P7trip

Loch Insh 2015 Day 3

Loch Insh 2015! As ever......look very closely! Look in triplicate!!

Watch out for the group photos over the weekend!

 

Well, day 3 is almost over and it has been another great day! Despite the forecast we had another super day of weather and we managed to have our BBQ tea outside in the glorious sunshine!

This was a good day! The children needed to be woken up this morning as the effects were beginning to kick in! This morning was a water morning. Three groups were kayaking and two groups were Canadian Canoeing. All of them were on the beach getting oars, paddles, life jackets and getting sorted out with the kit they needed. Then it was off to the sheltered pond to get into the canoes and kayaks and set off. The wind was blowing downstream so all the groups headed up the loch against the current so that when they turned to head back they were all coming down stream towards the boat house.

After 30 minutes of frenetic organisation it was suddenly quiet as they set off into the distance with the occasional scream, shout of laughter and instructions being shouted getting quieter and quieter as they got further away!

Just as they were beginning to return to shore after their adventure they were greeted by Mr Imlah who has joined us for the last night! The children were eager to share their stories about what they had done so far.

Lunch was taken outside once again and some had to venture back to get changed out of wet clothes if they had ‘fallen in’ to the loch!

In the afternoon two groups were kayaking and two groups were biking with the last group solving problems!

The cyclists split into two groups – one of the real keen ones to push as hard as they could and one to enjoy the cycle around a really nice route! Having spent the day before cycling back and fore for one reason or another I ventured out in the ELECTRIC bike……even if it did not really look like a boys bike!! It was GREAT! However, you had to be careful when you put it into the ‘HIGH’ setting as it took off….but it made the hills seem so much easier!

In the afternoon some more of the children made it to the shop although we still have some still to go to the shop.

Tea was a BBQ held outside and the staff were all there as well as some of the instructors enjoying the BBQ together. It was great fun and the children enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere. They had soup, burgers in a bun, chicken, sweetcorn and salads as well as an ice cream afterwards.

After this it was time for 1.5 hours of mayhem in the ‘Wide Game’. Fifty five children were released into the woods and set the challenge of protecting their treasure while trying to steal the other teams treasure. So…..they were off…..running and chasing through the woods with Jack and Mr Taylor being just as bad as the children! Luckily none of them made it into the bog and at last the session came to an end with almost all of them in one piece!

Now comes the fun time…..getting packed before setting off for breakfast tomorrow and the last activity. We wil manage as always, but it is always fun watching them packing their cases! One of them said tonight…..’How do you fold clothes as I have never packed a case before!!’

We look forward to our last day and making it back home tomorrow!!

 

The Staff 'Selfie'!!

 

Loch Insh 2015 Day 2 Photos

Here are the rest of the photos from day 2!

Download Day 2 Part 2

Download Loch Insh Day 2

Loch Insh 2015 Day 2

Here is thepost for day 2. Yet again the photos are proving problematic. We will try to upload more as the day goes on.

Day 2 – the first full day and everyone was very excited. Again the weather was beautiful and this makes such a difference to the day. The scenes of the loch in the early morning was stunning and it has stayed like that all day.

The children in the centre were all up bright and breezy by 7.15 and were ready for the day in plenty of time. They had to be packed and ready for the morning, lunchtime and the afternoon and considering they had wet activities they did well.

Breakfast was at 8am and the children had cereal, juice and their cooked breakfast. They had the choice of bacon, beans, scrambled eggs and toast. While they had breakfast they also made their packed lunches. One or two didn’t know whether they had margarine or butter in their sandwiches as Mum always makes them!!

The first activity started at 9.30am and the groups were all lined up – five of our groups and nine groups from the other school. But even with 150 children there they were well behaved and eager to get started.

The instructors are all great this year and there is a good mix of young and the more ‘experienced’ guys and they are all so enthusiastic about the activities they do. They are great at holding the kids attention and making sure they know what they have to do.

This was going to be a WET day! Raft building was the order of the day and all the children were looking forward to this…..or at least to the end of the session when they would be on or IN the water.

Mrs Forrest and Jack’s groups were raft building first. Each group has to design their raft – but they are well guided and with set equipment the design soon takes shape. Each group gets 4 large or 6 small barrels and 6 logs and rope for tying it altogether. This takes about 1.5 hours of the session. Then when they are ready to set sail they head off to get life jackets and paddles before returning to see how successful they have been.

