Kilvrough 2016

You'll find our daily blog for the 2016 trip on this page.

Thursday 28th January: Canoeing, climbing and chocolate!

Another great day today! The sun was shining for the first time and we all headed out nice and early for our activities. Miss Barton, Miss Fellows and Mr Jenkins kitted out for a day of climbing and scrambling along the rugged coast and Mr Martin took his group kayaking.

Miss Fellows was enormously impressed when Joel took on the role of leader to take his team mates safely across the boulders and rock pools. Neyan faced his fears and pushed himself well outside of his comfort zone to complete a challenging climb that impressed all who witnessed it.

Miss Barton's group continued to grow in confidence too, with Dajah and Kayenaat climbing beyond their own limits and Elliot showing outstanding speed and agility. Miss Barton took great pride in Ollie's talent for encouraging and lifting his team mates spirits throughout the day. Wuraola kept everyone laughing with her jokes and amazing sense of humour, and managed a tricky abseil, even though she was scared - the key was distracting her with conversations about sweets and chocolates!

Mr Martin's team braved the cold to thoroughly enjoy a day on the water that was both challenging and fun. Thomas particularly impressed all with his focus and effort whilst learning new skills and Kiam became an essential part of Mr Martins crew as they dabbled with piracy and skulduggery.

We then had a very busy evening packing up, shopping for souvenirs and tidying up the centre. Then we had a lovely sit down with chocolate biscuits, hot chocolate and marshmallows before heading to bed for our last bed time story of the week! Everyone was asleep in minutes!

We all look forward to seeing you tomorrow evening.

Wednesday 27th January: Climbing, canoeing and castle ruins.

Everyone slept extremely well last night, we were so tired out from our day in the wind we fell asleep straight away and everyone stayed in their beds until 7:30! Miss Fellows even had to wake a few sleepy children up.

We were really pleased this morning to see the rain had stopped and the wind had calmed after yesterday's gales. After a delicious breakfast of cereal and croissants (which lots of us enjoyed trying for the first time) Groups A and B set off for canoeing whilst Mr Martin and Group C went rock climbing.

After a 40 minute journey to the canal, Group A really impressed Miss Fellows and their instructor Sam with their amazing team work when getting their canoes in the water. Group B arrived shortly after and were very excited to get going. All of the grown ups were really pleased to see our team work today - lots of us worked with someone we haven't worked with before and enjoyed the challenges. Poppy was faced with a very tough challenge when she was given Miss Fellows as a partner, Poppy had to step in and rescue Miss Fellows on more than one occasion today! Lleyton and Neyan picked up the skills really quickly and were soon whizzing across the water - they made a fantastic team. After learning the skills and a lovely lunch on the water side, both groups set off on a journey down the canal. Although they found it quite tricky to begin with, Jamal and Freya worked very hard and persevered to escape every time they got stuck in the bushes. Ollie and Mr Jenkins made another great team, and Ollie was excellent at giving careful instructions, and telling Mr Jenkins what he needed to do! Miss Barton hardly saw Kayenaat and Saika as they were so far ahead with Piers, our instructor - they were leading the group most of the day, and hardly hit the sides at all! The award for the most improved canoeist goes to Kieran, who was quite nervous at the start, but with the expert and supportive help of Ethan, he excelled by the end, even beating Miss Barton! Wuraola had a fantastic day and even changed partners along the journey, she never gave up and pushed herself to make it to the end.

Meanwhile, Group C went off with Mr Martin and their instructor Jamie for a rock climbing adventure...The children began with some scrambling. They were so supportive of each other with some challenging scrambles. Benji was very confident scrambling and finding his way over the rocks. Then we went to do some climbing with ropes and harnesses. The children had to help each other into their kits before being checked by their instructors. They then began their climbs! Everyone tried very hard with their climbs, setting themselves targets which most met, and many exceeded! Yet again, James was amazing at climbing: Mr Martin has renamed him "the amazing spider-man"! Thomas really pushed himself today, and challenged his own limits to really succeed. As well as this he kept a huge smile on his face all day long.

Declan and Billy were amazing at supporting people every step of the way, from getting down a very slippery path to the beach, finding the best path through the maze of rock pools and safely helping other people to climb. Kiam became Mr Martin's assistant, checking everyone was there by doing a head count and always looking out for his team mates.

Dinner this evening was delicious; we had built up a huge appetite after all of our hard work today. Dinner was a choice of steak pie, vegetable pasta or bbq chicken with salad, vegetables and potatoes. We ate lots and were very stuffed!

This evening we headed out for a night walk through the woods to see the ruins of a castle. The children spent a long time staring at the amazing night sky - the clouds cleared just in time for us to see hundreds of stars and find out about some of the constellations. Maariah was very brave throughout and really enjoyed exploring the castle. Joel enjoyed the walk and didn't worry for a moment! Elliot absolutely loved the walk, and spent lots of time talking to Mr Martin about all the history he knows about! He was desperate to help with the blog, but by the time we got home we needed to get to bed! He will be helping me tomorrow.

Everyone went to bed quickly at the end of the evening and are all tucked up in bed now.

