2023 Year 6 Residential: High in the trees

Headmaster’s Blog:

Last night saw a feast of barbecue chicken with wedges, peas and corn followed by a brownie with plenty of cream. Thoroughly recharged, the children were ready for an hour of football and fun activity with Miss Johnson, who was thoroughly hogging the limelight at centre back. The children finally retired to bed after a hot chocolate and a detailed explanation of sleep expectations from our camp leader Madame Steed!

It did the trick though, and a surprisingly good night’s sleep was had by all. As a result, everybody was up reasonably early (but not too early) and a hearty breakfast was devoured. Mountains of toast with lashings of jam and marmite, as well as yoghurt and cereal (and for one child their specialty of a buttered Weetabix) disappeared into hungry tummies and our purple and gold army made its way off for the first activities of the day.

Today we were blessed with wonderful weather and some hot sun, which ultimately meant that I was going to get my swimwear out and take to the river. Unfortunately, this meant that there was a horde of year six predators aiming to separate me from my kayak. I therefore spent the whole day frantically grasping the side of my kayak with a desperation that in the end gave way to tumultuous demand from some very aggressive attackers.

Sadly, but not surprisingly, the day ended with me running out of dry clothes, although fortunately I was able to dry some on the lines provided, as did the rest of our troupe.

After some lovely hot showers, (yes, even the soap-dodgers amongst us), we made our way up to the dining room for a very tasty spaghetti Bolognese followed by a scrumptious carrot cake. Over dinner, the children were full of their exploits on the river and there were very few of them that got away without a dunking themselves, which only added to the excitement.

Tonight, we see the night out with some cricket and grass sledging and tomorrow we look forward to the arrival of Mrs Coombes and Mrs Crocker, who should probably brace themselves for an enthusiastic (and potentially quite wet) welcome.