School Trips And Pupils Work

YEAR 8 ABERDOUR CHALLENGE TRIP TO ABERDOUR, SCOTLAND

DIARY OF THE TRIP

On Tuesday the 10th June we woke up early to get to school for 6.45am. for most of us it was hard to do this. Mr. Moss drove us to the airport where we took an Easyjet flight to Edinburgh. We hired a mini bus that took us to Aberdour. We had lunch on the beach and visited Aberdour School before driving to our hostel in St.Andrews. When we arrived we went shopping for our food and then went back to the hostel and unpacked our bags. We ate fish and chips by the beach where we were invaded by seagulls. Later we had a tour of St. Andrews with stories from history. We went back to the hostel for a review of the day and Andrew was awarded the ‘hairy haggis’ and Oliver was awarded the ‘Nessie ‘ of the day. We went to bed but the boys did more chatting than sleeping!

Adam and Hugo

 11th June

Having spent our first night in the hostel, we woke up, had breakfast and made our packed lunches before driving to East Neuk for a day of fun-packed activity. We did a brief introduction to rock climbing before heading to some sea cliffs for a chain walk. It was exciting, with several opportunities to dangle, with large drop below.

Having walked and scrambled to the top of the cliff, we saw some great views overlooking the firth of Forth. We saw some military sights as we walked back to the mini bus. We then went kayaking and many people capsized and Nabi mastered the forward paddle. We had a great time and were ready for supper before Rounders on the beach and a good night’s sleep.

12 June

 The day was full of anticipation as it was the day of the C.E. results which arrived early and were fantastic! Soon everybody was celebrating.

We then set off to West Lomond for a hike up the highest hill in Fife. With the blustery weather we were able to dry our towels having done kayaking the day before. Our walk gave us some profound views of the Scottish countryside. We finished our adventurous walk and made our way to the Water Park where everybody had hours of fun. There were three fun slides where everybody was jumping and sliding off. There was also a disturbing whirlpool where certain people were kept captive! After that joyous swim we visited HMS Discovery in Dundee.

 After that we had a delicious meal at an Italian restaurant. It was a very good day and enjoyed by all

Nabi

 13th June

 To my great pleasure Friday was the day of my birthday.

We all woke up early to move on to the PGL Activity accommodation centre in Dunkeld. Once we had left the Youth Hostel in St. Andrews we had an hour of free time to visit the shops. We went to Dunkeld to do some mountain biking amongst the stunning hills along the River Tay.

The cycle was about 4 miles long. It was excellent fun as we had to overcome obstacles in our way and had a chance to perfect our skimming! When we got back from the cycle we were allowed to choose our lunches and explore the small town of Dunkeld.

Afterwards we made our way to the PGL base at Dalguise where we unpacked and made our way out of our accommodation to the trapeze. This was scary fun, climbing a 40 foot tree and jumping to catch a trapeze bar!

Birthday cake was a welcome treat that evening.

 Tom

 14th June

We woke up to our first morning at PGL with an early breakfast.

Our first activity was Jacob’s Ladder where the steps get bigger each time. You were helped by two other team mates. Then we went rifle shooting. The winning score was 80/100 by Ralph and Matt was second with 78/100. After lunch we had the wet and muddy challenge course which included the tunnel of doom – imagine what you will! Then we had the cat walk which was planks of thin wood between two trees on two levels, the highest level was about 40 feet.

That evening we went orienteering – tiring but fun!

 Matt and Andrew

15th June

Having again woken up at 7.00 am on Sunday morning and having an early breakfast at 7.40 am, we got ready for raft building. We were divided into two teams and we set about building our rafts. We tested them on the water but they didn’t last long and soon we were all very wet with the barrels floating around us.

After having a warm shower we went abseiling. As we had done it before we all knew what to do. Then we had lunch.

The afternoon brought the Giant Swing. We were sitting in a bag and were pulled up 50 feet in the air. Then we free fall for a couple of seconds and then start swinging. It made our stomachs churn – amazing!

Next we did the Zip Wire. This was one of our last activities over a natural gorge in midge-infested woods. By now we were experts at putting on a harness. Dinner was very welcome.

Roisin

16th June

Monday up at 7.00am again. The initiative activities stared at 9.00am where we had to test our ingenuity. By 10.30am we were making survival shelters in a midge infested forest. My team’s (Adam, Ralph, Matthew, Andrew, Mia and me) was the best made. We had lunch at midday then drove to Edinburgh to go home. We arrived two hours before departure on Mrs. Thomas’s orders! The plane left at 4pm and arrived at 5pm at Gatwick but we did not leave the airport until 7.20pm as the minibus’s tyre shredded on the way to collect us, so we had to wait for the AA. We were finally at home, clean and in our own beds.

Oliver