P7trip

Thursday!!! Getting tired!!!

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Today was our last full day at Loch Insh and as with the other days it has been very busy but very quick! We are now well into our morning routine of getting up. Getting ready for the day, getting our juice bottles filled and then making our way down to the boathouse for our breakfast and to make our lunch.

 

It was a lovely morning at 7.00am but by the time we were ready to go down for breakfast at 8.30am it was grey and overcast once more! However, the children tucked into another large breakfast and it was encouraging to see so many of them eating up a good breakfast for their activities ahead.

 

Miss McFarlane’s and Miss Ingram’s group were heading out on the mountain bikes. Mr Jenkins went with Miss Ingram’s group as she said she would stay with Megan at the boathouse. We were kitted out with high visibility vests, helmets and of course a mountain bike. The groups spent a while cycling round the area next to the bike sheds to get used to their bike, find out how the gears work and to test the brakes before setting out on the planned route.

 

Both groups headed off in different directions and some found the first hill quite difficult but they persevered and were soon cycling along on the roads and off road through the woods. The terrain changed all the time and the children had to be on the lookout for stones, tree roots and other obstacles that could be problematic! In fact one or two in Miss McFarlane’s group had a little dip in one of the lochans when they misjudged some of the obstacles and decided to go for a swim!

 

However, both groups enjoyed the activity but were perhaps not so keen on cleaning the bikes on their return so that they would be ready for the next group to use them.

 

Mrs Stephen’s group were problem solving and spent the morning on the beach and in the woods taking part in a range of activities and problems. They had to think, work as a team or race against other teams but they all took part keenly.

 

Lunch was taken back in the chalets or rooms and the for the afternoon all three groups were kayaking! It took a little while to get them all kitted out with jackets, paddles and eventually a kayak which meant they could get out on the water and have some fun.

 

Each instructor told them how to use the paddles, how to move through the water in different ways and they played some games to get them warmed up. One by one each group made it out onto the water and they spent the first while in the sheltered area getting used to the sensation of being on a kayak and experimenting with different strokes and how to control the kayak.

 

When each group leader felt everyone was confident they headed out onto the loch and within minutes they were mere dots on the horizon as they made their way upstream.

 

Mrs Stephen’s group crossed over the loch from one side to the other and then back to the boathouse. The other two groups made it up and back the loch and only one or two fell in to the water!

 

They all had a great time but were happy to get back to the chalets to get showers and dry clothes back on.

 

Those who had not been to the shop got the chance to spend their pocket money and buy some gifts to take home!

 

The BBQ was moved inside due to the weather but everyone tucked into chicken drumsticks, sausages and salad, baked potatoes and then had an ice lolly to finish it off.

 

That led us to the most complicated activity – well, for the girls anyway! They  had to get ready for the disco! The disco was from 8 – 10 and they sang and danced before receiving certificates from the instructors and seeing a video of them carrying out some of their activities  over the week. It was very noisy but everyone seemed to enjoy it and some of them even spoke to the pupils from the other school!

 

We are now more or less packed for tomorrow and we need to be out of the rooms before we head off for our last activities. Two groups are going for a walk and one group will be mountain biking so at least no groups have a wet activity to finish with  - unless it rains of course!

 

Anyway, we are looking forward to tomorrow’s last activity but also to coming home in the afternoon.

 

We hope that everyone has enjoyed their experience and that they will look back on it with good memories in the years to come.

 

Thursday!

It's lunchtime and it's been a busy morning! Mountain biking for two groups and problem solving for one! Everyone off to kayak now!

Wednesday 21st April

 

Welcome to Day 3’s blog entry! Wednesday was a good day and we were all very busy with some real physical challenges!

Our day started as ever with breakfast and lunch making! The children are into the swing of how things work now and just got on with it – despite a few moans and groans about being tired and wanting to go back to bed! (The staff sympathised but we rallied and told them we had a fun day ahead!)

 

In the morning the three groups were split into two groups with half going to the ski slope and half going Canadian Canoeing!

