Year 6 Bawdsey Manor Residential - May 2026
Arrival - Monday 18th May 2026
The children have arrived at Bawdsey Manor safely. The first update will be posted at around 9am on Tuesday.
Day 1
We arrived safely after an uneventful, if not rather loud, coach journey!
On arrival at Bawdsey, everyone was incredibly excited to see the manor house that we would be sleeping in - this has already been described as a 'posh castle'! Once we had unloaded the bags from the coach, we then went to eat our lunch. After eating lunch, we were given a tour of the site by Ellie and Oscar (our PGL leaders for the week); everyone was very excited to see some of the many activities that we will be completing throughout the week.
We then split into our 6 activity groups, and headed off to complete our first couple of activities of the week. Today saw each group complete Orienteering and Archery Tag. During orienteering we got into small groups and had to use a map to locate different points around the site; it is fair to say that Bawdsey is definitely bigger than expected and some of us may have got temporarily lost! Archery Tag was a lot of fun - it was similar to normal archery except that the arrows had a large foam 'marshmallow' on the end as we were split into teams and then fired the arrows at each other, using shelters to hide and protect us.
Our activities were followed by dinner, which was most definitely a hit with the choices of chicken, fish fingers, pasta and chow mein all proving popular and resulting in many clear plates. Following dinner, we headed to our rooms where the challenge of making the beds awaited! After negotiating this challenge (some more successfully than others!), we headed off for our first evening activity which was Cluedo; during this we had to find different characters around the grounds and complete different challenges to solve the mystery!
Everyone is really looking forward to our first full day tomorrow.
Day 2
Our first night's sleep was certainly on the shorter side and the majority of us were up bright at early by 6:00am, which did leave us a bit of a wait until breakfast! However when we got to breakfast there were lots of clean plates and bowls and we were ready to begin our first full day of activities.
Even though the morning was a bit wet and windy we were not going to let that stop us! Every group had two 'high-ropes' activities throughout the day, first up for most of us was the zipwire whilst some of us did the Giant Swing. Everyone did incredibly well during these first activities involving heights with all of us managing to reach our personal targets. When doing the zip-wire, after jumping off of the tower and travelling down the wire, comes the trickier than expected bit of landing! We were supposed to land on our feet in a smooth-running type motion - whilst some of us managed to pull this off some of us were slightly less dignified!
After lunch, all of the groups took on the climbing wall, a huge number of us managed to reach the very top of the wall and some of us doing so at an incredibly impressive speed! Also, this afternoon, the majority of groups had a go at rifle shooting, there was some fantastic shooting across all of the groups with a few of us even managing to hit the centre bullseye which only measures about half a centimetre!
As we have 6 activity groups, each of them have slightly different timetables but by the end of the week every group will have completed all of the different activities. Today's timetables also saw some groups have a go at problem solving, fencing and 'Frisbee Golf' - all of which were lots of fun although the windy conditions did make aiming the frisbee pretty challenging!
Our evening activity tonight was 'PGL Games' which consisted of competing in teams in a variety of different games. After such a long day it was surprising to see such competitiveness! We have all had a fantastic and jam-packed day although we are all certainly looking forward to a better night's sleep!
Day 3
Following a 'good' night's sleep and a more reasonable wake up time, everyone woke up feeling refreshed and ready for another day of excitement. During breakfast, there was much discussion about the activities that everyone was most looking forward to throughout the day.
Today's timetable saw every group go on the lake for canoeing - even if some of us spent more time in the lake than on it! Canoeing was met with much excitement and chatter about 'taking a dip' in the lake, it's fair to say that the canoes were slightly trickier to handle than expected and the wind certainly made this even more challenging. Once we had got to grips with them, the instructors decided to add to the challenge by getting us to play some games, including finding an item and taking it to the instructor as well as a game of 'Canoe Tag'. For those of us who ended up out of the canoe and in the lake we certainly found it colder than we expected!
Several groups got to tackle Jacob's Ladder today, during this activity you had to climb a very large and wobbly ladder where the beams got further and further apart the higher you went up. You climbed the ladder in groups of 2 or 3, as teamwork was an essential part of reaching the top - the teamwork and encouragement that the children gave each other throughout this activity was fantastic. We also had a number of us reach the top beam which was incredible - the photographs should give a sense of how tricky this really was!
During the day most groups took part in problem solving and fencing. Problem solving involved trying to tackle various different challenges which needed a huge amount of teamwork, excellent communication and often some lateral thinking - it would be fair to say that the results were mixed with some of us taking longer to spot the most effective way to complete the problem! The fencing sessions were great with everyone enjoying learning the different positions and movements required, there were definitely some of us who seemed to have a real natural flair for it!
Our evening activity was campfire, this included lots of (very loud) singing and dancing which everyone enjoyed; also, the toasted marshmallows were a great way to finish the day!
Day 4
After a good night's sleep and a few last-minute wake up calls to ensure nobody missed breakfast, we were ready for another fun day.
Today several groups, who hadn't already had their go, got their turn on the Giant Swing. This involves being attached to a large metal trapeze, in groups of 2 or 3, and then what is best described as squatting in mid-air. After we were securely attached, the remainder of the group had the task of pulling the rope to raise us into the air. After reaching our chosen height, one of us then had the rather unnerving task of pulling the cord which released the swing! This has definitely been one of the favourite activities of the week.
Every group took part in 'Buggy Build' today, this involved working as a team to build a buggy out of wooden poles and large barrels, the most essential element to this activity was effective teamwork and communication; plus some good knot work! All of us encountered some challenges during the build stage, however all of the buggies were successfully built and then 'driven' around the field.
Today also saw the majority of us complete our abseiling sessions. Having seen this activity shortly after we arrived on Monday this was one of the more eagerly awaited sessions! The abseiling tower is also the highest tower they have at Bawdsey which certainly added to the challenge. However, in spite of the height and the fact that abseiling involves stepping over an edge, laying back and walking down a wall which is all rather unnatural, everyone had a great go, challenging themselves and doing the best that they could.
Some groups also completed Trapeze today (aka 'The Leap of Faith'), it really is a rather daunting prospect of climbing a high narrow pole with the sole purpose of jumping off; however, it was fantastic to see so many of us scale the pole and jump off; the feeling of managing to do this was incredible and something we will remember for a very long time!
We still have a couple of activities to look forward to tomorrow morning, before we leave after lunch, and to be honest we are looking forward to these much more than we are to packing our bags!
