When we asked one of our children, Stanley, what he had enjoyed about his time here so far, he said he has had a brilliant time but “I feel the best is yet to come!”

The children have enjoyed a variety of activities over the last 2 days including caving, problem solving, team building and facing the zip wire. The children have recognised that they needed team work, resilience and determination to complete some of the activities. Even the teachers took part in some of these activities!

Last night, we enjoyed eating marshmallows, drinking hot chocolate and singing songs around the campfire. The children would like to say a big thank you to Mrs Durrant for the bags of sweets she kindly brought them to enjoy on their trip.

We conducted our dispatches around the campfire where everyone was nominated for various reasons, including being kind and helpful to each other, showing good team work, excellent determination and resilience and most of all, being respectful to the instructors on the activities.

After a late night on Monday, the children are now very appreciative to have had a good night sleep, and be ready for day 3.

Yesterday was an action packed day and the children have had a great time getting stuck into more of the activities, and bonding with their groups. at West Runton the learning aims are: team work, communication, problem solving, resilience, leading, challenge, risk, motivation, environmental awareness and learning a new skill. So far we have seen the children achieving these aims, and they have been reflecting on them as part of their activities. Take a look below at some more of our pictures and comment what learning aims the children are meeting.

So far today, our children have been overcoming new obstacles and challenges by taking part in some more of the outdoor adventures on offer at kingswood. The first obstacle for Miss Stanton’s group this morning was abseiling! Our group leader- Kiera- spoke to the children before the activity about what it means to face your fears, even if you don’t conquer them. Would you be more proud of the friend who climbed up to the top,  despite being extremely out of their comfort zone, and deciding to just peek over the top, or the friend who could climb up, abseil down and wave to their friends in less than 30 seconds? We decided that we would be proud of them both: one for giving it a shot and the other for showing us what you can do when you embrace new experiences. Our children showed great qualities of resilience, determination and compassion during the abseiling activity, and that for us is what it’s all about!

What a great first day! The children are now tucked up in bed, trying to get some sleep over the excitement of staying away from home. We have had a full on today and the children are tired but are enjoying the experience of bunking in dorms with their friends.

So far today we arrived around 2:45 and the children went straight to their dorms to choose their beds. We had some time to settle and then at 4pm we had a tour of the premises before doing our first activity. We then had some more time to relax in our dorms before heading off to dinner. The food here is great and everyone had something they like, including a rocky road dessert!

After dinner we headed off for a murder mystery activity in which some our children showed their abilities in drama and some in interrogation- I feel we have some future secret agents among us! We then went for some hot chocolate before heading to our dorms for our despatches discussion.

Mrs wag staff nominated Joshua S for his enthusiasm and dedication to his character’s performance in the murder mystery activity, Dylan T nominated Miss Northwood for her bravery during the caving activity to name a few!

We are on the road, on our way to sunny Cromer! The children are in good spirits and are very excited to arrive. This week is about developing the children’s resilience, confidence and independence, so as hard as their good byes were this morning, we know they will come back to you  beaming with pride and stories of their adventures.

It is the night before we set off and what I can imagine is a mixture of excitement and nervousness amongst the children, settling down to their last nights sleep before we go.

We as a staff are really excited about taking the children on a trip we know they will remember for a lifetime, and cannot wait to keep you all updated with the activities we get up to.