Shugborough Residential Trip (Blog post by Alex)

Every year students of Year 6 go on a residential trip (a couple of nights overnight) to a different location in England. After the trip, Alex's teacher asked Alex to write an article for the local village magazine to tell people about their adventures. This is his article:


My Year 6 residential; a Shugborough Adventure

By Alex Watson, Class 6B, Brampton Village Primary School

On Wednesday 15^th June 2016, 58 year 6 children from Brampton Village Primary School travelled to Shugborough in Staffordshire (for 2 ½ hours) on a noisy coach for a 3-day residential trip to celebrate a successful year and to commemorate 7 years of Primary school. I was so enthusiastic for the trip I literally leapt a foot in the air and paid almost no attention to what I was packing (My mum forced me to repack my bag three times before she was satisfied). When we finally got on the coach, Sam-my travelling buddy-and I found a seat near the front that was adjacent to Yannis and Greg and next to Colin. The five of us played Top Trumps and, ‘Surprise Surprise’ - I lost by a landslide. I couldn’t wait to get off the coach. So I was ecstatic when we drove past a sign bearing the name ‘Shugborough Activity Centre’.

Upon arrival, we were greeted by Mr. Kirby and Miss Kelly. After leading us towards the dormitories, they gave us a briefing on how to make our beds properly and, after several failed attempts, we managed to succeed. Following this, we met the girls in the dining hall and discussed the day’s schedule, along with the announcement of our teams and daily jobs. I was in team U with: Costas, Sid, Jim, Tabitha and Emmy; our job was wood collection with team V. Afterwards, we had sandwiches for lunch (a piece of ham or a lump of cheese placed between two pieces of bread) that I ate readily. We then began our activities for the day. First of all, we did the crystal maze, which consisted of a series of activities that we had to complete as a team to achieve a crystal. My team only earned one crystal and consequently got 4^th place out of 5. Next, we did team orienteering, for which I was with Costas, a fellow team member. We got 4^th again, but out of 15 this time – a much better result! Then we had dinner and completed our chores for the evening. After this, we went on a night walk and learnt a bit about the history of Shugborough. Did you know that one of Shugborough’s previous owners actually sailed the entire planet’s diameter? Following this, we had a quick hot chocolate and went to bed (well, I did. I don’t know about anyone else…).

In the morning, after breakfast, we began the next day’s activities. First, we did climbing in the pouring rain, which somehow made it more enjoyable. Second was archery. I got 36 out of 50 for my score, which surprised me. I was even more surprised when Ben got 42 out of 50! Then we had lunch (more ‘sandwiches’) and proceeded on with the outdoor fun. On the Blindfold challenge, where we had to navigate an obstacle course whilst blind-folded, we unfortunately had much less water dumped on our heads than anyone else, which was the opposite of our expectations. But BMXing was the real icing on the cake. It reminded me so much of how I used to watch BMXers back in the USA! This was my overall favourite activity! At night we had a campfire, where I sang ‘Hopeful’ by Bars and Melody. It really brought a nice ending to the day.

The following morning, we packed up, and after an internationally-themed breakfast, we did several team-building activities and then did solo orienteering. I got 3^rd place with an astounding time of 27 minutes and 10 seconds!!! Now it was time to go back to Brampton and so we set-off, thankful for the wonderful memories we acquired but sad to leave all the same.

To summarise, it was a thoroughly enjoyable end-of-year residential and I would highly recommend it to all those who love the outdoors! This is one memory to be preserved forever.