Thursday 23 June 2016

Day Four

If you could only see your children now. I’m in a field that has a massive climbing frame in the middle of it. Ten feet up one side is a balance beam and another twenty feet up is another balance beam. The kids are taking challenges on how they will climb up and move across both beams. Johnny has just hopped up and along the entire structure! I don’t think I could even do it crawling and hugging the beams!

This is what is so wonderful about being on camp with these kids. Seeing them build confidence every day and overcoming the challenges that are constantly being put in front of them. Some of the challenges are pretty minor, such as putting up with their teacher playing Squarepusher really loudly to wake them up at 7am this morning (if you are unfamiliar with Squarepusher, Spotify him and see if you’d like to be woken in this manner). Then, there are the personal challenges for each kid, the ones that are far more difficult to achieve, seeing these overcome is something special and, this week, each and every kid has done this in their own way.

This evening, the children are feeling torn between sadness at leaving with the excitement of seeing you all again. I’m hoping these emotions combine in a glorious cocktail of feeling the need to go to bed early and fall straight asleep.


Enjoy the photos! Tomorrow, your child will be able to sit down with you and explain what was going on in each one.










Wednesday 22 June 2016

The Hills Are Alive ... With The Sound Of Raindrops!

OK, we’re tired of the light Summer rain now and would like the grey skies to turn to blue. Not that the kids seem to be taking much notice, while, on the other hand, the drier in the laundry must be fully aware by now.

To give you a flavour of a typical day on camp (if there is such a thing); The kids will explain:

We sleep in an old boarding house away from where we do our activities. We have separate rooms. I am staying in a room with Stella, which I am really glad about. The rooms are very spacious and there is a lot of storage room. - Stevie

Sleeping peacefully, we are woken up by Jay hammering on our door and saying ‘Get up and be downstairs in twenty minutes!’ – Isaac

Every morning it is interesting when we get up because we don’t know what activities we’ll be doing. - Josh

At 7:30, we go next door to Sexey School (which everyone finds absolutely hilarious) and have breakfast in their canteen. The food is delicious, but the teenagers who share the canteen with us are really scary. – Ava and Alexey

After breakfast we walk to Mill on the Brue for the day’s activities. There are loads of really colourful flowers and vegetables growing in their grounds. We have to get there by 9am for the first set of activities and on some days we finish the last activity at 9pm! We are split into two groups, but over the week we will all get to try the same activities as the other group. – Stella

I think Mill on the Brue is really cool because there is a lot of nature. In London there are lots of cars and people, but here there are lots of fields and trees and you can run, run, run! - Johnny

The activities that we are doing are really fun. In tunneling, we had to go deep under the ground into tunnels and we had to make our way through twisting passages. – Anna

Different activities require different skills. Leap of Faith (when you jump off a really high platform) you have to have confidence and in tunneling you have to have a good memory or you get lost. – Evie

My favourite activity has been the Leap of Faith. It was scary when you had to stand up on the tiny platform, but it was fun to jump off. – Lottie

I loved Leap of Faith and canoeing. I look forward to doing more activities tomorrow. – Milou

All of the activities have been huge fun. I really liked Saved the River, in which we had to work together to move a big plastic container over a river, because it was fun to make stuff. I also liked archery because I had to aim carefully and we played games. – Xiao-Xiao

I loved going down the water slide yesterday. I didn’t like that the water was freezing, but it was fun to pretend to be a superhero while sliding down the hill. - Bashayer

We have snacks, lunch and dinner in the Long House, which is the Mill on the Brue canteen. The food is amazing, though you get given small portions. Thankfully, they let you have seconds … and thirds … and …. I had five portions yesterday! – George

I love having all this time to play with my friends. We have breaks in-between activities and we get to play on this huge field. - Franklin


Enjoy the photos!











Tuesday 21 June 2016

Day Two

With fingers crossed, I asked the kids earlier if they were tired and wanted to go to bed earlier this evening. The roll of the die did not go my way and the general consensus is either ‘another’ movie or a nerf gun fight. Sigh. Still, it’s only coming up to 7pm, so thoughts may have changed by the time the last cocoa flows (9ish). I’ve taken the opportunity to stay back at the centre HQ to write today’s blog (the kids were going to do this but there has been no time) and upload it (in the carpark, using Janet’s phone, as nothing else works in the olde town of Bruton).

We have had a brilliant day. The weather is improving and the sunshine helps the kids to settle into the routines of camp. There has been climbing twenty foot poles, canoeing, catapulting water balloons, archery and water slides. Great fun, but tiring (at least for the adults) and we’ve still got dinner and river crossing to come!

All the children are doing really well. There have been a couple of moments of homesickness for some, but these have passed. What has been particularly wonderful to see is how the other children have leapt at any opportunity to support and help their classmates.


Enjoy the photos!











Day One

Hi all! Apologies for the late post. Sadly, the wifi around Bruton is very poor, so it is really hard to connect (I'm perched in the one spot where I've been told I should be able to connect ... fingers crossed. Well, that didn't work ... have now tethered to Janet's phone and it looks like we have success!). Be assured that everyone is doing well and has had a brilliant first day. I'll let these photos do the talking:










Monday 20 June 2016

Friday 17 June 2016

We're Off On A Summer Holiday!

With one weekend left standing between us and camp, we thought we'd take the opportunity to publish our thoughts about camp before we experience it.



I`m looking forward to all the new activities that I will get to try on camp.
- Evie

I am really excited for camp. I am looking forward to the zip wire activity. 
- Bashayer

I'm looking forward to all the activities at camp.The schedule is jam packed full of fun things to do. It  will be so much fun spending everyday with all our classmates. Camp will be enjoyable.
- Stevie 

I am really looking forward to camp and can't wait to get there.
- Stella

I can't wait for camp. We will have so much fun.
- Anna

I hope camp will be fun and I feel ready.
-Isaac 

LOL! I can't wait for camp. I'm so excited.
-George 

My thoughts on the summer camp are we all will learn new things and come over our fears of things like heights and things like that.
-Joshua 

I am really looking forward to camp as there  will be loads of cool activities!
-Alexey

I can't wait till camp. I am so excited and at the same time I am a bit scared.
-Milou

I am really excited for camp especially with all the activates we are going to do. 
- Lottie


I am really looking forward to camp.
-Ava   

I'm kind of disappointed because I have to miss out for the first part of camp but otherwise, I am really excited.
- XiaoXiao

I am feeling really happy about camp and I am sure I will be happy at camp. 
- Johnny.


I am very excited and happy that we will be going to camp again. 
- Franklin.

Help!
-Jay

I am going to be really kind and nice to Jay and the kids and I love Arsenal.
- Janet.