Residential Update - 5pm Monday 21.10.24
And residential is in full swing! We arrived safely, and once we had completed some 'this is how you pull your case by its handle' training (cornering was the issue), we all made it from coach to bunkhouse in one piece. After a welcome talk from Nat our course director, and then the discussion around who was going on which bunk ensured. 5 hours later (or so it felt), negotiations were over and everyone has a bunk they are happy with. We unpacked bedding (memo: put 'how to fit a sheet' into class training in Sept, in preparation) and some children unpacked everything - you can imagine how that has gone but that's ok because I'm not on duty at the end of the week when it all has to go back in the cases -that Mrs Bartlett's duty! Hee hee.
We spent the afternoon on a 3 hour walk through the new forest woodland. We learnt lots of things, like yes, Mrs Rennison is prepared to hold a beetle (she didn't get much choice), lots of different types of trees, how to make fire (don't worry - no children were involved in the fire making), a minibeast hunt, art work created out of nature, and we also learnt that not all children are keen on 3 hour walks. One child asked 'are we nearly there yet' 5 minutes into the walk and for a small fee I will let you know if it was your child or not.
We are currently having some downtime before dinner at 5.30pm, which seems to have meant that all children have PJs on already which wasn't the plan and I am still hoping some will go for a shower later so we might have to get dressed again. But all children are happy, having fun and starving so ready for dinner.
As adults we'd like to thank the parent who sent in homemade scones for the adults to enjoy - if you could deliver this on the other days also, we'd be grateful, thank you!
Next update after bedtime which could be 8pm and could be 11pm and could be 2am - once they are all asleep I'll let you know, but don't worry!
Mrs Rennison