our internal purposes such as management, research, analytics, organisational reporting, and ways that will improve efficiencies;
• to check with you that you are content with regards the type of communications that you receive;
• to market our events, fundraising opportunities, and other ways to get involved with Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination, including occasionally third-party events or activities that may be of interest to you by the appropriate means and in accordance with the GDPR and the PECR.
• we may use of cookies and other similar technologies on our online channels or platforms to help you have a better experience when you engage with us;
• to help the emergency services if required;
• to prevent and detect criminal activity and fraud;
• to comply with applicable laws, regulations, court orders, government and law enforcement agencies' requests, to operate our systems properly and to protect ourselves, our beneficiaries and our supporters.
Who we share your personal information with
We do not sell or share personal details to third parties for the purposes of marketing.
If we run an event or fundraising activity, it may require the service of a third party and then we might need to share your details with them. This would happen if your data was required to deliver the specific activity, for example we would share your data with an outsourced mailing house provider, in order for us to send you a fundraising appeal.
If we share your data with colleagues or programme partners, including outside of the European Union, we will only do so if we are confident that they adhere to the same high standards that we do when processing data and protecting its privacy and security.
If we share your information with other organisations or data processors we do not allow them to use your information for their own purposes and they have to follow our strict instructions whilst complying with appropriate security measures. We regularly assess their security measures and we continue to monitor their compliance throughout the time we use their services.
We may also share your data with law enforcement agencies, regulators, courts, public authorities or emergency services when required to do so.
Cookies and other similar technologies
We use cookies and similar technologies to collect and store information (which may include your personal information) about how you interact with our website. We may use these technologies to help us deliver relevant information about our organisation.
Cookies are small text files placed on your device which uniquely identify your device. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your device.
For more information about our use of these technologies please contact Christine Hall, Director of Finance.Ruth Sapsed, Director.
Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. Once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy policy. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy policy applicable to the website in question.
How long we keep your personal information
The period for which we keep your information depends on the purpose for which your information was collected and the use. We will not keep your personal information for longer than necessary for those purposes or for any other legal requirements.
We review all data retention periods every two years. Data collected for accounts purposes are kept for seven years plus an additional period of six months. You can request your data to be forgotten and we will delete all your data other than anything we have to retain for legal reasons.
Keeping your personal information up to date
We want to make sure that any personal information we hold about you is up to date. So if you think your personal information is inaccurate, you can ask us to correct or remove it at no charge to you. This is called your right to rectification. Please email our office at info@cambridgecandi.org.uk if you would like to change any information that we may hold on you.
Under the GDPR, you have a right to know what personal information we hold about you. To request any information, please email us at info@cambridgecandi.org.uk and we will make sure that this is handled in a swift and appropriate manner.
If you do not want to receive information from us, please get in touch with us and we will change your preferences: info@cambridgecandi.org.uk.
How we protect your personal information
We maintain the highest standards of data privacy and security to protect your personal details and other information about you because we want you to feel completely confident about the communications you receive from us. We regularly review our processes and procedures to protect your information from unauthorised access and use, accidental loss and/or destruction.
How to Contact Us
Please contact our Data Controller at: info@cambridgecandi.org.uk
How to find us
Ashlyn Woods is located in between Wimpole Hall and Royston, ten miles west of Cambridge. We will send detailed directions and there is plenty of parking.