Charlotte Sleep, French Teacher, regales us with Year 6's latest adventure on their Silver Westbourne Award.
Year 6, Mr Brown, Mr Tyrell, Ella, Mr Knight and I (Mrs “Matron” Sleep) ventured off to the Wye Valley for the annual Year 6 residential trip, the Silver Westbourne Award.
The children had a wonderful three days of paddling on the River Wye, from Kerne Bridge to Monmouth Rowing Club. I couldn’t help but have “messing about on the river” ticking over in my head as we took in the wonderful scenery.
When we arrived at our campsite on Thursday afternoon, we had a quick lunch and readied ourselves for the first paddle. The heavens opened, but nothing could dampen our spirits! We started at Kerne Bridge and were overcome by the beautiful scenery and wildlife that surrounded us. The aforementioned even began photobombing our photos in our boats…the swans in flight photo I captured will hopefully fill up my pension pot from royalties! When we stopped we were greeted with a fabulous rainbow…we couldn't find the pot of gold however!
After a sing-song around the fire thanks to Lucy’s suggestion of “Bungalow”, the children were happy to go to bed after a tiring day.
On our second day, we were taken to the rapids at Symonds Yat. The group were every excited to splash down the river through the fast-flowing water. Some of the faces pulled by our campers can only be likened to the “rollercoaster faces” snapped when at a theme park hurtling through the sky! When we got back to our camp, some brave souls went swimming in the river.
On our final night, we again sat around the fire and shared our happiest memories of the trip with each other. It was a much quieter camp that night after a whole day of paddling!
Our final day saw us paddle from our campsite to Monmouth, where a hearty picnic awaited us at the rowing club. When we were all replete, we were happy to get on board the warm coach for some forty winks before arriving back at Westbourne House.
All children were exemplary ambassadors for the school and behaved impeccably. It was my colleagues' and my pleasure to have spent three days with them in such a setting.
Learn more about the Westbourne Awards.
