Wishford Weekend

Year 6 were somewhat quiet in school on Monday but it was in a good cause as it was less than 24 hours since they had returned from their ‘Wishford Weekend’ at Hatherop Castle School near Cirencester, Gloucestershire. For the first time at this annual event, there were year 6 pupils from seven of the eight current Wishford Schools, making about 150 11-year-olds in all. After some delays en-route we arrived and went almost immediately to supper while Mr Groves, Mrs Coombes and a small team press-ganged to help erected the tents. After a slightly rushed arrival, we settled down looking across the extensive lawn to enjoy the dance competition. Having missed our practice time while stuck on the M25, we were planning an ‘organic’ and ‘spontaneous’ performance and were rather relying on watching a few other schools to at least find out how the music ended. Unfortunately, we were drawn first (Thanks for that, Henny). Un-daunted, our professional pupils gave a creditable and lively performance. Despite some slightly biased marking from Mr Groves, we didn’t win but had a good time, nonetheless.

The rest of the weekend followed in a similarly energetic vein including sports, games, team-building activities, the Hatherop fete, a film, plenty of yummy food, a BBQ, disco and some time to just chill out and enjoy the beautiful school grounds. All the pupils did a great job looking after the camp and the boys coped particularly well with some rather ‘cosy’ sleeping arrangements. After all the food had been eaten, the games played, the music danced to, the (damp) tents packed away we piled back onto our coach to sleep through a couple of films and arrive back at school just after 1.30pm.

It may take us all a day or two to recover but it was definitely worth it!