Last week, Year 5 enjoyed an action-packed few days at the North Devon Activity Centre.
Our residential programme is a key element of our Prep curriculum - we carve out opportunities for our children to take on challenges, to grow and have fun together and of course, make lots of happy memories!
Below, Luca, Seren and Ben kindly share their unique accounts of each day of the trip:
Day 1- by Ben
Setting off on the long bus journey, you would think it would be a
very relaxing rest of the day, but no… and I’ll tell you all about it. North Devon Activity Centre, we were on our way!
As soon as we arrived, everyone was talking excidedly about where we were and what it was like. After, we got off the coach, I went searching for my suitcase. It took me a while to weave through all my classmates, but I finally got there. Then we had to walk, although our suitcases forced us to run, down an incredibly steep hill to our accommodation. After that, we met our instructors who told us the rules and our teachers showed us to our dorms and told us who our roommates would be. I couldn’t wait to see the dorms. We raced to our rooms to unpack and to see where we were sleeping – the rooms were amazing. There was everything I needed, there were: 2 showers, a toilet, 10 beds (amazing, right, in one room!) and a sink. The worst thing about it was that there was no soap. The best bit about it was the cool beds. They had metal ladders that led up to a cubbyhole with a bed inside. After choosing our beds we needed to unpack, not my favourite thing to do... but it was fine.
We had a packed lunch which I loved, and then the adventure started! We went to put on our swimsuits and walked down to a lake. We were given wetsuits and then split into groups. My first activity was building a raft. It was a brilliant team effort and lots of fun,
but they all sank! Then my group had a very wet but great time paddleboarding. I fell (jumped) off around 10 times, just for fun. After paddleboarding, we went to take our wetsuits off and got back to our dorms and showered.
After that, we had to make our beds! It was messy but we eventually got the hang of it. Dinner was great and I had a nice time. We had a bit of playtime outside before our last activity around the fire pit. We told some funny jokes, sang some songs and roasted tasty marshmallows.
Then it was time for bed, but first, we sat in the entrance under some blankets, played some card games and did some reading. Then it was time for sleep before the next day of action!
Day 2 - by Seren
We wake up and start preparing for dorm inspections. Then we start to get excited about what will be for breakfast (which started at 8am). When we get there, we find it is either hot breakfast or cereal or jam on toast - so much choice! Once we are full, we go back to our dorms to pack for our day at the beach.
It's a 10-minute coach drive there and we are all talking about surfing and bodyboarding and
ice cream! When we get to the beach we have to change into our tight wetsuits, we learn how to carry the boards and then run down onto the beach to have a surfing lesson. Once the lesson is finished, we rush to the sea and start to surf! It is great fun and some of us even managed to stand up! We then start to get a bit cold by the end, so we do races on the sand to warm up. Then we bodyboard which is very fun, but VERY cold...
After we have dried off and warmed up, we eat our packed lunch on the beach then... ICE CREAM!
It's a long walk back to the site (mostly because we walk so slowly) and we are all complaining by the end. After, we all have warm showers and dinner and play a fun game of rounders before we go and get a good night's sleep.
Day 3 - by Luca
We had a lovely breakfast at 8 am so we were allowed a lie-in, but we still had to get ready on time.
In the morning, we had camp crafts, which meant that we got into groups of five, made dens and waterproofed them. Most of us used a tepee style but some of us used the trees around us to substitute different shaped sticks, in order to make a den.
After camp crafts, we had our packed lunches and then it was time to go back to school. We were sad to leave what was an amazing place, but obviously, we couldn’t stay there forever. We took the coach back and on arrival, we were happy to see our parents for the first time in three, long, full-of-adventure days.