We were very tired on wake up this morning – lots of bleary eyes as we stripped bedding and finished packing suitcases. Our breakfast was a choice between pork sausages, veggie sausages and hash browns (though Mr George was disappointed to learn that the hash brown limit was two, even if an individual is a growing lad and needs his food).

For our last set of activities, we all did Jacob’s Ladder and buggy building. As ever we saw some spectacular displays of teamwork on Jacob’s Ladder as children helped each other to complete the climb. There were also some particularly sloth-like children that have developed their own hanging/climbing technique. Buggy building is a new activity, but a firm favourite now – working as a team to tie logs and barrels together to make a Flintstones-style buggy. Mrs dos Santos was particularly proud of her team’s Reliant Robin inspired buggy.

We are currently sat having lunch (beef or bean burgers) and are getting ready to get our bags and wait for the coach. Once we’re back, we’ll be heading back up to school for a final reflection, announcement of the winner of the coveted Room Inspection Award, and a last round of nominations before the children are collected at 3.05pm as usual. The children are all very much looking forward to seeing you!

Our last full day! Breakfast was a choice between bacon and baked beans, veggie sausage and baked beans, and cereal and baked beans. The children ate really well and then got ready for another full on day of activities! Today, blue and green teams had the sensory trail, crate challenge, problem solving and vertical challenge. Yellow team had the zip wire, challenge course, crate challenge and sensory trail.

Blue team’s highlight of the day was definitely the crate challenge. I am unsure whether it was the satisfaction of building and climbing a tower that was the favourite part, or kicking it to bits at the end. A close second may well be the sensory trail – a blindfolded obstacle course that required the whole team to work together to navigate the path (obviously helped along the way by Mr George’s laughter).

Green team also had an excellent time on the crate challenge (for similar reasons!). They also had a really successful run on the vertical challenge with a lot of people pushing themselves really hard and accomplishing things that they hadn’t thought themselves possible of. We are all, as ever, really impressed by the courage and determination of the children.

Yellow team’s highlights must include the zip wire – again, lots of examples of children pushing themselves onto things that they may have found scary, but were well within their reach to accomplish. An honourable mention should go to the challenge course – I think crawling through a ‘carwash’ of tires might be my favourite photo opportunity!

Tonight we had dinner options of pasta bolognese, meatballs or lentil pie. We’ve eaten really well all week and whilst we may have had some less adventurous eaters, I think they’ve pushed themselves as well! Our evening activity was robot wars, which involved completing a series of challenges to earn materials to create a robot. Now off to bed to get ready for our morning activities and trip back tomorrow – see you all soon!

What a day! Our breakfast was a choice of sausages or veggie sausages and hash browns (which led to an interesting debate on the merit of real hash browns vs McDonalds hash browns) and set us up for our busy day. After persuading Mrs dos Santos to take blue group for the afternoon (not that much persuasion was needed) Mr George had the great pleasure of floating between all the groups today to see everyone in action.

Today, blue and green groups had zip wire, archery, climbing and the challenge course. Yellow group had climbing and the challenge course, as well as the vertical challenge and problem solving.

The blue group highlights, apart from making up a very tuneful song about monkeys, was seeing everyone push themselves really hard on the zip wire – whether going the whole hog or climbing the tower, fears were conquered and it was done in style!

The green group highlights included an exciting run through the challenge course (which involved a very challenging game that involved people wearing cones on their ears…) and a great team effort on the climbing wall. It was superb to hear these guys supporting each other every step of the way – what a team!

The yellow team highlights had to include scaling the climbing wall in record time – some of these children are faster over wall than land! The vertical challenge showed some perseverance but lots of success on a very challenging vertical climb – well done yellow team!

Dinner was a choice between curry, vegetarian cannelloni or noodles – needless to say, Mr George was spoilt for choice again! Our evening activity was the camp fire, which gave us even more opportunity to stretch our vocal chords. We’re very tired now, so off to sleep!