Year 6 Bawdsey Manor Residential - May 2024
Day 1
We arrived safely after an uneventful and rather calm coach journey!
On arrival at Bawdsey, everyone was incredibly excited to see the manor house that we would be sleeping in - there was quickly talk about how it felt like we are staying in 'something out of film'! After leaving our bags, we were taken on a tour of the site by Nick and Liv (our PGL leaders for the week) and we saw lots of the activities that we will be doing throughout the week. After seeing the height of the climbing tower there was a definite mixture of amazement and nerves; there was also lots of talk about what different activities we were most looking forward to.
After our tour, we made the most of the sunshine and went to one of the many fields at Bawdsey to play football, frisbee and there were also some rather impressive dance moves on show! Then it was time for dinner and it's safe to say that this was a hit with the choices of meatballs, fish fingers and noodles all proving popular and resulting in many clear plates. Following dinner, we headed to our rooms where the first challenge of the week awaited...making the beds! After negotiating this challenge (some more successfully than others!) we headed off for our first evening activity which was a team quiz - this was best described as an active and energetic version of the 'Million Pound Drop'.
Everyone is really looking forward to our first full day tomorrow and the first set of 'main' activities.
Day 2
As first night sleeps go on a residential trip ours was a pretty good one - that being said most of us were still up and excited to get going just after 6am! As with dinner the night before breakfast was a real hit, with everyone loving the wide range of choices on offer.
Finally, we were ready to begin our first full day of activities. Due to the large number of groups that we have all of the groups had different activities on their timetable for today. Every group had two 'high-ropes' activities throughout the day, all of us got to do the Giant Swing, which involved 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 daunting task of pulling the cord which released the swing! One of the most fitting reviews of the Giant Swing was, 'you don't get swings like this at the parks in Stanway!'.
As well as the Giant Swing, some groups took on Jacob's Ladder whilst others did zip-wiring. 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 - some of us managed to pull off a cool and casual action hero-style landing whilst others were slightly less dignified! Everyone did incredibly well during these first activities involving heights with all of us managing to get off of the ground and reach our personal targets.
Also, throughout the day most groups took part in Sensory Trail; this involved completing an obstacle course whilst wearing blackout goggles. It's fair to say everyone became far more disorientated than they expected, although it certainly didn't help with teachers and the PGL instructors adding to the disorientation by squirting us with water and putting leaves in our faces! The effectiveness of the communication within each group is probably best described as variable and at times chaotic!
Throughout the day, each group also completed a coastal walk. During the coastal walk, we had a walk around the more historical parts of the site learning a little about the Manor's history and we then left the grounds and had a walk down to the beach. Even if the weather was slightly damp, it was good to spend some time at the beach; we had fun playing games, skimming stones and drawing in the sand.
Our evening activity tonight was Cluedo which consisted of running around the site to complete various challenges to solve the Cluedo mystery - after such a long day it was surprising to see such high energy levels and eagerness to win!
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 groups 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. Once we had got to grips with them, the instructors decided to add to the challenge by getting us to play a game of 'Simon says' which included challenges such as put your elbow into the water, stand up in your canoe. Rather unsurprisingly, this resulted in several people ending up out of their canoe and in the lake! At the end of the first canoeing session many of those who had remained largely dry decided they wanted to 'take a swim'! The groups who did canoeing later in the day didn't seem to end up as wet; it is hard to tell if that is because they were more skillful or simply because they had heard that 'a dip in the lake' wasn't as pleasant as they thought it might be!
Those groups who didn't tackle Jacob's Ladder yesterday got their go 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 several children reach the top beam which is was incredible - the photographs should give a sense of how tricky this really was!
The different groups also completed other various activities today one of which was problem solving. This 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! A number of groups also had a go at Archery, the accuracy of everyone certainly improved as the sessions went on but most importantly everyone had fun channelling their inner Robin Hood!
During our free time around lunchtime and dinner, we organised games of football and frisbee for the children or they had the chance to 'chill' in their rooms. Our evening activity today was campfire which included lots of (very loud) singing and dancing which everyone enjoyed; also, the toasted marshmallows were a real hit!
Tomorrow, a number of groups are taking on the 'Leap of Faith' which is always one of the real highlights of the week!
Day 4
Our final full day started by several rooms attending breakfast in their pyjamas, after a final last-minute wake up call, to ensure they didn't miss it!
After enjoying another substantial breakfast everyone was ready for a day which for many groups included abseiling and trapeze (leap of faith). It is fair to safe that these two activities were two of the most eagerly anticipated of the week, with the anticipation coming from a mixture of both excitement and nerves! As each group took on these challenges throughout the day, it was amazing to hear the success stories spread throughout the children with those who had completed the activities earlier in the day providing support and encouragement for those who did them later in the day.
Despite the challenges, fears and feelings of apprehension, the way in which everyone set themselves their own targets and overcame their individual fears was fantastic. To see those who are petrified of heights, climb a high narrow pole with the sole purpose of jumping off (trapeze), to step over the edge of a tower (abseiling) or in some cases to climb the very high abseiling tower and be able to look over the edge is remarkable. The experience and feeling of tackling a fear head on and the sense of achievement felt afterwards is something which will stay with them forever.
During the course of the day, a number of groups also had their fencing and orienteering sessions. The fencing sessions were great with everyone enjoying learning the different positions and movements required, there were definitely some children who seemed to have a real natural flair for it! When it came to orienteering let's just say the map working skills were at times very questionable and it is probably good thing that GPS exists!
After a visit to the shop (which of course resulted in the majority buying more sweets!) and dinner, we had our final evening activity which ended up being a bit different than normal - we had a disco. Some of the children were less than keen on this (the disco hall wall very loud!) so we organised some games on the field for those children who wanted to do something different. Whatever they decided to do they all had a great evening. We then attempted to do some packing before bed, however the attempt for many wasn't overly successful and that will be a job for the morning!
We still have a couple of activities to look forward to tomorrow morning before we leave after lunch.
Day 5