Sandstone Group - About The Group
The Sandstone Group is a group of interested parties who oversee the award and recognise it. The group does not administer the award in a formal sense, but is a group of interested parties who want to see the continued existence of the award in the area.
Courses are run by holders of the MIA and MIC in the area, and are run on the principles of other climbing awards devised by Mountain Instructors, as outlined by Mountain Leader Training England in their 'Site Specific Climbing Wall Guidance Notes' at http://www.mlte.org/content.php?nID=7&catID=44&dID=18
Thus responsibility for the courses themselves is with the Course Providers, who undertake the training of candidates and who assess the candidates formally, in line with the Syllabus and Course Notes available on this website. These documents and the overall procedures and standards of the award are agreed by the Sandstone Group as a whole.
If you wish to become a candidate for the award you are trained and assessed by the Course Provider, and your contract is with them. the Course Provider is undertaking to train and assess you to the standards agreed by the Sandstone Group.
Plumpton College have agreed to keep records for the award so that employers, youth groups and others can verify that potential instructors actually hold the award. The college is therefore not involved with running the courses nor any of the course content; it only holds a database for the award. Registration as a Short Course student is needed so that the college's information system is able to collate the database information.
Those groups involved with the setting up of the Sandstone Group in some capacity are:
Plumpton College
Mountain Activities
Evolution Climbing Wall
Fourth Dimension
Bowles Outdoor Centre
Girlguiding UK - Blackland Farm
Hatt Adventures
The Trekking Company
Adventure Unlimited
Sussex Scouts - Broadstone Warren
Hindleap Warren