Sport Aberdeen’s Active Schools team and Community Sport team recently reactivated the indoor climbing wall at Northfield Academy as a result of a successful funding application.

The teams joined forces and secured £3.9K in November 2024 from Aberdeen City Health & Social Care Partnership’s Health Improvement Fund, covering the cost of inspection and recertification of the wall and helping to train 32 people to deliver bouldering sessions.

Bouldering is a discipline of rock climbing, performed at a low height without ropes or harnesses, and has many benefits for physical and mental health.

The indoor climbing wall at Northfield Academy was originally installed in 2017 by Dream Climbing Walls. Unfortunately, the wall became out of use due to staff turnover at the school and the loss of qualified teaching staff to support climbing sessions.

A bustling opening event was held on Thursday 27 March to celebrate the facility being back in action, with a presentation from Sport Aberdeen’s Lead Community Sports Hub Coordinator, Joe Coleman.

This was all made possible through close partnership working between Sport Aberdeen, Northfield Academy staff and a range of community groups via the priority neighbourhood partnership that is active in the area.

Joe said:

“It has been a real pleasure to work with the team at the school to get the doors re-opened on this excellent facility. 

“It’s so important that young people have access to sports that sit outside of the mainstream provision. I’m stoked to see how enthusiastic the kids at the school have been so far and have no doubt we’ll be seeing a healthy bouldering and climbing scene coming out of Northfield as a result.”

Stacey Stuart, Active Schools Coordinator, said:

“The buzz around the newly reactivated wall has been incredible, from pupils, staff and community partners alike and getting to watch so many people experience bouldering, many for the first time, has been amazing.

“There is definitely potential for so many opportunities now we have the wall recertified and trained staff available to support. It is a real asset for both the school and the local community and I am so pleased to see it being recognised as such.”

To date, more than 50 young people have taken part in school taster sessions; 24 of which are part of the school’s enhanced provision, and 17 one-to-one sessions have taken place.

Following the interest expressed from the taster sessions, school lunch club sessions have been planned, as well as an all-girls bouldering group.

One young person at Northfield Academy commented:

“Through bouldering you get to know different people better. Bouldering makes me feel supported and lets me trust others. I have been able to do a lot more than I thought I could. At the start of the year, on the residential trip, I nearly cried when we went climbing so bouldering has really helped my confidence. Now that I’ve tried it, it would be really good to be able to climb more regularly and have others try it out too.”

Another young person at Northfield Academy commented:

“Bouldering has been a really beneficial experience for me. We get to bond with the people we climb with and the instructors. There are always people nearby to help you if you need it. It’s really fun and you get to learn new skills that you wouldn’t have learnt otherwise. Now that I’ve tried it, I want to share my experience and encourage others to try it too because it’s been so positive for me.”

Looking ahead to the future, plans include attracting further support and funding to reactive roped rock climbing, embedding the activities as a regular part of the curricular offering at the school, supporting local clubs to develop performance pathways and enabling other external groups within the community to use the climbing wall out with school hours.

To find out more about using the climbing wall for bouldering, get in touch with communitysport@sportaberdeen.co.uk