Shoreham Summer Fete

IMG_2199.jpg, a photo by MarkHeathcote on Flickr.

Mrs Pape was determined to soak Millie!

Shoreham Village Fete

IMG_2107.jpg, a photo by MarkHeathcote on Flickr.

May-poling at the Summer fete.

Swattenden Day 2

Good evening! It has certainly been an interesting day here in Swattenden! The children fell asleep in dribs and drabs last night, with the first going off at about 10 and the last holding out until gone midnight! We were all obviously delighted to then be woken up at quarter past 5 by children eager to start their day of activities! The boys obviously didn't quite understand what was meant by laying quietly until a more reasonable time - they took themselves to the toilet one at a time, each one forgetting that the door slams if not closed slowly! Breakfast was extremely tasty, with a choice of cereal, toast or a cooked breakfast. The children took it as a personal challenge to try a bit of everything and were definitely set up for the day. The quantity of beans some of them managed to consume was quite alarming!  TP was particularly impressive with his three full bowls of cereal followed by a slice of toast! The first activity of the day was the Low Adventure Course. Unfortunately, the weather hasn't been the best - the complete opposite to Cameron Class' trip to the Isle of Wight. Part of the course involved army crawling under a cargo net......I'll leave you to guess the state of the children's clothes. We have plenty of picture evidence for when we get back! The activity began with team leaders, Jenna and Bella, having to answer a tricky question to see who would go first. The first was "What is the capital of Kurdistan?" Surprisingly, neither girl was able to answer this, but Bella then pipped Jenna to the post with the question, "Cat. How do you spell it?", the answer obviously being 'I, T'.  Despite slipping and sliding all over the place, the children kept smiles on their faces, even Beau, who gets the prize for slipping over the most in the mud. For the post box part of the course, the children were told to climb through as if they were climbing onto a horse - all eyes fell on Maisie to show them how it was done, which she did with ease!  With Jenna, Millie and Jamie caked in mud (complete with muddy war paint on their faces - wait until you see the pictures) the children came in for a quick warm up before heading into the woods for the next activity. 'Night line' involved the children guiding each other around a rope maze blindfolded - something difficult to begin with, made worse by the rain turning the course into a slip-n-slide! Again, the children took this in their stride, and, despite not being able to feel their fingers or toes, thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Bethy and Mia did especially well at this, helping and talking to each other as they navigated the course. It took a lot of trust for the children to do this and they did it brilliantly, despite the odd child walking into a tree. The boys found it a little trickier than the girls - George, TP, Ciaran and Michael seemed to forget they were guiding each other and would leave their partner stranded! We finished a little early for lunch and had time to get ourselves changed and warned up. After another hearty meal (you wanted your kids to put on 2 stone in three days, right?!) it was time for the highly anticipated zip wire. The children were split into two groups with half doing the zip wire first, the others doing the bouldering wall. Despite being apprehensive, almost all children went down the zip wire, some overcoming a fear of heights to jump off the 20ft high platform. Lucy and Matthew came down with beaming smiles on their faces, despite looking pretty petrified going up! Some of us managed showers this evening, although some children seemed to come out with just as much mud on them as when they went in! Others have opted not to shower for the entire holiday - apologies in advance for the smelly children being sent home. During the children's free time, Isla left both Miss Catherall and Miss Salmon suitably impressed by a seemingly impossible card trick. We're still trying to work out how she did it! After dinner (which ended with giant slabs of flapjack!) the children settled down to watch 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' before bed. Unfortunately, the planned night walk was cancelled due to the bad weather. Now its time for bed, and the last night in the Mansion. All the adults are hoping for an earlier night! The mood was set in the girls' room by Ellie and India who decided to yeah everyone a mixture of gymnastics and yoga - hopefully the calming effect we need tonight. Everyone is having a great time, but we are all excited to get home and tell you all about the adventures we've had. Night for now (we hope!) Moore Class

Swattenden Day 1

Well, it finally arrived - the day all the children have been waiting for for months - the day we left for Swattenden! After a mainly non-eventful journey we arrived - the girls soon got bored of counting to a million when asking how close we were! When we arrive, we were met by Tony and Bob who told us all about the site and showed us to our rooms where we were left to unpack. Jamie and Ciaran  were true gentlemen, helping the children with heavier suitcases (naming no names - Millie and Amelia!) up the two flights of stairs! Some of us were better than others at making our beds, but we all got there eventually!

A quick tour of the site and we were ready for lunch - despite warnings, everyone ate lots and were soon stuffed, just in time to start our first activity - orienteering. This involved lots of running around, and, after such a big lunch, proved quite difficult!

Then it was time for shelter building - a definite hit with everyone as we scrambled round in the mud - Katie and Elise proved especially adept at dragging logs around, not minding at all they were caked in mud.

After a delicious dinner, we went outside with Bob (the children happily serenaded him with a rendition of Bob the Builder!) and joined the other school in a game of Capture the Flag. Jenna proved to be the team superstar for yellow team, and with her camouflaged hat she really looked the part!

After a hot chocolate and part of a movie, we are all off to bed, tired but excited about what we're going to get up to tomorrow!