Sayers Croft - Day 3

We're home!  Just wanted to add a quck post to update and add a few pics of what we got up to today, although I imagine you probably have all had a blow by blow account from your children!

This morning only 3 children were awake when I went to get them up at half 7 - a bit of a change from yesterday!.  After a gentle wake up call, the children got ready, packed their bags and stripped their beds.  After breakfast, we went out for out final activity session with Kate and Jess the dog.

Jess, ready for action!

We started in the lab getting an up close look at the animals of Sayers Croft.  The site had a wide range of stuffed animals (which had died from natural causes) which the children got to get a close look at.  They took lots of pictures!

Next we went on a bug hunt and examined lots of minibeasts.

Next we played some games to learn some more about seed dispersal.  First we had to run around and gather everything we needed to grow as seeds.  Then we had an added obstacles of birds in our way!

If we got caught by the birds we became bird poo!

Finally we had a game of nose jousting!  It involved lots of masking tapes and laughing!

Nose jousting!

We sat outside and had a picnic lunch because another school was already in our dormitory (boo!) and then had one final play in the adventure playground before we got our suitcases and headed to the mini-bus.

BYE SAYERS CROFT!

Sayers Croft - Day 2

Thank you so much everyone for all your comments - we have read them all and they really gave us a boost.

Last night at bedtime we were mainly good and got a good night's sleep, although the girls were awake before 6 and dancing in the hallway!

After a breakfast of beans on toast, we went ballista building.  Luke says it was "really fun!"  We had to use a ballista to fire wet sponges at each other.  At first we were pretty bad but we got better and Lucy N managed to hit Bella, and Ned hit George from the bottom of the hill!  We then had a distance test which Ned was winning for ages, until the very last sponge when George was victorious!

Flying Bombs Team!

Shoreham VC Team!

Next was the blindfold trail and the maze.  In the blindfold maze we all had to wear blacked out goggles and be led around obstacles.  Erin says Elise was a very good leader and managed to get her the whole way round really carefully. 

Chris leading Bella through the blindfold maze.

We were a bit disappointed at lunch as all the cheese and bacon turnovers were gone as we were last to get our lunch.  Thaila was especially upset because it was going to be her first time trying one!  Instead we had jacket potato with beans - yes we really did have beans for two meals running!

After lunch we split into two groups and did rock climbing and the low ropes course.  Jake scaled the rock wall within seconds, amazing everyone!  Jenna was like a small monkey climbing round the outside of the rock wall - it was quite incredible seeing the way she moved!  Amongst many others, Mia managed to climb the rock wall twice, after much encouragement when she decided she was stuck and couldn't move! 

Elise completing the rock wall for the second time!

After some encouragement on the low ropes course, Rebecca managed to complete the tarzan rope, together with a loud, 'Rebecca-style' scream!  Mrs Pape joined us this afternoon, it was lovely to see a familiar face.

Oliver doing the 'tarzan swing'!

We have just returned from the campfire, where we toasted marshmallows - Elsie successfully managed to set fire to every one of her marshmallows!  Everyone had to find their own stick and after about 20 failed attempts, Jamie managed to find the 'perfect' stick to toast his marshmallows with!  We then learnt some new campfire songs, including 'Zombie', 'Pirate Song' and 'Gingganggooly'.  Erin and Thaila were stars, starting off the 'Pirate Song' and reteaching everyone the words!

Singing round the campfire.

Bedtime now - we are looking forward to coming home tomorrow...although not too much!

Awards so far...
The award for most brushed hair goes to Ned, closely followed by Katie.

The award for most changes in a day goes to Elise, who wore somewhere in the region of six different outfits today!

PS - technical issue sorted, photos are up for today and yesterday!

Sayers Croft - Day 1

The adventurers set off!

We're here!  The journey was pretty uneventful and we almost made it the entire way without anyone throwing up!

The adventurers arrive!

When we first got here we got all our luggage, went to reception and got our keys for our dormitory, which is Bramley.  It is the best, most luxurious one here!  We made our beds, then got our luggage and unpacked.  We had a practice fire drill and it made us all jump out of our skin because it was so loud.

Then we had lunch.  Elise said it was the best 'school' dinner she has ever had!  The clean plates certainly seemed to back that comment up!



After lunch we started our first activity, which was orienteering.  We started in the 'triangle' between Peaslake and Friday Street.  It was fun because we got to explore Sayers Croft by ourselves.  Oliver and Chris were the clear winners of this activity, completely both challenges in no time at all.

Ready to start orienteering.

Next was shelter building.  We were supposed to make our shelter bear-proof, water-proof and wind-proof. 

We all got drenched on the water test and Lucy O got eaten by a 'bear'!

Lucy before the bear attack!

Oliver was the 'toad-catcher' for this activity as there were a lot of toads in the area. 

Luckily everyone was wearing 'Bob the Builder' helmets as the shelters were also not wind-proof!

Before dinner we all went to the field and had a game of football or played on the adventure playground.  Another team joined us and although they cheated, we still beat them 4-1!

We have just come back from our night walk where we made friends with some trees and got to see what it was like to be a mouse. 

We also went into the round house and found out what life would have been like inside the first proper houses ever built.

In the morning we are building ballistas, we can't wait!

