Stanway Fiveways Primary School

Year 6 Bawdsey Manor Residential - June 2025

We arrived safely after an uneventful, if not song-filled, coach journey!

Once arriving at Bawdsey, everyone was incredibly excited to see the manor house that we would be sleeping in - this has already been described as a 'castle', a 'mansion' and a 'bit like Hogwarts'! After the excitement of revealing what room everyone was in, we quickly dropped our bags off and then went to eat lunch. We made the most of the sunshine and went to one of the many fields at Bawdsey to have lunch and this was followed by a quick game of football and frisbee.

We then split into our 6 activity groups and headed off to complete our first couple of activities of the week.  Every group got to do a 'high' activity, with each group either taking on the zip-wire or Jacob's Ladder. 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. Most groups also had a go at disc (frisbee) golf during the afternoon - it is fair to say that there were definitely varying degrees of success with our throwing and accuracy!

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 campfire - this included lots of (very loud) singing and dancing which everyone enjoyed.  Also, the toasted marshmallows were a great way to finish day one!

Everyone is really looking forward to our first full day tomorrow.

Our first night's sleep was certainly on the shorter side and the majority of us were up bright and early by 5:45am, 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. 

Our morning involved all of the groups doing canoeing and the challenge course. 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. The windy weather definitely added to the challenge as it ended up blowing most groups into the same corner of the lake which created  a few traffic issues! There were certainly differing degrees of success on the lake with several groups ending up out of their canoe and in the lake! At the end of the canoeing sessions many of those who had remained largely dry decided they wanted to 'take a swim'! The challenge course was thankfully a much drier activity, this is an assault course where we completed different challenges and games working both as a team and as individuals.

After lunch, 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 (which was made even more wobbly by the strong winds!) where the beams get 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!

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 climbing, fencing and orienteering. When it came to orienteering let's just say the map working skills were at times very questionable and it is probably a good thing that GPS exists!  

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!

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 saw the majority of us complete our abseiling sessions, having seen another school doing this 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. In fact we had such success that we even had some of us stopping halfway down the wall to high-five with our hands and feet!

During the course of the day, a number of groups also had their fencing and 'Buggy Build' sessions. 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! Buggy Build 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, everyone also got to channel their inner Robin Hood and have a go at Archery. After some initially wayward shooting, the accuracy of everyone definitely improved as the sessions progressed; we ended up with several arrows in the golden centre circle! 

Our evening activity today was a quiz which had multiple rounds including a rather challenging music round! Following this, the 'cuddly toy' competition was held where the 3 that stood out most to the teachers were selected as winners. 

The weather tomorrow currently looks rather rainy so we are hoping that dreaming of dry, sunny  skies will work - fingers crossed!

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. Sadly, our wishing of sunshine had not worked out as we had hoped and we had a rather wet and soggy day, however we certainly didn't let that dampen our spirits!

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.

This afternoon was also Trapeze (Leap of Faith) time; with every group having their Trapeze session. What was already a rather daunting prospect of climbing a high narrow pole with the sole purpose of jumping off was certainly made more challenging by the wet and windy weather. 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!

Also, throughout the day, all of us took part in a 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 wasn't helped by the additional obstacles of leaves and bushes! The effectiveness of the communication within each group is probably best described as variable and at times chaotic!

Our evening activity tonight was Passport of the World, this consisted of locating different flags around the Bawdsey site and then answering some rather tricky questions about the country we had found. Even after such a long week, we were all still very keen for each of our groups to win! 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.