6.1’s Outdoor Education Experience
With the uncertainty that the UK weather brought during 3 consecutive days, most of us 6.1s went away from school for an allocated 2-day outdoor activity experience from the 19th to 21st June. However, it is unfortunate that due to the COVID situation we are unable to stay overnight throughout like we did in the previous years, but still, it has been one of the greatest highlights of our year.
The year group was divided into approximately 5 distinct activities for the experience, and we were taken to our allocated destinations quite early in the morning after a warm breakfast at 7:30. Under the lightly overcast skies alongside the fragrant smell of summer breeze, it was quite a blessing to just have slight drizzles rather than heavy rain as forecasted during our trip.
Some of us joined the water sports activities including kayaking, canoeing and raft building at the Bomere Pool. It must have been an unconventional and thrilling experience for many of us who haven’t been in water for quite a while. Some of us went rock-climbing and abseiling right across the border of Wales and Shropshire to test and overcome our fear of heights. I’ve never tried the real, literal rock-climbing so I found this challenge very exhilarating with an incredible sense of achievement at the end. The remaining group activity was a hike along the Stiperstones, with a little scrambling and stove cooking in between, like some of us who settled for a nice hotdog on the way. Overall, the view up there was extremely spectacular and was totally worth it even with our legs trembling at the cliffside.
With the variety of activities the school offered, and the professional instructors or teachers guiding our way, these few days have been an absolute delight away from our usual routines of academic focus, and has shifted towards the astounding scenery of nature. There’s no doubt we all enjoyed the process of teambuilding, of reaching out to different groups of people, or to conquer what we have been terrified of doing for a very long time.
“The most challenging part of a mission is the ability to take the first step.” — participant from the hiking group.
“It was a wonderful experience being able to spend more quality time with my friends, especially not being able to be with them for the 3 months during online school, it was a great opportunity to get to know and familiarise with more people in our year.” — participant from the water sports trip to Bomere pool.
I think we would all agree that this was such a fulfilling wrap-up for our Pre-U week, as well as our academic year, prior to going our separate ways before reuniting again in September.
Tiffany and Kenneth – 6.1