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Danbury June 2024 - Final Update
Wed 19 Jun 2024Below are a selection of pictures taken on our Danbury trip. We all had a wonderful time. The children took everything in their stride and grew in confidence. They were a credit to themselves, the school and their parents. Thank you for being such fantastic company Year 5. It was an absolute pleasure to take them and has put them in good stead for the Year 6 residential!
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Danbury June 2024 - Day 2
Wed 12 Jun 2024Another eventful day here at Danbury!
The first night’s sleep went well - with a couple of cabins quiet by 10pm and the others by 11pm. There were a few moments of homesickness at different points yesterday evening but the children coped really well and those moments were short lived.
An early start for everyone this morning and after a cooked breakfast and lots of caffeine (for the adults), we set off for our morning’s adventures. All three groups did archery together first thing followed by caving for two groups and aerial trekking for another group.
We then met back for lunch of pizza, wedges and salad which, despite a couple of children insisting they did not like pizza, there was not much pizza left!
The afternoon saw two groups do bush craft and bridge building and the third group enjoying an afternoon of canoeing.
Dinner this evening was roast chicken, potatoes, Yorkshire pudding and vegetables. We have encouraged children to try all the food even if they don’t normally eat it at home. We are very proud of them!This evening the children have some free time to play, read, colour and just enjoy each other’s company.
The children are having a great time and have been fantastic company. The weather has also been kind to us too.
We have a morning of activities on Wednesday, lunch and then we set off for home at around 2pm. We will email the office with our arrival time but we are aiming for the end of the school day. Please collect your child from the classroom as normal.Washing machines at the ready!
Kind regards
The Year 5 Residential
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Danbury June 2024 - Day 1
Tue 11 Jun 2024A busy first day here at Danbury! We arrived shortly before 11 and enjoyed a couple of hours to ourselves before we set off on our activities. These included the aerial trekking, climbing wall and bridge building. The children showed some incredible resilience - especially on the aerial trek (including Mrs Potter!!).
We then enjoyed a delicious pasta dinner and, after that, made our way to the firepit for the evening. The children enjoyed collecting firewood, toasting marshmallows and playing games.
A hot chocolate before lights out at 9.30.
I will do my best to send some photos each day but technology is proving a little tricky. Once we are home, I will collate all the photos and send out.The Year 5 residential team
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Mersea Island June 2024 - Day 4
Fri 07 Jun 2024It was indeed an early night last night- the children were asleep by eleven, an unheard of time so far! And even more evidence that the full-on nature of the residential has definitely had its effect of their energy levels, we had to call round their tents to get them up for the eight o’clock breakfast!
Tired faces perked up after some food and finding out we were doing bush craft, kit-karts and team challenges!
The kit-karts saw the children making their own cars and then having to learnt to steer the contraptions down increasingly steep hills…with no brakes (we only had a few injuries - don’t worry parents!).
Bushcraft gave the group who hadn’t handled the saws a chance to do some crazy crafting, and they made some of their own bread before making smores and toasting marshmallows. Mrs Norman was not impressed to find that her group had worked so quickly that there were none left for her! She has vowed her revenge at some point.
After lunch, we were back on the open seas, or onto the open lake at least, with our kayaks and paddle boards. It was great to see the improved confidence of the people who were a bit reticent at the beginning of the week!
To end the day we played some games near our tent village and talked about our favourite things about the residential (obviously, staying in tents was 100%, totally the best part of it all, and they didn’t complain constantly about it…). There were lots of different thoughts and everyone will be taking some core memories back to Saffron Walden with them.
I would like to say that they’ve been amazing; the children have coped so well being away from home and having to navigate the issues that come with living in tents in close proximity to a bunch of other people. The kids have also been great fun in their activities and the staff have enjoyed chatting with them over the week. They’ve all done so well and, parents, you should be proud!
Now we’re going to see if tonight sees a repeat of the previous one or if the last night gives them a last injection of energy before bedtime!
Night night,
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Mersea Island June 2024 - Day 3
Thu 06 Jun 2024After a cold night, where apparently the children had to act a bit like penguins to keep warm, the children emerged actually quite rested as the rain prevented them staying up late or wanting to venture out - every cloud I guess (for the staff members at least)!
We said hello to the new Year 6 class teaching assistant, Mrs Flack, who came in straight away and had a go at the high ropes! The children had a great time trying to traverse a long rope after climbing a ladder, and again, everyone pushed themselves to go higher and further than they had before.More fun was also had at the beach, where the other groups found a jellyfish, a buried Lily and a deceased clarkius crustaceus! The children had some time learning to skim some rocks and doing some shell hunting too before the tide forced our retreat.
The class really enjoyed archery, where Mss Driscoll’s lessons and clubs showed dividends - the instructors said we got some of the highest scores they’d seen!
Our teamwork skills were also put to the test in an obstacle course! The children were thankful for all those HIIT sessions in the end, as lots of the challenges needed strong legs and upper body strength. It was great to see their communication skills improve over the course and how well the children helped each other.
We even had an activity after dinner today! The children got together for a gladiator-style game in It’s a Knockout! They bake against each other at lots of different events to try and be the champions.
There are lots of tired faces right now - it’s a slow-moving class who are off to do their teeth and shower before bed. Hopefully that’s the sign for an early night! -
Mersea Island June 2024 - Day 2
Wed 05 Jun 2024So the sleep plan didn’t go quite as planned; the last time Mr Clarke had to ask a tent to keep the noise down was at 2am! And with the children awake by 6 at the latest, we saw some tired faces in the morning.