By Miss Fellows, Anjolene and Poppy

Tuesday 26th January: Wood Farm’s wonderful, windy day!

Everybody woke up very early today – some people, before 5:30! Despite this, everyone had lots of energy for the exciting day ahead. We had some fantastic and delicious food for breakfast – cereal, bacon rolls and veggie sausage rolls!

The weather outside was very exciting – Storm Jonas hit Kilvrough Manor! Apparently, the Gower peninsula, where we were, was the windiest place in Britain today, and it certainly felt like it. The wind was around 40 miles per hour, with gusts of up to 60 miles per hour! Because of this, we couldn’t go caving or climbing as we had planned, so we all headed off together to the Worms Head – a tidal causeway nearby. We battled the winds to get to the path down to the causeway, which was very hard! Everyone helped each other and encouraged people who were finding it trickier. Lily was really helpful and supportive to people who were finding it a bit tiring, and Alfie really impressed everyone for persevering and keeping going with a big smile on his face! Some of us were even carrying each other to help! We all made it to the path but then it was so windy, we had to turn back! Neyan , Ethan and Elza were particularly brave, and went down onto the causeway with their instructor Sam, to see what it was like. They came back up quickly though, to get out of the wind and join their teams again. Even Miss Barton got blown over at one point, which made everyone laugh! It was a much easier walk on the way back as the rain was pushing us all the way back to the car park, though we kept getting blown in the wrong direction!

We had a nice warm lunch in the minibuses (according to Lleyton, “the lunch was soooo nice!”) and then headed down to Rhossili Bay – which is apparently one of the top ten most beautiful beaches in the world! It was very beautiful, though very windy still! It was lots of fun running in the wind and playing in the sand though, especially as the sand was being blown in really amazing patterns. We spent a few hours looking in rock pools, and jumping in quite a few too! Amazingly, even though everyone was soaking wet, they kept warm and were smiling and giggling all afternoon. Elliot did some great jumping and splashing in rock pools and Emilia and James really enjoyed wading into the rock pools and splashing themselves. Millie was also very brave – she got more and more confident paddling in the water, even sitting down in a big rock pool at one point! Everyone found lots of shells and pretty stones, which are now weighing down the children’s bags to come home.

We ended our activity by going right out to where the sea met the beach and played in the waves. Quite a few people fell over and got soggy, but it was still lots of fun. By the time we began walking back up the hill to the mini-buses, we were all very tired!

When we got back, even though everyone was tired out, soaking wet and pretty cold, Saika, Abdur-Rehman and Kayenaat chose to do another problem solving activity before showering: it took lots of attempts but they achieved it eventually!

We all had lovely hot showers and a nice change of clothes to get ourselves nice and warm again, and then had some free time, writing our diaries, playing with the games we brought with us and doing some drawing and colouring.

Then we had a fantastic dinner, which was either chicken curry, sweet and sour chicken or vegetable curry. They were so delicious and every one ate lots!

Because of the weather, we are staying inside tonight and doing some great problem solving activities. Then we might have some hot chocolate before bed. After that, we are all going to sleep very well – hopefully no one wakes up quite so early tomorrow!

By Miss Barton, James and Neyan

Monday 25th January

The children set off from Oxford this morning just before 8:00, and arrived safely in Wales in time for some lunch. Check back later for news and updates during the week. Remember you can also follow us on Twitter, @WoodFarmSchool

Day 1: Travelling, team-building and tidying our rooms!

After an early start and a four hour journey we finally arrived at Kilvrough Manor just after 12!

First of all we were introduced to our groups and instructors: Sam, Ed and Jamie. We got settled in our rooms and unpacked our things. Our rooms are really cool with bunk beds and lots of areas to put our things.

After that we had some lovely tomato soup and mushroom soup with bread. Then we got our gear and set off for our activity. The weather couldn't decide what to do - it was raining one minute, sunny the next! We started talking about the week and learning about how to be a great team!

Group C and group B had a fun but competitive game trying to be the best on the tricky obstacle course. We had to help each other to go over the see-saw, a high wooden wall, through some tunnels and over stepping stones, all without touching the floor! Dajah really impressed everyone with her great ideas about how to get through, and was so brave with every challenge. Ollie was also a great team player, offering to go last so he could help everyone else through the challenges. Anjolene really brought her team together by being really enthusiastic and energetic, as well as being very brave on all of the challenges. Maariah was nervous at first, but really impressed Mr Martin by overcoming all her fears and pushing herself with some really hard challenges. In the end it was a draw, though team B did get bonus points for getting Miss Barton and Mr Jenkins through the course too!

In group A, Freya and Neyan had some fantastic ideas how to overcome obstacles and were confident sharing them with their team. Poppy K also impressed her teammates by her perseverance with every challenge! They enjoyed the rope course and some other different challenges. Working as a team was a must for every challenge and they got better and better doing this as the day went on!

We are now having some time to relax before dinner. Dinner today is chips with sausages, veggie sausages or chicken and everyone is looking forward to it. Then we are doing a treasure hunt activity in the dark with our torches before bed!

We haven't been able to upload any photos today as the network is down, but will do so as soon as we can! In the meantime, check the school twitter page!

By Miss Barton, Ollie and Neyan