Urban Saints Westbrook Centre,
Oakhill Road,
Ryde,
PO33 1PU
01983 811 118 westbrook@urbansaints.org
We are very flexible when it comes to arrival and departure times and these often depend on whether you are coming mid-week or at weekends, and also on your travel arrangements. Please bear in mind that your first meal will be the evening meal on the day of arrival and the last meal will be lunch on the day of departure.
Our administrator will be pleased to discuss your arrival and departure time options with you and it best to sort this early on when you are working out your travel arrangements.
The Isle of Wight is served by two ferry companies (Wightlink and Red Funnel, both offering car and foot passenger services) and a hovercraft company (Hovertravel). Please see our Travel Information page for details of routes. Rates vary greatly depending on time of day/year and size of group but we can usually obtain a discounted rate for you that is less than advertised prices, whether for cars, coaches or foot passengers - please contact us for details.
If you are coming across by hovercraft or the FastCat to Ryde it is possible to walk along the sea front to Westbrook and this will take around 45 minutes. If you need your luggage transported and do not have a vehicle with you, we can collect your luggage at the terminal in our minibus and deliver it to Westbrook for a small charge.
Alternatively we can shuttle your group and their luggage to Westbrook from the terminal in our minibus but bear in mind it can only take 11 passengers with luggage each trip and each round trip takes about 20 minutes. Please ring to enquire about the charge for minibus transfers.
There is also a regular bus service from Ryde Pier to a bus stop about 3 minutes walk from Westbrook.
Some large groups hire a local coach to transport them from the terminal to Westbrook - see our Travel Information page for details.
At some stage soon after arriving we will need to give your group a short welcome talk and safety briefing. If your group is arriving altogether it is the best to do this straight away, and following this you can send the young people to their rooms to unpack and look around the site. If you group's arrival is staggered then it is best to send young people to their rooms to unpack as they arrive and delay the welcome talk until everyone has arrived.
We will also need to spend 15 minutes or so with the main leader (and any minibus drivers if you are hiring our minibus) just to check through some important details about your stay.
We have space for about 25 cars and two coaches on site close to the main building.
If anyone discovers they have forgotten their bedding or towel then we can provide these for a small charge. For anything else there is a large Tesco store just 5 minutes drive away which is open until midnight (apart from Sunday when it close at 4:30pm).
Unfortunately we don't permit groups to self-cater. Our fees include three meals a day prepared by our chef, from the evening meal on the day of arrival through to lunch on the day of departure.
Our team are very used to dealing with a wide variety of dietary requirements whether due to allergies, for religious reasons or personal choice, and we do our best to cater for 'fussy eaters' too!
You will be asked for all the dietary needs for your group several weeks in advance of your stay to give our chef time to plan the different menus required. It is vital that this information is provided to us correctly. It is not unknown for us to be advised as a meal is being served that a child has a particular dietary requirement that we were not told about, and it is then quite difficult to suddenly provide a suitable meal for them!
We are very flexible when it comes to mealtimes and you are free to choose the times that suit your group and programme. However, from experience we do not recommend breakfast before 7:30 am and the evening meal after about 8pm. You should allow 45 minutes to an hour for each meal - larger groups always take longer. On your departure day your lunch time should be at least two and a half hours before your departure time from the site in order to give time for all the clearing up necessary.
For breakfast we always have a variety of cereals, bread and toast available. You will also be served a cooked breakfast or pastries.
Lunch is normally rolls with a choice of fillings, crisps and chocolate bars, although a cooked lunch or roast is possible on your last day if you prefer.
Our evening dinner menus vary depending on the age-group being catered for and the time of year, but it will always have two courses. Sample menus are available on request and we can provide your exact menu in advance if you wish.
Groups often bring cakes, tuck shops etc. to supplement the meals we provide. Unfortunately, these snacks are sometimes offered shortly before mealtimes, which leads to a lot of wastage of food we have prepared as the young people are not hungry when meals are served. We therefore ask groups to be considerate of this as we hate to throw uneaten food away!
For School groups and others on the Standard Rate, the Westbrook team will serve all the meals, wash up and clear away afterwards.
Church/Christian Groups pay a reduced fee as they will be expected to serve meals and clear away/wash up afterward under the supervision of the Westbrook team. We do have a commercial dishwasher which makes the job easier!
We want everyone to be able to experience a residential at Westbrook and so we have made some adjustments to the buildings to make the centre as accessible as possible.
There is a ramp at the back entrance to the building for those who need wheelchair access, and this leads to our disabled access room on the ground floor (which is equipped with a flashing fire sounder for those with a hearing impairment). Situated next to this room is a disabled access toilet with walk-in shower. The main lounge and dining area are also nearby on the ground floor and we have a wheelchair lift in the dining area for access to the upper tier of seating.
The Laing Room (games room) is a short distance up the drive. It is wheelchair accessible and has a disabled toilet and walk-in shower.
The grounds are quite bumpy in places and some areas are on a slope, but wheelchair users do find they can move around with a little help, although in the winter months when the grounds are wet and muddy this can be more challenging.
If you need more specific information about whether a young person with a specific disability or additional need will be able to visit Westbrook please don't hesitate to get in touch.
Yes, we have WiFi available for guests at Westbrook. We do not display the passwords to the various WiFi networks as some groups leaders do not want their young people to have internet access, but we will happily let the leaders/teachers know what the network passwords are for young people and leaders.
The system is fairly robust but we do not guarantee you will be able to stream high definition video in the meeting rooms so we always advise leaders to download any videos they will be using in advance.
Yes, we have a full colour scanner/copier in the Office that groups may use for a small charge.
We do have various washing machines/driers in our laundry which will be in use by the Westbrook team throughout your stay. However, if you need clothing or bedding washed in an emergency we will be happy to help.
Children aged 4 to 7 on the day of arrival pay 50% of the fees applicable to the group, and under 4s stay free of charge. Children aged 8 and over pay the normal full fee.
We do not permit any fireworks on site as we have a lot of wildlife living in our grounds and an RSPB bird sanctuary nearby. We also try and maintain good relationships with our neighbours by keeping the noise to a minimum in the evenings!
The use of Chinese lanterns is also not permitted at the site. They should never be used near the coast as they can be mistaken for a distress flare which may involve calling out the coastguard unnecessarily. Since there is no control over where they land they are also a leading cause of fires in natural habitats such as the woodland at Westbrook.
Westbrook does not have a public phone and our office may not be manned to receive calls during your group's visit - especially at weekends. Group leaders should therefore give parents an emergency mobile number to use during the group's visit should they need to contact their child or the leaders urgently. Please note that mobile phone reception is rather intermittent on the site and so people may need to keep trying in order to get through.
We always go around the house with leaders before a group leaves just to check rooms are empty. If you do find you have left something behind we will probably find it when we check the house after your stay. We notify group leaders of anything that we find and keep items for six weeks before donating them to a local charity shop (unless items are valuable, in which case we will keep them for three months). If we need to send things back to leaders or a parent we will arrange a suitable delivery at the recipient's expense.
