Kids Sessions and Courses

National Indoor Climbing Award Schemes (NICAS) are the perfect way to introduce young people to the climbing world and provide a brilliant learning gateaway allowing them to develop a love for the sport.  

NICAS Wild Climbers offers climbing skills for all, from age 3 and upwards. It's a fun, game orientated programme which aims to introduce young children safely into the indoor climbing environment, developing their awareness of climbing movements, improving confidence and creating a grassroots pathway into additional climbing activities.

NICAS has five progressive levels of award for complete novices to expert climbers. The scheme is split into two parts and takes a minimum of 80 hours to complete Levels 1 to 4 and an additional year to complete Level 5. Part one contains Levels 1 to 3 and part two contains Levels 4 and 5.

This session is designed for climbers aged 3 years and older. The cost includes entry and supervision. 

The session is a supervised climbing experience of bouldering and bottom-roped climbing run by our experienced instructor team.

Sessions run on Mondays and Fridays: 5:00pm-5:45pm

Cost: £9.50 per session  

To book one of these Open Sessions, you must first register your child as a PAYG user and then you will be able to book them onto a session via the Brookes Sport app on Android or IOS, or our Book Online portal. If you have any issues with this, please talk to our reception team.  

These sessions are bookable weekly and children participants work their way through the five levels. 

• Tuesdays: 4:30pm - 5:50pm, NICAS level 4-5
• Wednesdays: 4:30pm - 5:50pm, NICAS intro level 1
• Thursdays: 4:30pm - 5:50pm, NICAS level 2-3
• Fridays: 6:00pm - 7:20pm, NICAS level 2-3
• Fridays: 7:30pm - 8:50pm, NICAS level 4-5.

Cost: £14.50 per session

To book one of these Open Sessions, you must first register your child as a PAYG user and then you will be able to book them onto a session via the Brookes Sport app on Android or IOS, or our Book Online portal. If you have any issues with this, please talk to our reception team.

These courses run for 6 weeks at a time and are bookable 90 days prior to start date. 

2024 start dates: 

• Sunday 5 January 2025

To book onto one of these courses, you must first register your child as a PAYG user and then you will be able to book them onto a course via our Book Online portal. If you have any issues with this, please talk to our reception team.

Sundays

• 9:15am - 10:00am Wild Climbers 3-5 years
• 10:00am - 10:45am Wild Climber 6-8 years
• 11:00am - 12:20pm: NICAS 9-10 years
• 1:00pm - 2:20pm: NICAS 11-12 years
• 2:30pm - 3:50pm: NICAS 13-14 years
• 4:00pm - 5:20pm: NICAS 15-17 years.

Wild Climbers: £45 (block of 6)

NICAS: £85 (block of 6) 

• taster sessions
• after school clubs
• home school groups
• GCSE courses
• Scouts/Guides
• groups of up to 10 children for a series of lessons can learn to climb and belay as part of their extra-curricular activities, GCSE or A-level physical education, Duke of Edinburgh awards or to work towards cub-scout badges with the NICAS scheme or just for fun or as a reward.

Treat your class or youth group to an amazing experience, our instructors will provide all the equipment knowledge you need. You can arrange one off sessions or a series of progressive lessons. Schools and youth groups can park one minibus only on site, by advance arrangement.

To organise, please email the climbing team via, climb@brookes.ac.uk