After an uneventful – and quiet! – journey we arrived safe and sound at Caythorpe Court. Once we had familiarised ourselves with the tents there was no time to spare and off we went, in our groups, to face our first activities! One group faced the challenge of the giant swing. The team had to hoist two of their friends into the air where they then released a cord to be swung 15 metres into the air! Not for the faint hearted but everyone had a go. A second group, in the meantime, were tackling the challenge course. Rather like a more complicated version of our own school trim trails, the children had to work together to get over, under, through and around various obstacles on the course. Great fun was had by all! The third group were also working together as a team to build a raft out of 6 large plastic barrels, 4 wooden poles and 6 ropes. It needed to keep the whole team afloat to sail across the lake. Let’s just say when it came to swapping sides midway across, the raft was a little destabilised and there was more than one or two soggy children! The final group were facing the abseiling wall. Again, although there were a few who, at first, felt the challenge was just a little too much, with help and encouragement from their friends and teachers all managed to abseil down a 10 metre wall.

After a lovely evening meal our team leader Ben then took the children off – along with the other 300 from the campus – to join in with a massive outdoor ‘Cluedo’ activity! The children were buzzing with excitement on their return after spending a very enjoyable time.

And as for bed time…….well, let’s just say after all the days action, there was no problem getting to sleep!