Monday - 17th October After a long coach journey we finally arrived at Osmington. As we piled out of the coach we were greeted by our friendly group leaders, Liam and Molly, who took us on a tour around the grounds; showing us the views and more importantly where we would be taking our meals. After our informative tour we sat down to a lovely dinner, where all you can eat really meant all you can eat. Our first activity was then a camp fire where we got to meet another school also staying at Osmington bay. Here we sang campfire fire songs and told stories before we wished Ethan C a very happy 10^th birthday and went off to bed. You’ll be pleased to know they are all asleep by 10pm!! Very impressed. More adventures to come tomorrow!  

Tuesday 18th October

Wow -what a great night's sleep for all of us! They were amazing.  They have definitely moved in...the girls rooms are a little... Although well done to Mia's room which is spotless! 

Just sitting down to brekie at the moment - most of us are having lovely warm porridge with sultanas or a cooked breakfast. We think Mr Lucas is trying everything on the menu!

Off in a bit for Rafting, Sailing, Beach Walk or Abseiling. Might be a bit chilly as its just starting raining and its a bit breezy - but we are wrapped up warm and raring to go. More later....

And so our adventures really began.  

What a great morning we have had… although not sure that Miss Collis needed to get as wet as she did though! Jack S’s group floated their raft on the sea and Jack even tried to knock Miss Collis off into the water. Unfortunately did not succeed - on that occasion but did manage to splash her from head to toe. Jack says, “I enjoyed building it the best but would have preferred to have done my own design.” Mr Lucas managed to take lots of photos with his GoPro which he brought into the water with him. Elizabeth B says, “Getting into the sea and doing the activities was epic”. 

Alice and her group went abseiling and for a walk along the beach. Alice reported back that, “we were looking for gems in the stones. We got to make monsters out of natural resources – it was fun. The best bit though was making the monsters”. I wonder how many of them will come to life?

Melissa really enjoyed the sailing. “The best bit was when we had to turn the corners by ourselves. It was hard and hurt your hands. We managed it – even though we bashed into some rocks!” They thought that was so cool!

Tuesday Evening - 

What a great afternoon it has been. After a filling lunch of soup, hot pasta, garlic bread, salad and fruit we headed off for a variety of activities. Sailing, trapeze (oh boy did that take courage, determination and trust – BUT we all achieved our own goals!) and orienteering. However, we think that the teachers and instructors were pretty mean, they kept making us run up and down the hill to find different stamps to collect. We did really well and have certainly built up an appetite for dinner.

Jack T says, “it was really scary getting to the top of the big pole and pretty tense but it was literally so fun, even though we were scared.”

“You get lots if fitness getting around everywhere. You need good teamwork too!” Alfie J mentioned in passing.

7.30pm - Currently the children are racing around the centre trying to hunt down the different countries around the world: in a bid to answer the most questions and score the most points. Great teamwork and competitiveness. What we, as a staff, have really enjoyed the most is watching how well the children encourage and support each other. So proud of them all.

Tuesday, 9.10pm

All tucked up in bed after an energetic race around the world. Well done to group 1! The weather cleared up mid morning and the fresh air, sunshine, exercise and challenges throughout the whole day meant we were faced with the demand of  "WHEN CAN WE GO TO BED?" 

Wednesday, 19^th October - The Wifi has been down - Sorry for the delay in blogging.

What a fantastic day full of energy and excitement. We were woken to a flock of seagulls screeching away – better than an alarm clock any day.

A variety of different activities for each group again today. Some of us got to go back to the National Sailing Academy at Portland to go keel boat sailing. A few of the GB sailing team were on the water too and they can make their boats zip through the water. We were all really impressed!

The boats we got to use were big enough for 8 children and an instructor so sadly the teachers had to stay on shore while we escaped for some fun. Miss Collis got to come out in a power boat and watch us though, which she really enjoyed. We learnt how to put the sails up and to about turn. We found that in sailing you have to push left if you want to turn right and pull right if you want to turn left. It got a little tricky to remember but we all did amazingly well. The boat has a liftable keel and rudder (that’s the bit that makes you change direction).

Archery was a bit hit with all the groups today. We learnt how to load the bow with the arrow making sure that the odd coloured flight stayed pointing upwards. There are 10 scoring zones on the target and they have different point values. The best is a bullseye. We also played games with our first arrow telling us where we would go on holiday, the second how we would get there and the third who would come with us. If you got 3 bullseyes (gold) you got to go to the Caribbean on a private jet with a famous person of our choice. If you weren’t as good you could holiday at school travelling in a broken shopping trolley with a teacher (Yuck!).

Team games proved to be very competitive but we did get the most praise for these as the instructors were really impressed with how well we pulled together and encouraged each other. Lots of sand hockey, dodgeball and mountains and valleys.

