Once again, we held our annual camping experience for some of our children and they loved it!
They were so excited throughout the day during school time, asking questions about what they will be doing and how long until it starts. When it was finally time, the children collected all their bags and took them to the staffroom, where they were going to be situated for the evening – tents were outside in the quad just outside the staffroom.
Once the children were changed and had their snack, they went outside to start having some calm down time and fun activities on the climbing frames and trampolines. They were so well behaved during this time and played on the trampoline for such a long time. We then moved onto having marshmallows roasted over a campfire. They were told they had to be careful of the heat, and they listened very well to safety instructions from adults and stayed sensible throughout the activity.
We then had some dinner. They had hot dogs and chips. Almost all the food was gone by the end of the meal so they must have been hungry! For dessert, ice creams were given to them, to which, again, nothing was left.
Once dinner had been tidied up, the children went to try out some circus skills. This was a real challenge but the children showed determination and patience. They even put together a quick show for the adults who were watching. They participated really well and loved showing off their skills in some way.
Then, the children had to complete an orienteering activity around the school where they needed to find numbers inside and outside the school which had a designated letter. They had to find all the numbers and letters to find the missing sentence at the end. The children split into two teams, with adults supporting them – finding some letters along the way. The children loved running around the school looking for the letters – working well as a team to complete the secret sentence.
After this, the children were given some time to relax in their tents or sit and have some iPad/ colouring/ puzzle/ football time. The children were starting to wind down and became tired by this point so they wanted to sit together and relax on the chairs.
Finally, the children got changed into their pyjamas and put their sleeping bags into their tents to get ready to settle down. They were given some time before bed to sit and chat in their tents and play with their torches. One tent of children fell asleep very quickly – the other tent were too excited and awake to fall asleep straight away.
The children who went camping were extremely well behaved all evening! They listened to instructions from adults, and were very sensible and mature. The ARP staff who were with the children were incredibly proud and impressed with the children’s attitudes, which meant they were able to enjoy themselves to the max! We cannot wait to do camping again next year already!
We would like to say thank you to the staff who helped looking after the children. It was extremely helpful and we are grateful to have such fantastic and dedicated staff to help these children have the best experience possible!
