Mr Poth has written an account of Year Sixes' trip to Kingswood

Day One

A smooth ride on a luxury coach brought us all safely to Kingswood, West Runton. The weather on the journey was gorgeous, the sun shining through a few lonesome clouds as we sat in a wooded area to eat our lunch. As we arrived at Kingswood, the heavens opened. So the children got a taster of what was to come as we soaked up the rain on our orientation tour of the site. Oh how we love English weather.

However, the children were in high spirits. The excitement was at a point where Mrs Fordham was clearly thinking 'Why did I agree to this!!" Mr Stoner and I, on the other hand, were probably just as excited as the children! So now, Mrs Fordham feels she is charge of two extra children!

Next up was for the children to figure out how to put a quilt inside a quilt cover! Nightmare!! Not one child could do it! So, I kindly obliged by showing them how to do it! I had to show them 10 times before they eventually managed it. I'm sure they were just saying that they couldn't do it just so yours truley would finish it off! Crafty bunch of critters this lot!

Having settled in nicely we then went to our first activity. Mrs Fordham and I took our group to the rock climbing wall where everyone really had a excellent go. We were very proud of all the children, especially Thelma and James who clearly were very worried about the heights, but they persevered and really gave it a good go. I also managed to climb a few feet before deciding that enough was enough and came down rather rapidly on my behind which the children found rather amusing!

Mr Stoner's group went to be Robin Hood and shoot arrows in the archery session. Mr Stoner had great pleasure in boasting how his team with the 4 girls in his group thrashed all the boys. So, this competition thing has gone to his head already! He has seen nothing yet!

So now the children are waiting to go to their evening activity which is a camp fire in the rain. So I reckon a few ghost stories will settle them down for a good nights sleep.

Day Two

Its raining, its pouring! It has not stopped since we got here. Its a good job we have a bunch of children that are up for it and don't care about the weather! The children have had an exciting morning. Half of them did the leap of faith, that is climbing 20 feet on a tall pole and then jumping off. A bit daunting, but there were some extremely brave children reaching the top and then jumping. The other group had team challenge. I have to say that these children were the best I have seen in this activity. They were brilliant. Through mud and foot deep puddles they managed to work their way around the obsticle course. All of them were soaked through, but had the time of their lives working together it what turned out to be an incredible achievement in this awful weather.

The whole group then made their way down to the beach to investigate life in the different tidal areas. They had to examine the different types of creatures that lived in the small pools of water when the tide had gone out. Again, despite the cold wet rain the children soldiered on and learnt some incredible facts while collecting the water aliens!

After a rewarding lunch the children are now in the warm on the computers analysing their different finds from the beach. Next up is more jumping from high poles in the middle of the field with the other group.

Like I say despite the weather, everyone is really in high spirits, all enjoying themselves. The were all sound asleep by 10:30pm last night, up at 6am mind you! But have been a credit to the school.

Day Three

Day 3 has almost come to an end! The weather has thankfully eased up and the sun shone through to give us a beautiful day, albeit cold! Mr Stoners maturity age has diminished and it should be considered that he is moved to a lower year - as a child!

The children started the day with quad biking and team challenge. The quad bikers zoomed round the circuit all very confident, however a government warning should be given to motorists when one or two of these children reach driving licence age! As for team challenge, the children were put through their paces. After a hurrendous rainy day yesterday, the puddles were extra deep and the mud was extra wet! The children crawled through the obsticle course, up to their chins in cold water and mud. They seemed to love it, although couldn't get to the dorms quick enough afterwards to have a shower and change their cloths, that is if they had dry clothes to change into!!

The children were then challenged with the zip line. They had to climb a 3 story tower and then jump off attached to a long cable going to the edge of the field. This was fun, as Mrs Fordham, St Stoner, Father Tom (who joined us for the morning) and myself found out! Most children conquered their fears and flew off the edge screaming on the way down, others had no fear and ran off the edge! Exciting stuff.

In the afternoon the group went off site to investigate rivers. Here they constantly impressed the instructors by wowing them with their knowledge of rivers. Mr Stoner also had to bite his tongue as I revelled in their admiration of clearly having successfully taught the subject in year 5! Go kids go!

Now after dinner the children are putting on their glad rags, getting ready for the final night disco. So Mrs Fordham and I are now gonna watch in awe as Mr Stoner shows us his moves on the dance floor. Hopefully the dance floor wont clear as a result!

All in all it has been a fantastic trip. The children have all enjoyed every minute and have been a credit to the school. This is a year 6 that have tremendous compassion for each other and show excellent achievement in working in teams.

 You can see some pictures from Kingswood in our gallery