Year 4 Isle of Wight trip

The Year 4, Kingswood Residential Activity Week, on the Isle of Wight, was once again, a resounding success.

All twenty-nine of the children boarded the bus on Monday 10th May to embark on probably the most challenging week of their lives so far.

After a bus-ferry-bus journey of approximately four hours, they were faced with their most complex problem - making their beds! This magical mystery and luxury of a ready- to- jump into bed suddenly unfolded its harsh reality; somebody has to make it! Team work immediately kicked into action and twenty-nine beds were soon reasonably made, giving them a good head-start for the rest of the week.

After a tour of the site, the week’s programme of activities began and the challenges were virtually non-stop from that first evening until the final moment of departure. There was something to suit everyone and almost everyone had a go at all there was to offer; this included: circus skills, parachute games, caving, low ropes, 3G swing (crazy! – unsuspecting Mrs. Fuller had a go!), zip-wire, nightline, abseiling, go-karts, quad-bikes, balance-beam (Evel-Knievel-Mrs Pavey had a go, minus the motor bike of course!), climbing, team-challenge, fencing, scrap, aero-ball, team-tech, problem-solving, archery, beach-games and of course, the all important disco on the final night; this final activity being the only one from which Mr. Monro, our visiting gap student from Australia, abstained – he was no contest for the ‘would-be’ Michael Jacksons!

The Kingswood instructors were very skilled and greatly encouraged everyone to achieve their best, which they did.

We were superbly looked after by very friendly catering staff and the children were well nourished with a wide variety of food which included plenty of healthy fresh fruit and vegetables as well as the necessary carbohydrate and protein at every meal.

Mr Shimmons took copious photographs of the children in action which he has transferred onto disc and they have access to these as a forever reminder of their exciting stay at Kingswood.

This was the first time that all of the children had been away from home and family for so long and for some, this was the greatest challenge. Inevitably, a few were homesick but everyone achieved so much overall; we were very, very proud of all of them. We returned to school on the Friday evening utterly exhausted but with so much to tell our families. Year 3 have shown great interest and are already getting excited about their Kingswood visit next year.

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