Group 2 - Mr Treadwell
Group 2 roll call:
Alanya, Emma, Lydia, Noah M, Seth, George G, Freddie, Mason, Theo P, Jason, Daniel, George W
Day 3
This morning started off really busy because we had to get all of our bags packed and make sure we were completely ready by 8am! Some of our packing strategies were… interesting, but we did manage it in the end!
Once we’d carried all of our cases and bags to the storage area, we had our toast, pancakes with syrup and our cereal before heading outside for our last day of activities.
The first one we got to do was the fan descender, which everyone had been looking forward to from the beginning. Our group was absolutely amazing! We raced up the pole very confidently, and once we got onto the platform, we had no hesitation in shuffling forwards to the edge. Where there is usually a bit of a pause or a bit of worry, we seemed to get more confident, admiring the view and then and jumping off to enjoy the thrill of the way down! We even had volunteers to be attached at the back on our other attempts, which showed our bravery and ability to push ourselves into new challenges. A great job by all and a perfect start to the tasks.
Our final activity before lunch was the Tree Trek, which was an obstacle course in the trees kind of like Go Ape. It included ladders, tightropes, balance beams, a climbing wall made of ropes and a smaller version of the dual zipline from yesterday. At the start, we all just wanted to get round and make sure we knew how each obstacle worked.. and then we showed our true ability, agility and confidence! We absolutely flew round a couple more times, making it look incredibly easy and having a lot of fun - so much so that we occasionally misstepped and ended up dangling in the trees! Such was our excellence on the trail that we were given an extra challenge to really test our teamwork, communication and bravery: doing the entire course wearing a blindfold!
Despite some initial nervousness and uncertainty around how to navigate the obstacles, our communicating was absolutely amazing, letting each other know when the platforms were clear or full, who was on the obstacle and who was waiting in behind them. Even though we had a couple of slips and stumbles, it was honestly the best and most rewarding part of the activity because it was so different and so unique for us to do. The blindfolded zipline at the end was really exciting because we couldn’t tell how high it was, we didn’t know when it was ending and it seemed like it was going much faster!
It was quite sad when we got to lunch, because we knew the trip was finishing and we were going back to school, but it’s been a great time here and we’ve been so proud of ourselves for our resilience, confidence and participation throughout. Thanks for sending us here we really appreciate it!!
Day 2
Wow! So much to enjoy for us today, and what a brilliant day it has been!
Most of us got a wonderful and much-needed sleep, and that made our amazing cooked breakfast and our bowls of cereal taste even better this morning!
When we’d finished all of that (and tidied up after ourselves), we went off to our first activity of the day, which was abseiling. To get to the top of the wall, we had to climb up a huge staircase and get our safety equipment on at the top. Up there, we had to step up onto the edge and then turn around and inch towards the edge of the abseil wall… before straightening our legs and beginning our descent! Despite a little (understandable!!) nervousness, everyone got to the edge and we all showed a great deal of confidence and persistence for most of us to make it down the wall! Some of us got so confident that we managed to jump on our way down, whilst others threw in a couple of deliberate and very graceful 360s for good measure!
Our 2nd activity of the day was archery, which we did 4 at a time in 3 different groups. We carried our high confidence into the archery from the abseiling, and we thought it would be quite easy… it wasn’t! Once we’d practiced a few times and improved our technique, we started to put a bit more power into our efforts and began hitting the target (and the wooden board around it) much more often. Sadly no bullseyes today, but lots of ice creams created in game 1, lots of points scored in game 2 and some very safe balloons in the 3rd game we played. A highlight for a few of us were the “pet” balloons we got to rescue after nobody could hit them with their arrows!
Outdoor lunch was a lot of fun and we got to eat sandwiches, crisps and fruit (and a chocolate bar, but shhh) that we’d chosen with all of our friends from the different groups. It flew by, but that gave us a chance to move into our 3rd activity so it was all good.
