Hooke Court 26th – 28th September 2007
Once again this September Year 6 enjoyed a highly successful residential visit to Hooke Court. The children who went took part in a range of team building activities designed to improve their decision making and problem solving skills, their communication skills and their ability to work in a team.
From the moment they arrived at Hooke Court the children made themselves at home despite the fact that had to make their own beds! Some of the girls were fortunate enough to stay in the brand new Gatehouse complete with their own living room with leather sofas!
The activities started as soon as lunch was over. Children had the chance to test their orienteering skills, scavenge for objects in the beautiful grounds and test their teamwork skills and balance on the low ropes course. Activities do not stop at dusk with the now infamous Mystery at Hooke Court uncovering previously unknown detective skills in the children.
Following a very good nights sleep the fun continued. Thursday saw shelter building in Hooke Woods and bridging the moat. Both activities gave all the children the opportunity to try new things and develop a wide range of skills.
Shelter building involves a newly formed tribe of children erecting a shelter in the woods using only branches and leaves found on the floor. Bridging the moat teaches has them learning rope tying skills and building wooden tripods to transport a package across the moat to an infected community on the other side. Before the end of the day everybody still had energy for a game of football and rounders in their wellies.
Thursday night saw the children attempting to lead each other around a course in the trees whilst blindfolded and a rather competitive game of ‘Get the other people’s tokens without getting caught and put in jail’. (Bad luck Mr Fry)
After another night’s sleep the children’s knowledge of forces were tested in the Rocket Building workshop. Rockets were built and then fired high into the air above the playing field, some never to be seen again.
We returned to school shattered but full of tales to tell and memories to cherish. Mr Fry, Miss Dean, Miss May, Mrs Porter and Mrs English would like to say a huge thank you to the children
for their enthusiasm throughout the trip and their absolutely fantastic behaviour whilst at Hooke Court. On many occasions since our visit the children have demonstrated the collaborative skills they learned whilst at Hooke Court.
Next stop Stone Farm for our Dartmoor experience.
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