But the children were able to find energy from somewhere - we hit the peddle carts, where some of the reckless driving has made staff worried for the future state of British roads…Mrs Norman has vowed to start using public transport in seven years’ time!
We also got out into nature to get our hands dirty. The children cut up wood with saws, made fire and cooked smores and bread! A big shoutout to Fraser and Theo, who made the best shelter Mr Clarke had ever seen made on a residential! As well as time in the woods, we also got to get down to the beach, where we found a dead starfish that turned out to not be so dead after all - it gave Ms Driscoll quite the fright when it moved!
While people were tearing up the track, frolicking by the beach or sitting by the fire, others were taking to the skies in climbing. It was great to see the children push themselves and many of them said that they managed to get higher than last year, which they should be very proud about!
We’ve just had our dinner and played some games of football, tennis and Ms Driscoll even got some running races going! Hopefully this and the previous late night means they’ll go to sleep earlier tonight…maybe one o’clock this time?
Everyone’s been having a great time and we’re heading to the hot chocolate station.
Night night!
Year 6 residential team
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Mersea Island June 2024 - Day 1
Tue 04 Jun 2024The first day began with the Year 6s taking to the water in kayaking and stand-up paddle boarding! It was great fun and it was lovely to see everyone giving it a go even if they were nervous. We all played a bunch of games, most of us ended up in the water more often than not, and a few of us managed to leave the lake a few memories of us in the form of some lost shoes!
Our accommodation is very much tent city, but the children have been having a great time setting them up and they are actually a lot warmer than the cabins!
We’ve just had dinner, which was demolished by the children after all the water activities. Now for some hot chocolate, and in bed for 9, with lots of sleep ready for tomorrow!
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Mersea Island May 2023 - Day 4
Fri 26 May 2023We just had the penultimate night before our return and the fatigue is definitely setting in - all the children were asleep at around eleven and the majority had to be woken up by the adults to get breakfast at eight!
We had waffles today before hitting the lake again for more kayaking and body boarding, though today’s weather wasn’t as kind to us as yesterday’s; no sun and higher winds had us all shivering! A few tough cookies managed to stay in the whole time but many of us cut the session short to try and warm up.
Luckily, we had swimming next in a heated pool! The children had a great time playing games and using the balls and floats.
We then did some more beach exploration before groups who hadn’t done kit karts and pedal karts managed to squeeze in their sessions. Mr Clarke’s group used their free session to design their own obstacle course involving anything they could get their hands on!
We went shell hunting for the last time and finished off the evening with our hot chocolate.
Now, the children have done some preliminary packing and are off to bed. We’ll see how late they manage to stay up tonight - my bet is not long from all the tired faces about!
We’ll see you tomorrow!
The 2023 residential team
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Mersea Island May 2023 - Day 3
Thu 25 May 2023I think the secret to sleeping children on a residential before 12 has been unlocked: hardcore capture the flag!
This was still outside my 11 o’clock prediction though; it seems half eleven was the time most went to sleep. But we are bringing it earlier!
The same can’t be said for getting up - the children slouched out of bed this morning at quarter past seven before heading to the kitchen for breakfast.
A big breakfast of hash browns and sausage burgers was had in preparation for our morning of water activities! The children got to do paddle boarding or kayaking and for the first half hour there were only two overboard situation, and both were due to Mr Clarke’s inabiltiy to push kayaks into the lake correctly (he was removed from the position by the staff to general applause from the waiting kayakers).
That took up the whole morning before we split off to do archery, high ropes, pedal carts and It’s a Knockout, where the children competed against each other in the old-school gladiator style (if anyone can remember that show from the 90s)! The green team won their first ever event and did themselves proud.
The activities went all the way to half eight today, and the children were so tired after their hot chocolate that they’ve all hit the hay without the adults having to nag them at all!
Let’s see if we can get all of them asleep before half eleven this time before our last full day of activities tomorrow!
All the best,
The 2023 residential team
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Let’s Get Fit Workshop
Wed 24 May 2023On Wednesday this week, each of our classes enjoyed a Let's Get Fit Workshop with Daniel Leight from Fit4Kids.
The Let's Get Fit! workshops included:
¨ Introduction - Being active is important to health and benefits of exercise.
¨ Warmup and Stretch - Go through activities and explain the benefits and describe light, moderate and hard exercise.
¨ Amounts of energy contain certain foods and drinks and equating that for the amount of exercise needed.
¨ Exercise Spinning Wheel
¨ Tabata workout to music
¨ Cool down and Stretch - Go through activities and explain the benefits.
The Let's Get Fit workshops were fun and energetic and they highlighted the importance and promoted the benefits of physical activity and exercise - focussing on all things fitness! Throughout these workshops, the pupils were extremely active for the majority of the time, developing an understanding of the different components that made up a strong and solid workout. Danny introduced each workshop through a warmup and stretch, before really ramping up the level! In their sessions, the pupils developed an understanding of energy levels, and the amount of effort needed to reap the benefits. Using the Spinning Wheels they created a Tabata workout for the class to really get the blood pumping! Finishing off with a cool down and stretch.
The staff pupils and staff agreed the workshops were great fun. Thank you to Danny Leight (who said that our pupils were amazingly behaved!) and our PE Leader, Mrs McInnes, for organising this brilliant event!