Year 4 Residential Carroty Wood Day 3

Day 3

When you last left us we were just about to tuck into our final evening meal. A wholesome lasagne complete with salad and garlic bread! The food has been excellent here and the staff and children have eaten extremely well. With full tummies came the first disappointment of the trip. Before dinner Mrs Fidock and Mrs Mellin had readied the camp fire. As we came out to begin roasting our marshmallows disaster struck…the rain, which my phone told me had a 0% chance of hitting us, had arrived. We swiftly postponed the fire and instead created our own St Faith’s Cinema. Rearranging the room and changing into our PJ’s. As we settled down for our film: The Diary of a Wimpy Kid 3, Rafi remarked “What an excellent end to our holiday,” I couldn’t have put it better myself. The children laughed their socks off throughout the movie and we even had a half-time break for popcorn, marshmallows and hot chocolate – the perfect combination! When the film finished we retired to bed and it is with great relief that I can inform you that every child slept through until 6.30am this morning. We finally managed to tire them out!

We have just finished our breakfast, all the children have stripped their own bed and they are finishing off packing their bags. Our coach is expected to arrive at 10.30am and already we are ahead of time thanks to hard graft from the staff and excellent listening skills from the children. This is the penultimate blog entry. Will we make check out in time? Will the Coombes brothers remember their gloves? Did Charley even unpack? All the questions and more will be answered soon.

Later…

The last hours of a residential are always entertaining. We were victims of our own success this morning having been ready to leave too early. This meant lots of excited children rushing around the communal area. Our decision… another forest walk! This was met with joy and elation. It’s been great to see the children so excited to be outside and at one with nature. We hiked off to where we made our dens yesterday. Success… they were all still standing. After talking about how we could improve them there were congratulatory slaps on backs all round. We then carried on jumping piddling streams and fallen trees.

Next we had one of those moments that can only occur without prior planning. We stumbled across a clearing with some pews. At first we thought nothing of it and sat down. It was only when one of the children spotted a large cross hanging in the trees that we realised we were in an outside church. We spent a couple of minute reflecting on our trip thinking about what we were going to take away from the trip before reciting the school prayer. It was a lovely moment full of awe and wonder. The children shared what they have learnt using all of the Language for Learning that we as a school have been implementing into our lessons. After this, normal business resumed as the children roamed the woods as we meandered back to the lodge.

The children have been great to take away. They have done each and every one of you proud! I must thank Mrs Fidock, Mrs Bonner and of course the right-hand lady Mrs Mellin. They have been excellent fun and worked extremely hard to ensure your children have had the best time possible. It has truly been the best residential trip I have been part of.

We can’t wait to see you all at pick up. For now, it’s the open motorway and the promise of another lasagne that is keeping us all going.

All the best

Mr Andrews