2 December 2019
Last week, J2 set off bright and early for their one night trip to Castlehead in the Lake District. Once they had put their belongings in their bedrooms they took part in an Orienteering activity. Initially, this activity took place inside to allow time for the pupils to familiarise themselves with their surroundings, before moving outside and learning how to use a map. Some of the pupils enjoyed running down the hill as fast as they could to return their answers.
After orienteering, the pupils tackled the Obstacle Course. They loved getting muddy, going on the rope swing and crawling through the tunnels; with the best tactic being to pretend they were superman and sliding through! They found crawling under the cargo net tricky and the hurdles were very high! J2 also had to work in teams to make a jigsaw puzzle with pieces they collected from around the obstacles.
Following this, they moved to the Low Ropes; climbing along poles and going on a mini zip wire swing, where they had to pull their teammates from one side to the other. Balancing on the swing beam was difficult and if they touched the floor, they had to go back and start again.
Upon returning to the Old Manor House, they made their beds (some need more practise in this area!) and enjoyed a delicious evening meal.
In the evening, the pupils were delighted to be given the opportunity to make lanterns. This was very challenging and they had to work really well in a team of three, communicating a lot! They enjoyed lighting up their lanterns, which they decorated using leaves that they had collected earlier in the day.
A number of pupils were so excited about sleeping at Castlehead that they asked if it was bedtime at 4 pm! Mrs. Heatley read a bedtime story and then it was off to bed after a very busy day.
The following day began by singing Happy Birthday to Sam Asquith to wake him up, with a further rendition at breakfast time when his cake was brought out.
The first activity of the day was making mammal traps. Putting the food and nest materials in was fun, although finding a good place to hide the trap proved challenging. Harry Rawlinson and Tumi Milligan caught a vole and they named it Sammy Jnr VI.
After going on a minibeast hunt, a very welcome hot chocolate warmed everyone up!
Before lunch, the pupils looked through owl pellets to see what they had eaten and John wanted to keep one of the skulls! They liked seeing all of the bones and identifying them against a key and also found live maggots in a few pellets, which wasn’t very pleasant! All the J2 pupils thoroughly enjoyed their trip and were sad when it was time to head back to school!
The photographs are now available to view on our KGS Flickr page at https://www.flickr.com/photos/kgsphotos/albums/72157712027286652
