Year 6 School Journey 2024 Diary
Tuesday
Good evening, parents. We have finally sat down for a cup of tea and all is quiet in the rooms. The weather has been great today and we have been on the field taking part in buggy building and crate stacking. One group also built some great dens and another group did problem solving games.
Dinner was delicious; spaghetti or mac and cheese and a large salad bar with garlic bread. Lots of children went back for seconds and a few have been encouraged to eat lots of what they liked! The night hike provided the children with a chance to use their torches in the woods - great fun.
The rooms are really lovely and big - perfect for all your lovely packed suitcases. I have to say, they do not look the same as they were this morning! So far, four have lost their toothbrushes, most of the boys didn't know what to do with a towel and some children gave us teachers a lesson in skincare! The tooth fairy will also be visiting later, hopefully!
Room inspections start tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m. followed by breakfast at 8:30 a.m. We look forward to a reasonable sleep tonight.
Wednesday
Good evening parents. We have had many types of weather today - beautiful sunshine, cloudy skies and then huge downpours of rain this afternoon.
After a late night, the children seemed to have slept well. Breakfast was plentiful - bacon, toast, cereals and juice. Everyone has found something they enjoy. Hot dogs and curry later and so much salad and fruit. Today was a day with 5 activities and was very busy. We have a 15 minute walk across the field to our meeting point each time, so a lot of walking. Today was archery, Escape Room, den building, body zorbs and 'survival in the woods'. So many of the children are demonstrating good teamwork skills, which is lovely to see.
Our school has been commended by the kitchen staff on their impeccable manners, so thank you parents, for teaching and reminding them of this important skill.
A WORD OF WARNING - some of your children's white clothing is now rather muddy after torrential rain during archery, zorbs and den building! Please do not be upset with them. The children did their best to keep going in the wet and we were absolutely soaked. So, onto the quiz:
Which of your children forgot to bring a waterproof jacket?
Which of your children brought 3 wash bags?
Which of your children has finished all their sweets?
Which of your children has never put a pillowcase onto a pillow?
Answers from your children!
We finished the evening with a great quiz in teams, and off to bed. OR so we thought... Around 9pm this evening, the fire alarm went off in the whole building. We hadn't been informed of a drill so we knew we had to get everyone out safely and quickly. Our children were absolutely brilliant. They helped each other, kept calm and moved to the area outside to be counted. There were some concerned children and adults but soon we were all reassured that it was a false alarm. A few tears of joy and the children then began to carry on with showers, playing Uno and eating sweets! All children are now asleep, so that is the signal for the adults to also get their beauty sleep. A huge thank you to Miss Mann for coming for the two days. Mrs Hill will be joining us tomorrow morning
Thursday
Good evening, parents. We managed a decent 6 hours of sleep last night and woke to bright sunshine. Many children said today has been their favourite day - water wars where all 52 got drenched! Warm showers awaited and all 52 children were clean by late afternoon.We also did skateboarding and scooting, which was great fun.
Sadly the weather didn't stay great for us, so no campfire. However, we did have hot chocolate and played bingo. Quiz questions:
Which children have no more clean clothes to wear?
Which children read the timetable and thought 'Pack Up' was an activity?
Which children failed their room inspection tonight for an overflowing bin of empty sweet wrappers?
Which children tried gherkins for the first time?
Tomorrow brings more challenges - packing everything back into the case and stripping the bedsheets and pillows. All cases and rooms need to be empty by 9am - wish us luck! We have activities after breakfast before a packed lunch and home. We are aiming for arrival between 2.30 and 2.45pm but will send a message well before then.
We look forward to seeing you all tomorrow
Friday
Congratulations to you all for surviving 4 days without your beautiful children. More importantly, well done to our children for surviving without their parents! Today's activity called 'Packing Up' was a challenge for quite a few children! They had to strip their beds, pack their cases and rucksacks and clean their rooms completely by 8.30am. The most challenging part, however, was getting the suitcases down many flights of stairs. But they did it in record time and were amazing.
Thank you all for your positive messages outside the gate today. You were all in good spirits even though you had been waiting some time; it was much appreciated. Thank you to the parents who organised such beautiful gift bags for the staff; certainly not needed but so well received - you thought of everything!
I have a few things for you as parents to think about, following this week. One, your children are braver than you think. Two, they are more independent when they are given the opportunity and three, they have had to deal with failure this week and bounced back. Demonstrating these skills is what school journey is all about - wiping a table, making a bed, supporting a friend, making a new friend, learning to be accepting of everyone.
Finally, these trips do not go ahead without the staff to support the children. Our staff this year have been an absolute joy to be with. They know the children so well - they have sat with them through disagreements, talked to them when they have felt homesick, said prayers with those who wanted comfort, supported and nurtured those who needed just a little extra bit of care.
I hope your children have a lovely, restful evening and I wish the staff the same, too with their families.