Senior pupils enjoyed a wide range of activities as well as a spot of sunbathing under the sweltering July sunshine at our annual House trip just before the end of term. A packed itinerary included climbing, high ropes and archery, as well as kayaking, canoeing and Bumble on the River Stort.
In fact Bumble is unique to Harlow Outdoors and includes sliding on weirs, playing team games in the river, jumping from the river bank and bridge jumping. Our pupils donned buoyancy aids, blue wetsuits and helmets, and William in Year 9 said the best part of Bumble was jumping into the cold water on such a hot day! Tadpoles surrounded him as he enjoyed several jumps in two different parts of the river.
Water games such as water polo were very popular amongst those out in the river. Katy in Year 10 said she particularly enjoyed throwing a ball and trying to get it to land in someone else’s canoe. Jay in Year 9 proved to be talented at the water games, whereas Umar also from Year 9 and Leon in Year 10 fell into the water! Deniz in Year 7 also fell in after his foot got stuck in the mud, and Sam in Year 8 suffered the same fate when his paddle pushed off from the wall and he fell in. They all took it in good spirits and there was no lasting damage!
The high ropes were popular, with many pupils successfully completing the ‘leap of faith’ before coming down the ropes. Tolani in Year 10 explained that the wobbling pole made jumping hard, but he completed the jump by bending his knees. Many other Year 10 pupils including Honor, Zara and Levique were also successful, with Zara saying that she enjoyed the ‘adrenalin rush’ when she did the leap of faith. Others such as Ibrahim in Year 8 didn’t fancy the leap so were winched down from the platform.
Paige in Year 8 excelled at the archery, as did Danny also in Year 8. Meanwhile, Kalvin in Year 10 was considered strong enough to be allowed to have a special bow. Archery contestants played the ‘pizza game’, where they had to hit the coloured circles in order. White represented dough, blue was tomato, red the cheese and yellow the topping. If they hit the black circle, they had ‘burned’ the pizza and had to start again. The instructors said they saw a huge improvement in our pupils at the end of the session.
This was a highly successful House trip, which will doubtless be repeated another year.
