Day 1

 

Hi everyone, we arrived at Winmarleigh in good time and were very impressed with our 5* lodge style accommodation. We unpacked, played a game of football whilst the sun showed its face and built up an appetite for tea. Great first menu: Chicken tikka or sausage and mash. Some of us had larger appetites than others, not mentioning any names.. Callum Park! Mr Kendall will be impressed with how sensibly we practised the fire drill and Miss Gornall was very proud of us.

 

Our night time activity this evening was 'The Cube' and it was very much like the TV show. Kyle is very keen to get his first shower and Daniel has shown a keen interest in always smelling nice.. What a refreshing change boys! We are looking forward to a good night's sleep ready for a full day of activities tomorrow. Check out the webpage tomorrow night.. pictures to follow.

 

Day 2

 

Posted: 22nd Oct 2014

 

Hi everyone- apologies for the late update but the Internet was down due to the weather, however rest assured we are having a great time!

 

The weather was not our friend this morning but despite the strong wind and heavy rain, we still managed to brave the outdoors and get stuck into our activities which were Giant Swing and Jacob's Ladder. All children challenged themselves to go really high on Giant Swing and they were undefeated by the height of Jacob's Ladder. Evie Hutchins was particularly successful with this and showed great determination to climb as high as possible even in the Arctic conditions!

 

After our morning activities, we enjoyed a delicious hot lunch of pasta and garlic bread- yummy! In the afternoon, we tackled an army style challenge course and did a spot of fencing. Ben Dunkerley and Daniel Smiley enjoyed getting muddy during the challenge course and Isaac Lewis showed good skill when fencing.

 

After a lovely warm shower and a tasty chicken nugget or steak pie tea, we prepared ourselves for the night time activity: Robot Wars. Callum Park and Ellie Lamb were nominated to represent each team and be the robot warrior. They had great fun throwing water and flour at each other!

 

As we had been really well behaved, Miss Gornall treated us to a night time snack and we had an early night as we were all very tired. Day 3 will be on the website later providing the wifi is up and running. Watch this space..

 

Day 3:

 

We had a good night sleep and got up in time for breakfast: Sausages.. Bailey's favourite! We then put lots of layers on ready for our morning activities: Trapeze and Multi-Vines. Bailey, Evie Hutchins and Ellie climbed right to the top of the Trapeze and jumped to catch it... impressive! Despite feeling nervous at first, Sefton conquered his fear of heights and climbed to the highest rope on the Multi-Vines. He was also a great support to Mikyla, encouraging her to step out onto the rope.

 

Lunch was baguettes with a choice of fillings and our afternoon activity was a Mad-Science style Chemistry activity. The children particularly enjoyed making goo and getting their hands stuck in. Lucas thoroughly enjoyed this and was rather covered in goo! 

Tea time: Gammon and pineapple or fishfingers, which Max enjoyed very much! Our evening activity was Campfire so we all wrapped up warm and gathered around to sing songs and listen to stories.

 

Time for bed: We had a little time in our rooms to tidy them, ready for our room inspections carried out thoroughly by Mrs Thomas every morning. Sam Lamb did a great job of directing and coaching his room to tidy carefully to gain points. This worked a treat as their room came first place.. which was a great improvement to their previous last place! (This may be due to Kyle's toothbrush, much to Mrs Thomas's horror, being discovered on the floor!!) When it was 'lights out', the children went straight to sleep allowing for everyone, including the adults to have much needed rest ready for another fun-filled day of activities.

 

Day 4:

 

Wow what a day we had! Breakfast was bacon, hash browns, beans and toast or a choice of cereals. This prepared us well for our high energy activities: Zip Wire and Climbing Tower. Despite feeling nervous, Olivia Norris and Evie Parrott managed to climb right to the top of the Climbing Tower! After a little encouragement, Lucas and Georgia zipped down the zip wire and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Lunch time: Jacket potato with a choice of fillings.. yum! Our afternoon activities were Problem Solving and Quad Biking, which Kyle had been waiting for all week. All children drove the quads and Ellie Lamb showed the boys how it's done with speed yet careful control round the corners.

Tea time: Turkey escalopes and vegetables or pasta with meatballs.. tasty! After tea, we got ourselves showered and smelling nice ready for the disco. A lot of us decided it would be fun to go to the disco in our onesies but Ryan Knowles decided in the end not to wear his as he couldn't fit the frog feet, which are part of his onesie, into his trainers # health and safety hazard! We called ourselves the 'Onesie Crew'. Miss Gornall was really impressed with our behaviour at the disco because we were friendly to other schools and represented Grosvenor Park fantastically. We showed that we know how to have fun but behave superbly at the same time.

Bed time: Tired after all that dancing!! It didn't take us long to get to sleep tonight!

 

Final Day:

 

We had to get up early this morning.. 6:45 as we had an early breakfast. Although we were half asleep, we managed to have our breakfast and get our bags packed in good time.

We were then raring to go for our final activities: Vertical Challenge and Archery. Mr Fern was really proud of his group for showing great team work on Vertical Challenge and Mrs Thomas was proud of her group as one of the instructors pointed out how sensible and lovely the children were during Archery. Well done to Lucas for being particularly skilled at Archery.

Final thoughts.. We have all had a fantastic time at Winmarleigh Hall this Year and feel sad to be leaving but really excited to be coming home to see everyone we love and care about.

I would like to say a special thank you to Mr Fern and Mrs Thomas for coming along as, together with the children, we have made a great team. Mr Fern was known as 'Mr Fern to the Rescue' as he encouraged/supported and helped children down from high activities many times. Mrs Thomas was always on hand on the radio to allow for military style/ smooth operations to be carried out. Thank you!