Adventure Week – Day 1
The Great Adventure Week was off to a flier as Years 3 and 4 headed down to the ferry at Sandbanks and arrived at Middle Beach at Studland. The team walked along the coast path to Old Harry’s Rock and ate lunch in the sunshine there. We then headed back to the beach and spent a lovely afternoon of digging, playing and all sorts, finishing off with a very posh ice cream. We are now back at school and all set for an exciting day tomorrow.
Day 2
Day 2 of the Great Adventure Week saw the children take on the surf at the Wave in Bristol. There were huge smiles on show as the children ‘hung ten’ and showed tremendous progress in the session. After this, they crossed the border into Wales to a beautiful campsite by the river Wye. Pizza was followed by birthday cake (Brayden) and a scenic walk before settling down for bed.
Day 3
Today the great adventure continued down the river wye. With Canadian canoes strapped together 8 per boat what could possibly wrong. After 50 trips to the toilet the adventure begun at a ferocious pace. Each team, Otters, lions, Hogs, Tigers and the mighty Ducks battled to take the lead. As each boat passed one another the splashing commenced and didn’t stop until we reached our final destination 4 hrs later. Along the way we stopped for a beautiful beach lunch of freshly made wraps, carrots sticks and enough fruit to sink a canoe. With lunch and a swim done and dusted it was time to face the remaining rapids and navigate the shallows. Typically both Mrs Milward and Mr Hancocks team canoes both beached at various points and were forced to abandon ship and push. The pupils rounded off the afternoon with a well deserved rocket lolly before getting dressed up in the Hawaiian gear for dorm/tent performances followed by a brilliant and envy of the campsite silent disco. Hot chocolate and marshmallows rounded off a great day.
Day 4
After another late night of camp performances, disco’s and hot chocolates the children went to sleep almost instantly. After the excitement of the first night everyone slept a little longer. Thank goodness as 4.52am on morning one was even early in my book. It was a very productive morning with the camp working together to tidy up, pack up, have breakfast and restock the minibuses ready for the homeward bound journey and believe it or not we were all wrapped up by 9.30am. We arrived in the heart of the Forest of Dean and no one really knew whether we were in Wales or England. We had seemed to cross the border so many times that everyone was starting to lose track. As you’ll see from the Go ape photos they were all taken from ground level. Unfortunately it wasn’t till myself and Mrs Milward got up in the trees that there was no chance we were only holding on by one hand to snap away. Which in fact highlighted how confident and light footed all our pupils were as they literally ran around whilst the teachers nervously dragged themselves. We had the whole place to ourselves which was wonderful and the pupils squeezed every minute out of their time. Eventually we had finally found somewhere they could spend their pocket money which was of great excitement amongst camp. It was then a quick stop for lunch. When I say quick anything you do with over 30 children is never quick but an hour later we got through lunch before the two hour drive home. It’s been a brilliant 4 days so far and the only thing that’s been missing is probably vegetables but other that we can whole heartedly say your children have been an absolute pleasure to take away. Kind, generous, fun and happy. One more day to go and it’s going to be another corker!!!
Day 5 – The Final
The children were always going to be tired on the Friday so the plan was make the last day as exciting as possible. It didn’t disappoint. Go karting was an absolute hit and once the pupils had stopped crashing into one another the race was on. Hettie and Tom winning the year 4 quickest laps and Felix and Bess taking the year 3 honours. A quick lunch and it was straight off to the water park. It was a mad dash to get life jackets on and get to the front of the queue for the match briefing before being released onto the park. The teachers had their work cut out trying to keep up with the light footed children but it was an hour of non stop laughter. Thankfully we had just enough time to spend the last of their pocket money before we headed back to school to wrap the week up. It’s been an absolute pleasure to run the trip all week and I hope they’ve been returned suitably exhausted!
Photographs
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