Malvern residential inspires independence and resilience

Excitement filled the Year Three classrooms on Wednesday morning as the children prepared to embark on their first off-site residential to Boundless Outdoor Elements in Malvern. All 26 children travelled by minibus to the site, where they were greeted by their instructors for the course, Ben, JJ, and Gemma.

On arrival, they learned which dormitories they would be sleeping in and were quickly put to work, making their own beds! After lunch, the children split into two activity groups and headed off to their first two activities of the course. Group One enjoyed the nightline and tunnels, leading their partner (who was blindfolded) around a series of obstacles, before venturing into the dark tunnels. After this, they showed their skills on the rock-climbing walls, belaying for each other whilst waiting for their turn. Group Two’s first activity was bush craft, where they learned about the fire triangle (oxygen, fuel and heat) and built their own fires out of natural materials found in the woodland. Once complete, they made popcorn over the group fire and enjoyed this tasty snack, before moving onto their second activity, the low ropes, where the children enjoyed monkeying around in the low-level assault course. After a dinner of pizza and chips, followed by apple crumble for pudding, all of the children were kitted up for a night-time walk on the Malvern Hills. The view from the top was spectacular, with the lights from homes across the county creating a wonderful view. After the walk, the children settled down for their first night, and Mrs Horrocks, Miss Lake, Mr Stigant, and Miss Reynolds were extremely proud of how well the children settled, building their energy for another action-packed day to come.

On Thursday, the children woke early and enjoyed a hot breakfast. During this time, they were also tasked with making their own sandwiches for lunchtime. Splitting back into their two activity groups, it was archery for Group One and rock-climbing for Group Two, and Simi, Sylvie and Ellie H impressed Miss Lake and Mr Stigant with their climbing abilities. The second activity of the day was a wild woods walk for Group One, from which some children returned extremely muddy: Rupert, Tom and Gabriel, to name but a few! Group Two experienced the nightline and tunnels; Mr Stigant had great fun trying to distract some of the children whilst blindfolded!  After lunch, Group One enjoyed the low ropes course and zip-lining, throwing themselves off a high platform in the middle of the woods. Group Two completed archery and the wild woods walk;  seeing Tilly, Bruce and Joshy leaping into the muddiest of puddles was certainly a highlight! Dinner this evening consisted of cottage pie, followed by chocolate cake and custard for pudding. Thursday evening was a lot more chilled: after warm showers to wash off all of the mud, the children settled down in the games room for a film, Ice Age.

The sun was shining as the children woke up on Friday morning, ready for their breakfast of pancakes and croissants, which went down extremely well. Mr Vaughn arrived early to collect their bags, meaning the children had to have their dormitories tidy early, ready for the final inspection by the course leader, Ben. The final activities for Group One were problem-solving and bush craft, whereas for Group Two it was zip-wiring and problem-solving.  After lunch, the children met with Ben for a debrief, identifying whether they had met their targets for the course: independence, teamwork, communication and caring for nature. All of the staff agreed that the children had done phenomenally well and should be very proud of their accomplishments. Before leaving, Ben awarded Aurelia, Tilly, Amelie, Georgia, Sylvie and Ellie H, occupants of the room “Arrow”, with the Dormitory Inspections Certificate, for excellent maintenance of their dormitory every day. All children took home a certificate, acknowledging their involvement and engagement on the residential.

We hope this experience has made the children look forward to all the future residentials that King’s Hawford has on offer.