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Key Stage 4 have a great time at Thirtover Place!
On Thursday 6th October, most of the students in Key Stage 4 packed up the school buses with suit cases and left for their annual overnight visit to Thirtover Place in Cold Ash, Thatcham.
The aim of these visits is to develop the students independence, social and communication skills. For many of the students and their families, this was the first time they had been away from home. It’s also a great opportunity for staff and students alike to get to know each other particularly for the students who have moved up from Key Stage 3 at the start of the academic year.
On Thursday, students were divided into 4 teams and participated in a selection of outdoor activities. Activities included environmental art, a scavenger hunt with hidden treasure, and erecting tents to sleep in that night. All students recorded their activities, experiences and thoughts using a range of different media such as photography, drawing or writing.
Those who were not staying overnight at Thirtover, left us at around 2.30pm, while the others continued their activities into the evening. By 6.00pm Mrs Bedwell’s speciality macaroni cheese was ready for serving (she will be the next Mary Berry!) and we all sat down to tuck in and enjoy it, with Angel Delight for dessert. A huge thank you for Mrs Bedwell for keeping the kitchen running so smoothly and feeding so many hungry people!
As the night drew in we all headed down to the bonfire for scary stories and campfire songs – although as it got colder and darker we realised we were running out of wood so retreated back to the house for hot chocolate!
Then it was time for bed – with 8 brave Y11 students (and 3 brave members of staff) facing a cold and wet night in the tents!
In the morning, Mrs Bedwell greeted us with bacon rolls and hash browns, much needed energy food as Friday’s activities were grass sledging and the low ropes course. By 12.00pm we were packed up and ready to leave, so we bid farewell to Thirtover Place for another year and returned to a lovely buffet made for us by the students from Key Stage 4 who didn’t stay overnight.
Thank you to everyone for their help on this trip, it was a brilliant thing for the whole key stage to experience and has definitely helped us learn more about each other and bring us closer together.
