Our last full day at PGL! Another fantastic set of activities, meals, and entertainment for us all to have enjoyed.

We had bacon again for our hot option this morning, although there were a number of craftily constructed bacon sandwiches appearing. The Yellow team started off their day with the Giant Swing and the Challenge Course – lots of screams on both, all of which were happy (except for Mr George when he gave himself a friction burn)! The Yellow team then followed this up after lunch with the Trapeze, where everyone had a go at leaping for the trapeze, and Orienteering, which the group said was much more fun than any orienteering at other residentials because PGL was so much bigger to run around in!

The Blue and Green teams this morning tried their hand at Jacob’s Ladder and Survivor. All of the adults were very impressed at the teamwork the children showed in trying to boost each other up the notoriously tricky ladder (Mr George remembers one year when he got to the second rung)! One group particularly impressed by getting a team member all the way to the top of the ladder. In the afternoon, it was time for Climbing and Orienteering. Lots of people topped their personal challenges on the climbing wall, and some people who weren’t sure about getting off the ground made it right to the top (and rang a very loud bell very loudly)!

All in all, a very impressive day where everyone should be really proud of themselves.

This evening we had the choice between various pasta types and chicken pie. Our entertainment was a camp fire, where we learned some interesting songs and a very, very long story about a talking penguin and a magic pink brick (get your children to tell you about it tomorrow)! After all that, it was time for another round of nominations and some packing time before bed.

This will be our last blog post at PGL – tomorrow morning will be far too busy with packing and sorting bedding to update the blog. At the next available opportunity, Mr George will attempt to upload a slideshow of some of the choice iPad pictures from the week. For information about our return times, please check the final letter that was sent out last week. Any major changes to our return time will be reported to the office.

Mrs dos Santos and Mr George finally learned how to use the camera properly today – here are some choice pictures!

It’s Wednesday evening and spirits are still high! We’ve had another fantastic day of activities and we’re seeing some real energy and enthusiasm from the whole group.

We had sausages for breakfast this morning, which gave us lots of energy for a full-on set of sessions. The Yellow team started the day with the Zipwire and Jacob’s Ladder, both climbing activities that everyone gave their best shot. The Blue and Green teams started their days with the Crate Challenge (one of Mr George’s personal favourites) and the Challenge Course – this is an obstacle course that’s we’ve been booked on after the Tunnel Trail was closed for repairs. Either way, Mrs Morrison managed to get covered in the same level of mud!

After a lunch of fish fingers and chips, we went onto our afternoon activities. The Yellow team started off with Climbing, where Mr George was blown away by the monkey-like attributes of some of the group, and Raft Building, where some people were desperate to jump in! The Blue and Green teams took on the Vertical Challenge and the Sports Games, both of which went down very well.

This evening we have had a dinner of lasagne/pasta and meatballs/chicken goujons and chips. This was followed up with strawberry angel delight, which everyone loved (apart from Mr George, who reckons that he found a chewy bit). Our evening activity is PGL Sports Night, which is all about trying out sports that we wouldn’t get up to in school!

It’s looking likely that we’ll have just enough energy to get us through our last full day tomorrow (and our Friday morning of course)!

Wow, what an amazing day! The adults have been discussing and so far this has definitely been a contender for the best day at PGL we’ve ever been on.

There has been mud! There has been snow (melting on the ground)! There has been abseiling!

Most of us slept really well last night and all of us have shown lots of energy in our activities today. Obviously we are all on slightly different schedules, but we’ve all had a go at abseiling today and we’ve all been together for our evening activity.

The Blue and Green teams have tackled the raft building, abseiling, giant swing and trapeze today. Everyone climbed the tower in the abseiling (which is actually the hardest part) and (to my knowledge) everyone made their way down. The giant swing was so fun that Mrs Tidy and Mrs Thompson got their go as well! Only a couple of fallers in the raft building and they very quickly dried up!

The Yellow team started the day off with crate building and survivor, followed up by abseiling and team games. The crate challenge is always a fun activity, especially when everyone is stuck in a tangled web at the end. We saw some luxury dens in survivor, and everyone successfully abseiled down the tower this afternoon. The team games were brilliant – if nothing else, we learned that Mr George can’t throw a frisbee.

This evening, we have played a game of Ambush – group hide and seek in the dark. I think in the end we called it a competitive draw (though Mrs Tidy may disagree with me…). Ambush is always one of the best activities – lots of very good hiders, committed to their roles!

We shall put up a selection of photos this evening, and at some point this week we shall upload a gallery of our iPad photos. Mr George is currently playing around with lots of different techniques to upload the iPad photos without a constant internet connection, all of which are currently failing!

More to follow tomorrow!

Apologies for the delay in updating, it has been a real mission to find internet access!

We have had a fantastic and very energetic day today, including a full tour of the PGL site. We’ve gotten to grips with our rooms, our room-mates and how to line up to get through the dinner hall.

Dinner was superb – we had a choice between sausage and mash, steak and mushroom pie, or veggie curry. Everyone’s options looked amazing and there were doughnuts for pudding – result!

We’ve also met our PGL guide, Kirsty, and had our first evening activity – Wacky Races!

We have included some of the pictures from today. It’s been so cold outside that we’ve gone for an early night – but there are lots of people excited about the activities lined up for tomorrow!

Mr George is typing this update from a very cold staffroom, mentally preparing for the trip to PGL. Everyone has come in dressed for the elements, and one can’t help but feel a little like Scott of the Antarctic. Hoodies have been handed out and are being worn with pride. We haven’t done PGL in the snow before, but there’s a first time for everything!

We’re excited, we’re prepared, we’re off (at 1pm!).