 

The canoers were well wrapped up in a number of layers but again they got an extra jacket at the boathouse along with their lifejacket. The were given paddles that were appropriate for their size and went round to the quiet area of the loch and played some games and were given a crash course in Canadian canoeing! By 10.20 they finally made it into the water! They spent some time in the sheltered area finding out how to paddle, steer and back paddle in case they were going to crash into another canoe. Once their confidence was up they set off down the loch towards Osprey Island! However, one canoe managed to capsize twice before setting off down the loch! That certainly woke them up well and truly!

 

The other group went off to snowboard! They went into the boathouse and were kitted out with boots and then a snowboard! They walked across like astronauts to the ski slope and slowly, but surely they built up their confidence as they moved higher up the slope!

 

However, one poor girl from Longside had a fall on one of her runs! She had managed to ski down the slope and had managed a great jump on her board but landed a little awkwardly! She hurt her knee and it was obvious that it was really sore! She was very brave and we got her into the boathouse where staff checked her over before getting the lead instructor to have a look at her! As a precaution Miss Ingram and Mr Jenkins took her off to Aviemore to the health centre! She was seen by a doctor and had her leg strapped up. However, he suggested we come back in the afternoon to get an x-ray just to make sure everything was ok!

 

We drove back to Loch Insh and had our lunch while watching the next group set off to the ski slope for their session!

 

The other group was off canoeing and by this time the weather had improved and it was great conditions for paddling up and down the loch.

 

So at 3.00pm we set off to Aviemore with TWO pupils! One had hurt her hand the day before and so we thought we should get her checked out also as it was still sore! So we had two getting x-rays as the rest snowboarded and canoed!

However, after a long seat before and after the x-rays we made it back to Loch Insh just in time for tea! The girls are both fine and have been real troopers!

 

After tea they all took part in the egg drop challenge! They were all given money and had to take part in an auction to buy materials to make a contraption that would protect an egg when dropped from 6 feet! After buying a wide range of goods from string, paper, card and a variety of other goodies they set about making their design. At the end of the session the instructors dropped the eggs, safely protected in their protective casing, off the balcony! However, despite their hard work and ingenuity none of the eggs managed to survive the perilous drop from the balcony!

 

After their juice and biscuit each room were set the challenge of creating a short ‘infomercial’ about Loch Insh! After 25 minutes to plan and prepare it we recorded each one and you can listen to their work on the podcast which has been uploaded with this entry.

 

We hope you enjoy listening to the podcast and looking at the photos from today!

 

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LochInsh2010Podcast

 

 

 

 

Tuesay 20th April, 2010

It’s amazing how quickly the day goes past when you are away. It’s now 10.30pm and the children are all in bed or just having their lights put out! We certainly have had ‘four seasons in one day’ today! We have had bright sunshine, strong wind, rain, hail, snow and everything else in between. In fact you could stand and look up at the sky and on one side the sky was blue and the sun was shining and on the other it was grey, foggy and the rain or snow was falling!

However, that did not dampen the enthusiasm of the children or the staff and we had another busy day.

We went for breakfast at 8.30am after getting the children up at 7.30am. We went down the steps to the boathouse for the first time of the day and half of them had their breakfast while the others ‘created’ their sandwich creations! They had a wide range of choices for breakfast – cereal, fruit, yogurt, toast, bacon, beans, haggis (yes – haggis!!) and fruit juice.

Soon we were ready for our first activity of the day. Two groups were going sailing while Mrs Stephen’s group headed off to the archery range. The sailors got extra waterproofs and jackets from the instructors to make sure they all had plenty of layers on before adding a life jacket on top! They made their way to the jetty and each group was taken out in a powerboat to their sailing boat. The winds were too high to go out in the small boats and so they went out in  three larger groups in the bigger boats. They had great fun but it was VERY COLD and they were all glad to make it back on to dry land two hours after setting off.

Mrs Stephen’s group developed their archery skills and they could all see that with some hard work and effort they could make steady improvements with practice. I think it is fair to say that all three groups enjoyed their archery session.

We headed back up the hill for lunch and we decided it was best to have our lunch in our chalets or rooms so that we got a bit of peace and quiet instead of being in the big group.

The afternoon saw Mrs Stephen’s group head off for walk along the loch and into the wooded area beyond the loch. We saw a variety of different wildlife including a rather angry looking bull and a very friendly Shetland pony! Everyone completed the walk but some had to spend some time waiting for the stragglers to catch up!