The excitement mounts as they push the rafts into the water and then they suddenly realise that as they walk into the water it is actually COLD! Soon there are screams, giggles and great excitement as they venture out from the shore and when they realise the raft is actually ‘working’ the cheers ring out! However, they soon start falling in or jumping in and had a whale of a time.

Miss Gordon’s group were sailing and the children were in the little sailing boats. Miss Gordon was in the ‘rescue’ boat but the sailors found it difficult due to the lack of wind and so they bobbled about a bit as they tried to pick up the little bits of wind there was. But they had great fun and enjoyed when all the boats were pulled back from the middle of the loch by the rescue boat.

Miss Clark’s group were problem solving and they worked on a wide variety of activities round the centre and in the woods. There are some new activities this year and some are quite challenging and give the children the chance to lead and be led by others and develop skills of working with others. And,,,they all loved scrambling about under nets, through tyres and round trees!

Mr Taylor’s group were learning how to ‘Arch’! Their instructor was great and over the session the children really came on and were doing very well! They spent a long time aiming at ‘money’ on the target trying to hit the bulls eye! This activity is great as so many of the children have never done this before and really enjoy the challenge of trying to get better and better as they go.

Then it was lunchtime and we all had our lunch outside the boathouse in the glorious sunshine and then got ready for the afternoons activity. We made sure water bottles were refilled to make sure they all had plenty of liquids.

Three groups were raft building in the afternoon while two groups were problem solving. The raft builders worked in three groups and the problem solving groups worked in one big group.

It is fair to say that the rafters all really enjoyed this activity and the screams of delight and laughter as they rafted out. All three rafts were very successful and they had a race out and back to the shore and then played a game chasing after a ball and trying to get it thrown in to the opposing rafts!

The problem solvers were very busy. One of the trails was a rope line which wound its self round and through the trees and led through tyres and a variety of other objects! However, to go round the course they had to work in pairs…..with one blindfolded and one acting as a guide. This was a real trust exercise and the children worked well to navigate the course. Having finished they swapped places but this time the guide was not allowed to speak to them as they led them round the course!

 

So by the end of the afternoon they were all tired out. And many were WET……VERY WET! So it was back to the accommodation to change and get dried off. The ones ones in the centre had their visit to the shop today and tomorrow the other ones will get to go and shop!

Tea was tomato soup, pizza or sausages and chips followed by pancakes and ice cream! This went down very well.

The evening session had two groups biking, two groups canoeing and one group doing archery. The shorter sessions do mean they don’t get the same amount of time to develop their skills but they do still really enjoy it.

Tonight they are in bed slightly earlier due to them all being tired and hopefully it will be a quiet night.

There are plenty of photos from today and hopefully we will get a slide show with no ‘watermark’ across it like yesterdays – although we had over 300 hits on the blog site today!

So…we are  now half way through! Two more busy days to go!

. Download DAy 2 Part 1

Loch Insh Day 1: 2015

Well, here we are again back at Loch Insh for another year! It really does not seem long since we were here last year.

The weather has been amazing today and so the main worry was people getting sunburnt! All has gone smoothly so far and we managed to get away in good time in the morning. Usually it seems like a big rush and we are chasing our tails to get to Loch Insh before 12 noon. However, today we made it there by about 11.30 and that was with a stop in Aberlour on the way for a toilet break! The luggage compartment on the bus was FULL by the time we left Strichen so goodness knows how we will get all the stuff in there on the way back when we have wet clothes and the children packing all their cases!!

Despite having so many on the bus it was a very pleasant journey even with Mrs Forrest and Mr Taylor trying to get them all wound up!!  

On arrival we got the luggage out and the children staying in Insh Hall were escorted to their rooms. The others had to wait until after the first activity before getting to see their accommodation in the Christian Centre. We then sat out in the glorious sunshine to have our lunch and Jonny came along to give them the ‘Welcome Talk’ and to explain to them what was going to happen over the week.

We are here with pupils from Law School from the south of Scotland and they have 93 P7 pupils with them. So it is very busy indeed.

This year they have changed the session times and so we have 1.5 hours for lunch which will really help in getting groups from their morning activity, which might have resulted in them getting very wet, to their lunch and getting ready for the next activity.

This afternoon two groups went sailing and two groups went skiing while the last group went ‘Problem Solving’. Each group enjoyed the activity and there was great excitement when they saw their friends after the activity and they told them what they had been doing. One group were sailing in the small boats in pairs while one group were out in two bigger boats. There was not a lot of wind and so it was challenging to catch the breeze there was to really get going. However, they covered a lot of the loch and had a shot in one of the power launches.

