1967 was a good year for Outdoor Education. Not only did Manchester city council have the vision to setup Ghyll Head but both North and South Tyneside authorities each setup their own residential outdoor centres in the form of High Borrans and Thurston OEC .

To mark 40 years of residential outdoor education in the Lake District the three centres ran a combined event the Tri County Tournament. This involved a team of students from each of the counties taking part in a weekend of adventure and co-operation. Manchester was represented by a team of year 11 students from Trinity High School.

The course was based at High Borrans and started on the Friday afternoon with mixed authority teams presented with a number of problem solving challenges around the grounds. The students integrated very quickly and you would not have known they were from three different authorities. After the evening meal they took part in an orienteering competition that found some groups finishing in the dark. The following two days saw each of the teams undertake ghyll scrambling, canoeing and abseiling challenges. To finish off each of the groups created a presentation of their experiences over the weekend. It was very obvious from the presentations that the weekend had been a huge a success and it was a sad moment when they had to say their goodbyes.

All who took part agreed that this should be an annual event and we are already looking into dates for next year.