Last week, 2LT had a wonderful trip to Beaumanor Hall! Mrs Lever, Mrs Turner and all of the adults on the trip were so proud of them and the way that they represented our school whilst we were away. They totally embodied our Abbey Road motto of ‘Take Care, Be Proud’ and loved all of the activities that they took part in. In fact, they spent the whole trip with a huge smile on their faces -even whilst they nodded off to sleep on Thursday evening!
On Thursday, we set off from school with huge smiles on our faces as we waved to parents, who had come to see us off. When we arrived, we were met by Victoria, who led our activities for the day. First, we dropped our bags off at the cabins and the children had a little bit of time to explore their dorms and find their beds. Then, it was time to get started! In the morning, we enjoyed a bug hunt. The children worked brilliantly with their partners and helped each other to turn over logs, hunt through leaves and dig in the mud, which led to them finding lots of different animals to study in the magnifying pots (before releasing them back into their natural habitats, of course!).
Next, it was time for lunch! We were so lucky to have such beautiful weather on Thursday, so we all enjoyed meeting up with 2MT to have our lunch then a lovely time to play with our friends on the field in front of the cabins.
After lunch, our afternoon started with a bird walk. We split into two groups and explored the Beaumanor site, looking for different stations, which told us about the birds living in each particular habitat/microhabitat around the grounds. The children loved searching for the different stations and we were all wowed by the magical pen, which we could use to hear different bird calls. When we listened really carefully, we could even identify some birds in the grounds by their calls, once we had learnt how each different one sounded.
Once we’d finished our walk, it was time for the most exciting activity of the day; pond dipping! Again, the children showed such wonderful ‘Take Care’ teamwork as they helped each other to dip their nets into the water, pull them out and explore the contents. We found newts, fish and tadpoles galore and a great time was had by all. In fact, I’m not sure who had the most fun, the children or the adults, as we all enjoyed getting stuck in to see what we could find too! It was wonderful to see the children not only exploring for themselves, with their partners, but also celebrating their friends’ successes too. They were equally as excited when their friends found something interesting, as when they did for themselves and, once again, this just showed what a wonderful bunch they are.
After such a busy day, everybody was ready for their tea! We enjoyed burgers and chips and our pride in the children continued as, without needing to be asked, they each thanked the kitchen staff as they handed them their food. It was very tasty and, once we had finished, we were ready for our final activity of the day… The bonfire!
When we arrived at the bonfire site, the children listened very carefully to the safety instructions and enjoyed watching the fire get built and lit. They listened to a lovely campfire story, whilst eating a toasted marshmallow, then we played some games. We enjoyed laughing and joking together as we played the fruit game (who knew we would be able to list so many as a class?!), wink murder and ‘pineapple fritters’, before it was time to head back to the cabins and get ready for bed.
After putting on their pjs, the children enjoyed a story about one of our class favourites; ‘Winnie the Witch’ and then they headed off to bed. We were so impressed with how sensibly they all settled down to sleep -they knew they needed to get some rest so that they could enjoy another super day on Friday!
Friday morning started with a delicious breakfast and then we headed straight off to start our ‘Robin Hood Survival Day’ with some den building. Teamwork shone through again as the children split into groups and made some really impressive shelters -all with different purposes. We had a sleeping shelter, which the group enjoyed having a little lie in to test; a shelter filled with traps, to protect our weapons; an animal shelter, which we could keep our horses in; an entertainment shelter, complete with a rope swing to play on and even a training spot, so that we could practise our archery skills!
The final stages of our ‘Robin Hood Survival’ skills included some woodland games and a chance to have a go at archery. We split into two games and whilst half the group played ‘Catch the Sheriff’ in the woods, the other half had the chance to have a go at target shooting, using a bow and arrow. This was quite tricky, but everybody got the hang of it and some people even managed to reach the target. Yet again, the children showed our Take Care values. This time, it was their resilience that shone as they continued to work on their stance and pulling the strong of the bow back as far as possible, to help their arrow to shoot forwards.
Finally, it was time to have lunch and visit the gift shop, before getting back on the coach to return to school. The smiles continued back at school as we had a little bit of time to show each other our gift shop purchases before we headed home -ready for an early night!
What a fantastic trip we had, thank you so much for making it so brilliant 2LT! You are all superstars and we all loved seeing you have so much fun 😊.