The skiers were all decked out in their helmets, gloves, big ski boots and long sleeves and long trousers and you could see how tired they were by the end as they were all flushed due to the heat of the afternoon.  They all gave it a good go and as usual there were a few falls and crashes and struggles as they tried to shuffle back up the hill or get to grips with the ‘ski-tow’ which pulled them up the hill!

The problem solvers were busy carrying out a range of activities round the site and in the woods. Let’s just hope they have not passed on too many tips to their friends for when they take part in the activity.

Tea is later this year and we were due for tea at 6pm. After the end of the afternoon activity we shuttled the ones to the Christian Centre and they were excited to see where they were staying. It is a very nice centre but when we drove in with the first group one was heard to say, ‘It’s like an old folks home!’ From the outside it does look a little like that but I have not seen many old folks homes with bunk beds in them…so that seemed to convince them it was ok.

By the time we had our ‘welcome talk’ from the centre staff and got a chance to sort out the rooms it was time to go back in the bus for tea and the evening activity. Tea was sweet and sour chicken or baked tatties and cheese, salad or pasta! Most were pleased but one or two had to be ‘catered for’ to ensure they were eating up!

At  night two groups were sailing, two groups were sailing and one group went to archery. Again each group was happy and then it was back to each base to try and settle for the night. We have gone over the instructions for tomorrow – especially for the Christian Centre group as we hope to leave at 8.15 and not return until after 4pm in the afternoon! However, it is a ‘wet’ day tomorrow with sailing, raft building and canoeing for some. Most groups have two wet activities while Miss Gordon’s group, The Squids, have THREE wet activities! This should be interesting!

So, a great start to the adventure. Let’s hope things continue in the same way tomorrow.

Many are looking tired tonight and hopefully they will soon all be fast asleep and quiet until the morning. We had 8 shuttle journeys today….let’s hope there are not more than that tomorrow!

Keep checking for updates for each day.

Photos from Tuesday! (Hopefully!)

Tuesday

 

Loch Insh Day 1: 2015

Well, here we are again back at Loch Insh for another year! It really does not seem long since we were here last year.

The weather has been amazing today and so the main worry was people getting sunburnt! All has gone smoothly so far and we managed to get away in good time in the morning. Usually it seems like a big rush and we are chasing our tails to get to Loch Insh before 12 noon. However, today we made it there by about 11.30 and that was with a stop in Aberlour on the way for a toilet break! The luggage compartment on the bus was FULL by the time we left Strichen so goodness knows how we will get all the stuff in there on the way back when we have wet clothes and the children packing all their cases!!

Despite having so many on the bus it was a very pleasant journey even with Mrs Forrest and Mr Taylor trying to get them all wound up!!  

On arrival we got the luggage out and the children staying in Insh Hall were escorted to their rooms. The others had to wait until after the first activity before getting to see their accommodation in the Christian Centre. We then sat out in the glorious sunshine to have our lunch and Jonny came along to give them the ‘Welcome Talk’ and to explain to them what was going to happen over the week.

We are here with pupils from Law School from the south of Scotland and they have 93 P7 pupils with them. So it is very busy indeed.

This year they have changed the session times and so we have 1.5 hours for lunch which will really help in getting groups from their morning activity, which might have resulted in them getting very wet, to their lunch and getting ready for the next activity.

This afternoon two groups went sailing and two groups went skiing while the last group went ‘Problem Solving’. Each group enjoyed the activity and there was great excitement when they saw their friends after the activity and they told them what they had been doing. One group were sailing in the small boats in pairs while one group were out in two bigger boats. There was not a lot of wind and so it was challenging to catch the breeze there was to really get going. However, they covered a lot of the loch and had a shot in one of the power launches.

The skiers were all decked out in their helmets, gloves, big ski boots and long sleeves and long trousers and you could see how tired they were by the end as they were all flushed due to the heat of the afternoon.  They all gave it a good go and as usual there were a few falls and crashes and struggles as they tried to shuffle back up the hill or get to grips with the ‘ski-tow’ which pulled them up the hill!

The problem solvers were busy carrying out a range of activities round the site and in the woods. Let’s just hope they have not passed on too many tips to their friends for when they take part in the activity.

Tea is later this year and we were due for tea at 6pm. After the end of the afternoon activity we shuttled the ones to the Christian Centre and they were excited to see where they were staying. It is a very nice centre but when we drove in with the first group one was heard to say, ‘It’s like an old folks home!’ From the outside it does look a little like that but I have not seen many old folks homes with bunk beds in them…so that seemed to convince them it was ok.