The other two groups entered the wooded area next to the loch to take part in a variety of problem solving activities and they faced a series of challenges to test their skill, the trust of their friends and how to work as part of a team to complete a task! The blindfolded trail through the woods certainly meant that they had to trust the person in front of them as they were led through a trail all blindfolded and holding on top the person in front!

Tea was a BBQ – one of two during the week. However, due to the continuing snow flurries we were in the boathouse to eat which I think everyone was pleased about. We had soup, burgers or veggie kebabs, baked potatoes and salad rounded off with a choc ice! As if we were not cold enough!!

Our evening activity saw all three groups venture on to the shinty pitch for games! Half the group played rounders while the other half were introduced to shinty before swapping over half way through. The thought of our P7’s running about with shinty sticks was not what I would have chosen as a first choice but away they went anyway!

The rounders was great fun and ended up as a real competitive pair of matches between Miss McFarlane’s and Mr Jenkins’ teams! I am not going to say who won as Miss McFarlane might get upset!

So after 90 minutes of playing games in the fading light and in rain, snow and sunshine we all headed back to base for some juice before taking part in our last activity for the night. The children were split into four groups and they were set the challenge of creating a comic strip of their trip so far. Two groups worked in the TV room while two groups worked in one of the chalets and they worked well together to create their booklet in only 45 minutes!

We finished off the day by going over the plans for tomorrow! Each group will be Canadian Canoeing and Snow Boarding at some point during the day. This will be a physically hard day and we hope we can get a good nights sleep tonight.

Anyway, we can hope for a better day of weather tomorrow but we wont let it spoil our day.

We hope that you enjoy looking at the photo slideshow below.

 

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Monday - Day 1

Morning! Wet and cold today! Oh  joy!!!  As we say to the kids...it's character building!

Well, that’s day 1 done and dusted! The children are all in bed…..early at 10.30 and seem quite tired after their first day!

 

The journey up was fine and the weather was nice all the way up. The bus had a short toilet stop in Aberlour and made it to Loch Insh just after midday. Once we were shown where all our accommodation was we got the children off the bus and into their rooms with their cases. We then went straight up to our ‘meeting area’ for lunch and our welcome talk by one of the senior instructors.

 

The afternoon started with two groups doing archery and one group out sailing. Miss McFarlane’s and Miss Ingram’s groups went to the archery range while Mrs Stephen’s group ventured out on the loch to go sailing.

 

The two archery groups were soon up and shooting after a safety and technique demonstration from the instructors. We seem to have a few budding Robin Hoods in our group! Archery is a very technical and skilled sport and the children were really challenging themselves each time they went up to shoot their three arrows. We played a variety of games and ended up with a competition to see who could burst the balloons on their target first! Archery is not the most active of sports but requires a high degree of concentration and technique to do well. The children all worked hard and they all regularly hit the target which is no mean feat for those who have never tried it before.

 

Mrs Stephen’s group went out on the loch in two of the larger boats as it was too windy to put them out on the water in individual boats. So they spent their session sailing up and down the loch learning all about the skills required to steer, set up the sails and how to use the wind to get them about! No one fell in and they had a great time.

 

We managed to get some time in the play park before tea in the boathouse. They had soup and bread rolls, a choice of macaroni cheese, shepherds pie or baked tatties and either fruit, yogurt or apple crumble and custard! So there was certainly something there to meet most tastes!

 

The evening was spent orienteering! In teams of two or three they had a map of the site and had to find the 10 hidden markers in the quickest time! After an hour of running, or walking in some cases, about in the drizzle the team to find all the markers in the quickest time was……. the female staff!!!!

After our evening activity we had juice and a biscuit before taking part in some group discussions about the day. They were all quite happy to go to their rooms and get ready for bed and unpacked! All is quiet now and hopefully will be till their wake up call at 7.30am!

 

We hope that the weather improves a little for tomorrow. Two groups are sailing in the morning while the third will be at the archery range. The afternoon sees two groups doing problem solving and one group off on a walk!

 

Check out the slide show below for some pictures from the day.

 

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Loch Insh 2010

Welcome to the first post for 2010's trip to Loch Insh. We are looking forward to the trip but are slightly concerned about the weather forecast!

We hope tobe able to update this daily on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday mornings with a short summary of the day and some photos.