Pupils in Years 5 & 6 thoroughly enjoyed their residential trip to Mount Cook in Derbyshire from Monday 13th June through to Wednesday 15th June. Over the three days, pupils participated in a variety of outdoor activities designed to broaden horizons, develop key skills and create lasting memories including: zip-lining, orienteering, abseiling, canoeing, archery, and high ropes, to name but a few. In addition, the children participated in a number of games with a focus on teamwork skills, leadership and collaboration; within minutes, the groups were completing the challenges proficiently, and the children’s delight at their achievements was evident by the smiles on their faces.
Tasty meals provided welcome sustenance, with hearty full English breakfasts and delicious cooked food and salads for lunch and dinner. S Anselm’s teachers particularly enjoyed using the Nespresso coffee machine! Pupils commented on the cleanliness and comfort of the accommodation: Year 5 slept in bunks in spacious dorms in the main building and Year 6 had lots of fun sleeping in the outdoor camping pods, set against a backdrop of pretty woodland.
Our our Year 5 pupils have written thank you letters to the staff at Mount Cook, in which they have all made lovely comments about the friendliness of the staff and how pleased they were to conquer some of their fears, mainly because the team were so encouraging and supportive. Needless to say, Year 5 are all eager to return next year!
The children were also asked to write reports on their trip, which give a flavour of the wonderful experiences they had.
Grace wrote:
“At Mount Cook we did some activities that the everyone flew through and other activities that took some guts and resilience to get through. For example, the giant zipwire was quite nerve racking for most, but everyone had a go and enjoyed it thoroughly. The Year 6s did rock climbing, abseiling and weaselling. They were all very challenging, the abseiling was difficult for everyone but we all attempted it. The rock climbing was great fun and I think we all felt like some sort of ninja, climbing on the rocks. The Year 5s did orienteering around campus which I have heard was extremely exciting and they had a wonderful time. It must have felt a bit like being pirates looking for treasure!”
Amelia wrote:
“Last week, Years 5 and 6 took a trip to Mount Cook Adventure Centre. We set out from school on Monday morning and after a hearty lunch, Year 6 dived into a game of tribes, which involved cracking codes, reading maps and solving puzzles. That night Year 6 settled into their cosy pods and Year 5 in dorm rooms. After a restless night’s sleep we had a delicious breakfast quickly followed by intense archery target practice, in readiness for a rapid fire game of archery tag later. Meanwhile the Year 5s were sailing off in canoes, returning rather wetter than they set off!”
A special thank you to Mrs Bennion, Mrs Elvin, Mrs Baynes and Mrs Wragg who accompanied the children on this memorable trip.