By the time we had our ‘welcome talk’ from the centre staff and got a chance to sort out the rooms it was time to go back in the bus for tea and the evening activity. Tea was sweet and sour chicken or baked tatties and cheese, salad or pasta! Most were pleased but one or two had to be ‘catered for’ to ensure they were eating up!

At  night two groups were sailing, two groups were sailing and one group went to archery. Again each group was happy and then it was back to each base to try and settle for the night. We have gone over the instructions for tomorrow – especially for the Christian Centre group as we hope to leave at 8.15 and not return until after 4pm in the afternoon! However, it is a ‘wet’ day tomorrow with sailing, raft building and canoeing for some. Most groups have two wet activities while Miss Gordon’s group, The Squids, have THREE wet activities! This should be interesting!

So, a great start to the adventure. Let’s hope things continue in the same way tomorrow.

Many are looking tired tonight and hopefully they will soon all be fast asleep and quiet until the morning. We had 8 shuttle journeys today….let’s hope there are not more than that tomorrow!

Keep checking for updates for each day.

Photos from Tuesday! (Hopefully!)

Tuesday

 

Loch Insh Day 1: 2015

Well, here we are again back at Loch Insh for another year! It really does not seem long since we were here last year.

The weather has been amazing today and so the main worry was people getting sunburnt! All has gone smoothly so far and we managed to get away in good time in the morning. Usually it seems like a big rush and we are chasing our tails to get to Loch Insh before 12 noon. However, today we made it there by about 11.30 and that was with a stop in Aberlour on the way for a toilet break! The luggage compartment on the bus was FULL by the time we left Strichen so goodness knows how we will get all the stuff in there on the way back when we have wet clothes and the children packing all their cases!!

Despite having so many on the bus it was a very pleasant journey even with Mrs Forrest and Mr Taylor trying to get them all wound up!!  

On arrival we got the luggage out and the children staying in Insh Hall were escorted to their rooms. The others had to wait until after the first activity before getting to see their accommodation in the Christian Centre. We then sat out in the glorious sunshine to have our lunch and Jonny came along to give them the ‘Welcome Talk’ and to explain to them what was going to happen over the week.

We are here with pupils from Law School from the south of Scotland and they have 93 P7 pupils with them. So it is very busy indeed.

This year they have changed the session times and so we have 1.5 hours for lunch which will really help in getting groups from their morning activity, which might have resulted in them getting very wet, to their lunch and getting ready for the next activity.

This afternoon two groups went sailing and two groups went skiing while the last group went ‘Problem Solving’. Each group enjoyed the activity and there was great excitement when they saw their friends after the activity and they told them what they had been doing. One group were sailing in the small boats in pairs while one group were out in two bigger boats. There was not a lot of wind and so it was challenging to catch the breeze there was to really get going. However, they covered a lot of the loch and had a shot in one of the power launches.

The skiers were all decked out in their helmets, gloves, big ski boots and long sleeves and long trousers and you could see how tired they were by the end as they were all flushed due to the heat of the afternoon.  They all gave it a good go and as usual there were a few falls and crashes and struggles as they tried to shuffle back up the hill or get to grips with the ‘ski-tow’ which pulled them up the hill!

The problem solvers were busy carrying out a range of activities round the site and in the woods. Let’s just hope they have not passed on too many tips to their friends for when they take part in the activity.

Tea is later this year and we were due for tea at 6pm. After the end of the afternoon activity we shuttled the ones to the Christian Centre and they were excited to see where they were staying. It is a very nice centre but when we drove in with the first group one was heard to say, ‘It’s like an old folks home!’ From the outside it does look a little like that but I have not seen many old folks homes with bunk beds in them…so that seemed to convince them it was ok.

By the time we had our ‘welcome talk’ from the centre staff and got a chance to sort out the rooms it was time to go back in the bus for tea and the evening activity. Tea was sweet and sour chicken or baked tatties and cheese, salad or pasta! Most were pleased but one or two had to be ‘catered for’ to ensure they were eating up!

At  night two groups were sailing, two groups were sailing and one group went to archery. Again each group was happy and then it was back to each base to try and settle for the night. We have gone over the instructions for tomorrow – especially for the Christian Centre group as we hope to leave at 8.15 and not return until after 4pm in the afternoon! However, it is a ‘wet’ day tomorrow with sailing, raft building and canoeing for some. Most groups have two wet activities while Miss Gordon’s group, The Squids, have THREE wet activities! This should be interesting!