In the evening we got to play a huge orienteering game of Cluedo. The 50 year old centre crocodile had been kidnapped and we had to solve the mystery by finding 6 locals who were hiding on camp and interview them for clues as to who was responsible. Phew it made us really tired out but was good fun. It was a struggle to find the gorilla though!

We were all tucked up in bed by 9pm exhausted. Even the teachers are a little tired too.

More tomorrow…

Thursday, 20th October  - 

Mr May has joined us for the day!

Weather a little fresher than yesterday so lots of layers on today. Groups 4, 5 and 6 went dragon boating this morning. We were spilt into 2 different dragon boats and Mr Barry, Mr Lucas and Miss Collis got to come out with us too. Each boat had an instructor at the back who was our steering pilot whilst we were the power house. So that we knew what to do we practised our stroke patterns on dry land first. We looked funny but it helped to keep us in time.

We then boarded the boats. So that the boat didn’t rock too much, when we were loading, we were told to keep our hip pressed to the side of the boat. Holding the paddles – the instructors told us they weren’t called oars, was a bit tricky as you have to keep your hand over the ‘T’. Some of us learnt the Adam’s family tune to help us with our power paddling. Trying to listen, coordinate our paddling and singing at the same time proved a little challenging yet had definitely all improved by the end.

We learnt that if you pressed the paddle tight against the side of the boat it helped us come to a halt and the pilot could then turn us. A one point we practised this and we all thought we were going to hit the pontoon but then we had the call of halt. Wow the boat stopped really quickly and we learnt then how to reverse. When we had learnt how to double paddle for power the race was on. Mr Barry’s boat against Mr Lucas’ boat. Jack, our race supervisor, in the powerboat got us to line up bow to bow…then we were off. Digging deep into the water it started off neck and neck when suddenly Mr Barry’s boat got a surge of power from the call for constant paddling. 200m later Mr Barry’s boat snuck over the line to gain victory. YET…it was the best of three races so the race was on for real now. Again we lined up for the off, Jack ensuring we were equally nose to nose. Mr Barry’s group were chanting loudly and paddling like mad as Mr Lucas’ boat started to draw a little ahead. The call of dig deeper and paddle harder soon saw Mr Barry’s boat win again by a few centimetres it was definitely a very close call for Jack to make. For the last of the races Mr Barry’s boat won again…but we think we know how they succeeded each time…they also had Miss Collis in their boat so that was an unfair advantage - 2 teachers to 1!

As we disembarked we had to say what we had enjoyed the most about the morning. Francis said, “the singing and the paddling and we won!”

“I’d give it 9/10 for an activity, this is my favourite day so far,” said Ben E.

Whilst Alex M stated, “I give it 11/10, it was great!”

All in all a fantastic time even if we had slightly soggy legs from the furious paddling we did.

Whilst they were dragon boating other groups got to play aeroball, trapeze or team games – you certainly build up a sweat bouncing on the small trampolines. Also the trapeze definitely gets your heart racing as the adrenaline builds up. Mrs Duncan and Mrs Ball certainly enjoyed the aeroball but were glad to have a bit of a rest whilst the others went on to battle for their teams.

Mr May mentioned that the platform you had to stand on for the trapeze was very small and in the wind it wobbled a lot. He was very pleased to succeed in the task though. Well done Mr May!

More aeroball, archery, trapeze and indoor climbing to come later on - while some of the other groups go rafting. 

We have really enjoyed the aeroball. They worked their legs so hard and must be shattered. Mr May was really encouraging to us, but as there were 12 of us he sadly  didn’t get to have a go. He was particularly impressed with Martin and Jack S. Whilst Mr Lucas was really impressed with Charlie – great scoring, perseverance and team work.

Archery again proved to be a hit this afternoon with great bull’s eyes being scored by Martin. Mrs Duncan and Mrs |Ball were so impressed. The children listened so intently to each other trying to find whose arrows made the loudest thud as they hit the target. Martin was a star and managed 4 bull’s eyes himself.

The indoor climbing was good fun and most of the children managed to get to the top. They worked on trying to get up the wall the fastest. Miss Collis did quite well too and also got to the top. Mr May helped us by giving us words of encouragement about where to position our hands and feet.

Tonight we had the disco and partied the night away. The teachers’ dancingwas awful – definite 1980’s daddy dancing. Most glamorous award has to go to Madi for her awesome sparkly shoes.

And finally a little note from the teachers…

We have really enjoyed ourselves, experienced loads of different activities and had a wonderful time. The food has been great, we’ve had plenty of sleep and bucket loads of fresh air. Oh... and the children have been great to be with! It has been fantastic to share in the children’s successes and been a great bonding time for staff and children alike.