Lots of love,

Moore Class

Royal Wedding Celebrations!

What a week this has been!  Although short, all classes have managed to cram in lots of fun activities all revolving around the Royal Wedding.

Barton Class made hats fit for royalty and learnt all about the Royal family.

Palmer Class made flags and bunting using repeating patterns, flower decorations for the tables and 'rocky road' to eat at our celebrations.

Moore Class looked at the Royal family tree and who the different members of the Royal family were, made carriages to get Kate to Westminster Abbey and designed their own plates to commemorate the day.

Cameron Class looked at existing commemorative plates and how much they were worth, then, decided they could make plates worth a fortune, designed and created their own!  They also created a travel brochure guide to London and solved maths problems to help out the Lord Chamberlain who was having some trouble getting organised for the Wedding Reception.

The week culmuinated today in a street party where the children came dressed in wedding attire, ate party food at a banquet table and had party games in their classrooms.  

Thank you to all the parents who came along and helped out at the street party.

Hardelot - Day 4

Welcome to the last day of our blog - can't quite believe a week has gone past already!

The excitement of the week finally caught up with the children today and we had a very quiet group for most of the day.  It made quite a change!

Today we visited two museums about World War 2.  The first, La Coupole, was a museum within a bunker.  It taught the children all about the V1 and V2 bombs, and touched on other areas of the war too. 

The second, Le Blockhaus d'Eperlecques, showed the children the site where the V2 bombs were going to be built and launched, had it not been for the British bombing and destroying it first. 

The children then had free time this afternoon, where they played a mixture of the different activities available at the Centre.

The food here has been fantastic and I think its safe to say we are all returning having put on some weight!  At dinner time today Sara came in to say goodbye and told us just how delighted she was at the children's behaviour and politeness throughout the week.  They have been a real credit to the school this week.

Tomorrow we are heading to Chateau d'Hardelot in the morning and the children will be once again buying their own lunch before heading back to the EuroTunnel.  We look forward to returning to school - the children can't wait to tell you all about everything we didn't put in the blog!

Hardelot - Day 3

Who would have thought that a residential in March would require suntan lotion rather than woolly hats and scarves?!  Today was yet another beautiful day here at Hardelot, without a cloud in the sky.

You will be pleased to know that all the children have now showered so you shouldn't have any smelly children returning to you on Friday! 

The day started with a trip to the market in Boulogne where the children had a chance to look around.  We then set them the task of buying lunch speaking only in French.  Amazingly, every child was able to ask for what they wanted and hand over the correct money with only a little help from the teachers.  Not content with bread and ham, the children opted for an array of different foods - including salami, olives, chillis, dried apricot and strawberries!  Archie and Ellie in particular did really well with their French and were soon asking for things in French with no teacher in sight!

After a brief stop at the look-out point in Boulogne, we determined it was too misty to see the UK so moved on. 

As the weather was so nice we decided on a slight change to our itinery and went to the beach in Le Touquet instead.  This, according to the children, was the highlight of the holiday so far.  We ate our hard-earned lunches, then the children had a play in the sand.  This began with Joseph and Archie being buried up to their necks in sand and interesting 'designs' being made on them by Harrison and Ben!?!? 

Joseph decided he was then going to dig to China, which all the boys joined in helping.  They claim to have almost made it, but got a little bored so went to play football with Mr Ball instead.  After a couple of hours, we ventured down to the water's edge, where the children paddled their feet.  Somehow Abbie ended up a little soaked and had to wear a towel around her waist for the journey home!

Scary stories in the dark finished the evening and we are soon heading to bed - a mixture of long days and sea air have tired the children out. 

Come back tomorrow for our penultimate day here in Hardelot.

PS - the children have really enjoyed reading the comments from everyone - thank you so much for taking the time to write something.  If you are reading this, feel free to add something more...

Hardelot - Day 2

Hellooooo!  The children seem to have found their feet today, so we had a very......interesting day!

The teachers got up at seven only to find the boys were already up, dressed and ready to go for the day.  The girls didn't do quite so well as only Abbie was up.  Not surprisingly, the only two that wanted showers were still getting their 'beauty' sleep!

We set off for the day at 9.30, half an hour before expected and made our way to Montreuil-sur-mer.  After a long walk along the remparts we stopped for lunch, which had been made by the cooks at Hardelot. 

 Next it was off to the chocolate factory for a tour and the chance to find out how different types of chocolate are made.  The children were impeccably behaved and thought the chocolate was 'awesome-ige' (sorry, was told by Holly that I spelt it wrong in the last post!)

Back at the Centre, we were then treated to a cake-making demonstration from Valerie and Sandrine, the on-site cooks.  The children learnt a lot more French words, and thoroughly enjoyed themselves.  They also liked eating the cake for dinner!

It was after the cake demonstration that the children properly began bonding when the girls decided they wanted to apply the face marks they had brought with them.  Not to be left out, the boys decided to join in and were soon covered in face masks having their hair put in bunches by the girls!  They paraded down to dinner, keen to show Sara.  This then sparked an impromptu talent show, with the teachers being judges and Harrison claiming his name was "Tracey" in a Scottish accent.  Joseph found he could clap with his feet and we were given a rousing version of 'Don't Stop Me Now' by all seven children!

More to follow tomorrow after our visit to Boulogne!