So, a great start to the adventure. Let’s hope things continue in the same way tomorrow.

Many are looking tired tonight and hopefully they will soon all be fast asleep and quiet until the morning. We had 8 shuttle journeys today….let’s hope there are not more than that tomorrow!

Keep checking for updates for each day.

Photos from Tuesday! (Hopefully!)

Tuesday

 

Photos from Friday

Final Photos!

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Loch Insh Day 4

Well, what a great trip we have had! We will update the blog with photos from Friday over the weekend! However, all the staff would like to congratulate the children on their behaviour and effort on the trip! We received very positive comments from the instructors and the restaurant staff! All the staff really enjoyed the trip and we hope that the children will have many happy memories to look back on in the years to come. We would like to thank Jack Donaldson who joined us as one of our leaders! He did a great job and was a great role model for the children! Here's to next years trip!

Loch Insh Day 3 Photos

Photos from Thursday!

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GROUP PHOTOS   Download Slideshow

Loch Insh 2014 Day 3

Loch Insh 2014
Day 3 

Today’s blog entry will be a short one…mainly due to the fact it is very late and everyone (me!!) is very tired!

We had a great day of weather today…..sunshine and warmth…and not the rain that was expected!

The children had a great day again and have taken part in all the activities so well.

Poor Mr Jenkins spent ALL day biking…..but enjoyed it very much and had racked up over 20 mils by the end of the day!

Again the day started with breakfast and packed lunch preparation!

The children are beginning to moan about the steps and we try to vary the route when we can! There were six different activities today tackled by some or all of the groups depending on their timetable.

Miss Clark’s group were biking, RaftBuilding and finished off with archery. Mrs Forrests group started with archery, then built rafts and finished off with a great after dinner cycle round the hills! Mr Taylor’s group had canoeing, biking and then skiing to finish and finally Mr Donaldson’s group were biking, kayaking and skiing to finish.

The new activity for everyone today was biking. This is back on the programme after it was missed out last year,  It is great to have it back as this is one of the activities that some love while there are some that don’t look forward to it….including some of the staff!

First of all they get their helmets and make sure they are adjusted properly before getting a high vis vest and then lastly their bike! They spend some time in the practice area checking the brakes and ears to make sure they are happy with them. Then they head off on one of the three or four routes the instructors use. Groups doing a full 2.5 hour session have a rout of between 6 and 8 miles while an evening session is around 5-6 miles.

It is not long before some are off their bikes and are pushing it up the hills! This can slow the group down but they soon get the hang of the gears and it gets better as the session goes on. The routes have a mixture of on road, off road and rough tracks to contend with and each one has its own particular safety issues and skills required to deal with them. Although the children find this difficult at times they get a great deal of satisfaction from completing the session knowing they have cycled a good distance. The key thing is having a  full water bottle with them so they can have plenty of drinks as they go.

The two archery groups enjoyed their activity and again some took great pride in going from missing the target initially to becoming very good at regularly scoring points. This activity is trickier than it looks and lets you appreciate how skilled these elves are in the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings films with their bows!!

The two groups building their rafts had as much fun as yesterday’s groups and again most ended up getting completely soaked as a result!

The skiing groups again split between the snow boarders and the skiers! They worked hard at over coming fears and the effort of getting on and off the boots they have to wear for the activity.

Tea tonight was the traditional end of week BBQ! This was an inside BBQ as it is quite not the time of year for preparing the BBQ outside. They had soup, burgers in a bun along with chicken legs and a variety of salads and veg with a choc ice to finish.

Our groups had evening activities while the other schools squeezed in to the bigger hall for their disco. I think our plan was the sensible one and we gate crashed the event at the end to see the video and for the children to be presented with their certificates. The video was great and they enjoyed looking out to see if they would make an appearance in it.

After that and before we tried to do some more packing to help us tomorrow we also had another birthday to celebrate! Jack, from Strichen, will also be 12 tomorrow and so we celebrated our second birthday in two days! This time we had been secretly provided with cup cakes for everyone to help Jack celebrate! He too blew out all 12 candles in one go!

So, now we face the daunting tak of packing and tidying up ALL before breakfast tomorrow! They have been well warned to try and not get wet in their morning activity to avoid the problems of trying to deal with this just before we leave!

Anyway, we shall see!

We are looking forward to heading home tomorrow and we will update the info line and the schools with approximate times of arrival!

One more sleep!!!