Serre Chevalier 2023

Mr Andrews’ Blog Day 4

Brace yourself reader, for this is quite an update…. When I left you yesterday afternoon, the sun was shining and the runs were quiet. I enjoyed this blissful peace and quiet whilst spending a full thirty minutes poised piste-side to capture the perfect action shot of Benjamin’s group, only to discover he had taken them down a totally different run. Sigh.

Having then skied (very professionally and with great style) down the mountain to rendezvous with Mrs Coombs and Miss Groombridge, we found ourselves at the meeting point ahead of time, with a few moments to relax before the arrival of the children. We had just ordered our cappuccinos when the telephone rang…one of the group had fallen and hurt themselves and was apparently being brought down by the ski team. Cappuccinos forgotten, a matter of minutes later one of our Year 5 girls shot past us headfirst on a stretcher! We dashed across only to be met with smiles and laughter about the exciting journey she had just been on, descending the mountain at warp speed. Into the ambulance she went, accompanied by Mrs Coombs and they headed for l’hôpital (my French is really coming along).

The other skiers arrived at a rather more sedate speed, and we headed back to Fréjus, two team members down. A quiet afternoon followed, with the children recounting their skiing adventures to each other and enjoying some relaxation time. Dinner came and went with no sign of our missing pair, but then…a text message and an accompanying photo arrived. A fractured metatarsal! It benched Beckham, and it has benched this Year 5 skier for the duration of this week unfortunately.

They finally arrived back from the hospital, to what can only be described as a hero’s welcome. What an amazing display of resilience from our Year 5 student. A quick change in sleeping arrangements and lots of help and support from her ski-posse pals and the fab 23 were back in action!

The evening saw another of Quinn’s entertainment sessions. This time it was a quiz night to rival Mrs Latham and Mrs Bourne’s. The picture round was on chocolate bars (we had several experts), the music round featured Sweet Caroline (credit to Noah as apparently his dad is a Neil Diamond fan) and there was a competition to see who could build the tallest tower using only marshmallows and spaghetti. The final round was True or False – some of the questions we faced were:

Sharks have no bones…true or false?

Australia is wider than the moon…true or false?

Starfish don’t have blood…true or false?

An eclectic mix of topics, and I’m definitely going to have to verify some of these on Google later! Unbelievably, it was the Silver Team who took the spoils again and they will be the lucky recipients of a lunchtime milkshake tomorrow. Something must be done to stop this motley crew from such repetitive victory!

This morning we woke again to clear skies and good runs. The weather is very warm, and as you head up into the mountains you can still find excellent snow. With so many runs, and instructors who are clearly enjoying every moment with our wonderful children, it’s proving to be a logistical nightmare trying to act as paparazzi and capture photos for those still at home! JC and Gaspard (or Custard to the children) are full of praise for team St Faith’s, and there are so many high fives flying about that you’d be forgiven for thinking they were celebrating an Olympic Gold Medal!

As you can see from the video below, we managed to catch everyone except one Year 6 girl who was just too fast for the camera! Apologies and we will try again tomorrow! All are well, happy and safe (albeit one is now sporting a rather funky cast). Tomorrow, we will be dedicating ourselves to getting more action shots of the children – provided our French ski instructors stop playing hide and seek with them!