Let's Explore Nature! The Junior School Residential Trip.

Last week KS2 went on their residential visits to deepest, darkest Zhejiang province.  We stayed in a national park around Nanbeihu Lake.  Although some of the Gryphons had visited the site in 2016, there have been lots of changes since so we all really enjoyed exploring our surroundings and using the new Insight Adventures facilities.

The Leopards and Gryphons stayed for three nights, of which one was spent camping out in the wild.  The Merlins and Kestrels joined the party on the second night, for a slightly shorter yet just as action-packed visit.

There was plenty to challenge all members of the group.  The climbing wall was bigger and better, the hike up to the top of the hill definitely got the pulse racing and the archery certainly tested all our aims.  The food was excellent -especially the meals we cooked ourselves over an open fire.

We were very proud of the achievements of all the students.  The pupils gave all the activities their best show and displayed a whole host of learning skills along the way, from self-managing, to team work, to effective participation in sessions.  The sun shone and the setting is beautiful, which always helps, but the pupils and instructors definitely made the trip a success.

We look forward to next year!

Tips and feedback:  

• Pack everything on the kit list or you will have to wear the same clothes over and again…
• I think what really ‘rocked’ for me was the skits, because we did a really funny show and we won a big bag of biscuit rolls!
• I found building the catapults hard because tying together bamboo is not so easy.
• I enjoyed the archery and the team building games. I liked how we helped each other.
• I liked the Damper making because we learnt about fires and cooked our own food. We also used chocolate – that was yummy!
• My favourite thing was archery because I hit the bullseye!
• Laser tag was the most challenging bit for me because we needed lots of teamwork.
• I was a good team worker during the teambuilding activities because I helped everyone on the mat.
• We had to be team workers to pack and tidy up our room at the end of the trip.