WINMARLEIGH HALL

 

Finally connected!

 

Hi everyone!

 

We are so sorry that we couldn't update you sooner- unfortunately the wifi has been down here at Winmarleigh. Please be assured that we are having a fantastic time! So where shall we start?!

 

When we arrived on Monday, we successfully unpacked, got settled into our rooms and were given a tour. For tea we had shephard's pie and chocolate donuts (which went down very well!) According to Miss Gornall, our table manners and behaviour in the dining room so far is the best she has ever seen at Winmarleigh!

 

Our evening activity was 'Whacky Races.' We had to work in teams to complete various different tasks and races. Mrs Dixon took this very seriously and got fully'stuck in' which greatly amused the other adults!

 

Our first night's sleep- Miss Gornall tells us that this is the trickiest night and that she is often woken up in the night for various reasons. This year, there were a total of zero disturbances!! All the adults were so impressed by this and even managed to get a good night's sleep themselves.

 

Day 2

 

Day 2 held lots of excitement! Here are a few highlights:

 

Blake and Charlie K-B were experts at the archery, managing to hit the targets and score lots of points.

 

Morgan conquered her fear of the zipwire and after not wanting to take part at all, challenged herself to give it a go and ended up really enjoying it!

 

Emi absolutely loved the 'Zipwire' and the 'Giant Swing', where she swung from the highest point. In her words, it made her feel "as happy as a donut!"

 

Mrs Hetherington, Mrs Dunion, Mrs Dixon and Miss Moorhouse appeared to have more fun than the children when they took part on the 'Zipwire.' Mrs Hetherington was very proud of herself as she has been to Winmarleigh 4 times and always wanted to do it- she finally plucked up the courage!

 

Casey did a fantastic job on 'Vertical Challenge' where she managed to push herself to climb higher than she ever imagined!

 

Tyson, Alliyah, Blake and Jackson enjoyed being dressed up by their teams as robots for the evening event which was 'Robot Wars.' The flour and water were dodged by the robots with varying degrees of success!

 

After a busy day, we were all really tired so we got showered and ready for bed straight after our evening activity. Again, Miss Gornall reported no disturbances in the night. She was smiling from ear to ear on Wednesday morning!

 

Day 3

 

Miss Gornall and Mr Fern woke us up at 7:15 am so that we could get ready for our breakfast: toast, beans, mushrooms, bacon and tomatoes.

 

We then had another fun-packed day:

 

Alliyah proved to have a natural talent for 'Fencing' where she adopted the moves very quickly and looked like a professional by the end of the session!

 

Jennifer and Maddi were amazing at climbing the 'Climbing Tower' and Charlie P conquered his fears, also making it to the top of the 'Climbing Tower' and skilfully climbing the 'Jacob's Ladder'.

 

Although afraid at first, Corey and Megan managed to climb higher than they believed they could on the 'Climbing Tower'. Everyone was really proud.

 

Seren was also very successful on the 'Jacob's Ladder' and Bertie showed lots of skill on the 'High Ropes.'

 

Our evening event was 'Campfire', where we all got snug around a fire, sang some songs and toasted marshmallows- yum yum!

 

More updates to follow tomorrow.. and watch this space for photos!

 

Update 2..

 

Posted: 28th Oct 2016

Good morning everyone- so here we are, our final day at Winmarleigh and what an absolutely fantastic time we have had! Here are a few more highlights of our trip:

 

Our Wednesday night talent competition contestants were:

 

Jack - MC

Megan - singing

Alliyah- singing/ beat-boxing

Emi-rapping

Annabelle, Casey & Ellilou- gymnastics

Paige, Chloe- gymnastics

Indie- impressions

What a brilliant show- thank you for entertaining us! (Results to be announced in assembly).

 

Thursday

 

Raft building- what fun we had! Each team designed and built a raft which held all of us. They all floated and we were able to paddle and steer them successfully. There were a few 'swimmers' but this was all part of the fun! We loved playing water games and splashing each other. Tyson found it hillarious when he fell in, if a little cold! Taylor was the first to slip off his group's raft and Mrs Dixon almost wobbled over into the water too!

 

Polat was very skilled at the fencing activity today- he proved fit to be the queen's guard! He also won the prize for being the mudiest after diving into a puddle!

 

Paige and Sophie beat a timed challenge record on 'Low Ropes' with an amazing time of 5 seconds!

 

Ella, Charlie H and Jackson made it to the highest point on 'High Ropes'- very brave!

Our evening event was the disco. We all spruced up well and managed to look reasonably clean ready to hit the dancefloor. Miss Gornall tells us that our behaviour was brilliant again and a teacher from another school even commented on what a lovely group of children we are.

 

We'd like to say a special thanks to Ewan Griffiths and wish him happy birthday: sadly Ewan was too poorly to join us on the trip and we all missed him very much. Ewan kindly suggested that we should enjoy his birthday cake regardless. We had it for our supper and thought of him whilst we ate it- thanks again Ewan it was delicious.

 

Friday

 

Well here we are- the final day! We all slept through the night again which means that we break a record for a grand total of zero 'middle of the night' disturbances. Miss Gornall said that our behaviour  has been impeccable and that we are a credit to the school and our families.  We have had such a wonderful time and made some fantastic memories!

 

We can't wait to see you all later!

 

*Miss Gornall will upload more photos when she returns to school- the wifi has been to weak to upload as many as she would have liked.