Activity 3 was a huge favourite and one that was loads of fun on the way down… and a great workout on the way back up. Dual Zipline. Everyone had one go each to start with by themselves just to see what it was like and to get used to it, and nobody refused to give it a go, which reflects how well we’ve grown in confidence and belief as the time has gone on. It meant that we got to go on at the same time as our friends and to race them all the way down to the end. Lots of fun, (almost) no screaming and some wonderfully friendly competition throughout. A little less fun and lots of sweating on the way back up the hill, though! Probably, overall, our most complete team performance since we got here and everyone got so, so involved!
In our last activity before dinner, we went to complete the crate stack, which was probably the biggest test of our balance, coordination and teamwork so far! We had to stack black crates upside down on top of each other, and in pairs we had to climb a tower that got steadily taller all the time. The wind definitely made it more tricky, and the different shifts in movement made the tower wobble about so, so much! The best thing about this activity overall was the help of everyone and the support we gave each other whilst we were doing it, and it shows the good spirit and happiness in our group overall. Most of us got to at least 9 crates tall, which was pretty high off the ground! However, one group set what we’re sure is a new Westacre record of 18 (yes, eighteen) crates stacked in a tower - which was absolutely unbelievable and astonishingly high in the air. Everyone deserves so much credit for how brilliant they were in this activity, and how impressive their attitude was throughout, but a special credit goes to Seth and Lydia for their richly-deserved and very well-earned record!
Dinner was lovely yet again, especially the mini doughnuts with the caramel and chocolate sauces. So, so good! We also had the long-awaited tuck shop and managed to get all of the things that will definitely help us to sleep soundly and early tonight!
Last thing we have left to do tonight is the camp fire activity, and hopefully some toasted marshmallows, too!
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Day 1
What a great start to our trip!
After we got here and got our bags to our pods, we were straight into our first activity: High All Aboard. We had to climb up a massive wooden pole and get onto a platform at the top, then wait for our teammates to get up with us. The wind made it a bit more challenging than it might have been, but we all showed our resilience and determination to give it a really good go! Some of us scampered up it very quickly and some of us were more careful, but everyone did themselves proud! A few of us got to try and be the last one standing on the platform and most of us got to jump off. It was great fun!!
Once we did that, we went inside to the Indoor Rock Climbing walls, which were really fun to do. Even though it wasn’t competitive, most of us wanted to race our partner and try to beat them to the top. We all did our absolute best to get up there, and we definitely grew in confidence compared to High All Aboard - so go us! Once we’d conquered the flat wall, we had to tackle the more challenging climbs on the cliff face, which we did fantastically well. Despite not all making it up to the top, there was incredible perseverance and a huge amount of active problem solving and upper body strength on display!
By the time we’d done both of those, lunch in the glorious sunshine was very much needed as we were all - in a so not dramatic way - starving!!
Water drank, food eaten, on to swimming we went! An amazing time splashing around with our friends, building noodle and floaty devices to cruise around the pool and even playing some in-pool small games of volleyball! What a way for us to cool down in the afternoon and do something a little more relaxed after a really busy and high-energy morning.
Last up in the afternoon was laser tag, which was probably our favourite activity of the 4 daytime ones we did. Our whole group was on the blue team, and we were going up against group 1 who were the red team. Our teamwork and ability to hide was exceptional, and we managed to completely overrun and out-flank the reds in the games we played. Lots of precise and highly-organised movement allowed us to take over their camps and pin them back before overwhelming them to secure our victories. Almost no lives lost across the entire session shows how effective and brilliant we were - great credit to everyone involved! A lot of us even said we would love to do this back at school as part of our PE lessons.
Free time and a lovely dinner followed this activity (pasta, bolognese and Mac & Cheese), with a beautiful chocolate brownie and some cream for dessert. Fabulous way to ease the hunger of the day.
This evening we have another activity to do and we’re all looking forward to it, but it’s been a great start to our trip and we’ve loved every second so far.
