Hungerford Primary School

In spring term 2 our topic is 'Wars of The World.' I this topic we will be looking at how and why wars begin. Some important historical events and ways that we can resolve conflict. 

In spring term 1 our topic is 'I have a Dream.' In this topic we are tackling some challenging ideas, such as racism, apartheid and the civil rights movement. We are learning about some important historical figures, such as Nelson Mandela, Martin Luthor King Jr and Rosa Parks. This will follow on to exploring the factors that can lead to discrimination and discussing how this can be prevented. 

At the start of the Autumn Term, Year 6 pupils visited a local manufacturing company – Icefree Sapphire – where children experienced a working factory. Pupils were able to look at the process of creating a product from the early stages (the design process) to building and adapting to create a final product, which could be sold to consumers.

On Monday 18^th September, Year 6 pupils travelled to SKERN Lodge in Appledore, Devon for their Year 6 residential trip. During the week, the children took part in numerous activities where they had opportunities to apply all our school values: community mindedness, aspiration, kindness, responsibility, curiosity and resilience.

Here are just a few snippets from the fun-filled week…

Skern Lodge day 1 

Well, after an eventful journey following the motor way closing and the coach having to take the sneaky shortcut through the backroad to Membrey Service, we arrived safely at about 2pm. 

After meeting our instructors and having a tour of the site the groups proceeded to their afternoon activities. Some of us were doing the assault course and zip wire whilst the rest were having a go at the “crate building” challenge and the high ropes course. 

I would love to say that we needed lots of sun-cream but actually although overcast any rain did hold off for most of the day and then it was only some brief showers. It certainly didn’t dampen anyone’s spirits. 

We have already had some memorable moments with some children already exceeding what they thought they were capable of.  

Dinner was excellent and even the fussier eaters amongst us were catered for. For the non-fussy eaters the choice was pasta bolognaise with garlic bread or Minted pea and broad bean risotto or roasted vegetable and pesto pasta or jacket potato with a choice of topics. Salad was also available. With apple crumble or fruit for pudding no-one went away hungry. 

We are already looking forward to breakfast! 

Tonight Mr Blair’s class are running round in a frantic scavenger hunt whilst Mrs Rahman’s and Mrs Allen’s class are taking part in some “wide games” near the coast. 

We are expecting the weather to become a little “friskier” tomorrow but the good news is that none of our planned activities will be cancelled only rearranged to another day.  

Hopefully the children will be a little tired tonight but I suspect that excitement may keep them awake for at least a little while.  

I hope you enjoy the photos. We will only send home a few photos each night so please don’t panic if you haven’t seen your child being adventurous. All the photos we take will be available to download when we get back. 

Skern Lodge Day 2

Surprisingly the children settled down fairly quickly last night and every room was quiet by 10pm. They were all awake quite early but managed to avoid waking up the teachers which was good of them.  

Breakfast was magnificent. Full English option was available or variations of it and the toast machine was given a good workout. Everyone fueled up for the day. 

The weather was predicted to be awful today but we never noticed it even those of us who were out on an inflatable raft on the river. We never even noticed the wind where we were even though it was meant to be gusting at 40-50 miles an hour. We all enjoyed a lovely dip in our wetsuits. 

Other groups today took part in archery, tunneling, climbing and abseiling and a lovely brisk seashore walk.  

Again we had lots of successes today with children once again doing far more than they thought they could. Some children you can see growing in confidence every day. What has been great to see is the way the children support each other. They really are a fabulous year group 

Another lovely dinner of chicken pie or chilli bean nachos rejuvenated everyone in time for the evening activities which tonight include shelter building and camp fire.  

I suspect the children will all be sleeping a little deeper tonight and early risers tomorrow will be few and far between. 

Mr Mayer

Skern Lodge Day 3

This morning the children were a little more difficult to wake up in some rooms but once their eyes were open they were soon leaping from their beds and getting ready for the day,  

Following the now standard “breakfast of champions” we split off into our 3 activity groups. The morning would see us climbing/ abseiling, mountain biking down the beautiful Tarka Trail and doing the high ropes course with crate building. I think it would be fair to say that the rain was fairly relentless and the biking group came back wetter than if they had gone surfing.  

The Tarka Trail is a 32 mile bike route in North Devon and I can really recommend it to you for a family activity if you are down this way. The route is flat and either tarmac or compacted gravel and the scenery is beautiful. We only did a six mile route but it was good fun. This was the first time we had done this activity but we will definitely ask for it again next year. When the group came back from this they were, as I said, a little damp. 

The climbing and abseiling was quite sheltered and the children were all able to have a go. We use the term “Challenge by Choice” which means that we encourage the children to set themselves a target to achieve. If they get to their target we then ask if the can do one more step. It is surprising how the children respond to this and achieve far more than they thought possible. One boy actually doubled the height he had set himself and very nearly made it to the top of the tower. 

One of the main reasons we come on these activity weeks is to present the children with challenges and problems to solve and they, for the most part, really do rise to them. Sometimes they need a little “nudge” but by and large they really like the feeling of confidence they get when they push themselves to reach their goal. It can actually bring a tear to the eye. 

The sea shore exploration is quite low key by comparison to the other activities but the kids love it. At least five of them told me that “this is the most fun ever” as they searched in rock pools looking for fish and “the crown jewel of rock pool hunting” a live crab (but the shell of a dead one is almost as exciting). We finished this with a sand sculpture competition.  

Back home for showers before dinner- curry night!! 

The evening activities kept the children going until about 8.45 and after a brief get together and sharing stories about the day it was lights out at 9.30pm. Not a peep was heard after this. 

Skern Lodge Day 3 - Afternoon Activities

Skern Lodge Day 4

Video

Skern Lodge Day 4 - Afternoon Activities

It was even harder to wake the children this morning and required a combination of Mr Mayer singing show tunes and the Mission Impossible theme played at full volume to even get some of them to move even a tiny bit under the duvet. 

Breakfast was different today and Skern lodge went continental with pancakes, meats, cheese, croissants, pain au chocolat and banana bread…and of course huge amounts of toast. 

Groups 1,2,3 and 4 had a very wet day today as the weather had meant swapping some activities around. So they went rafting down the river in the morning and then body boarding in the afternoon. All day in a wetsuit-lovely! 

Groups 5 and 6 went off mountain biking and then joined the others for body boarding. 

Unbelievably, the sun was out this morning and we thought we would stay dry however having entered a tunnel in sunshine when we came out of the other side it was raining-big time. However it added to the mountain bike experience and no one minded getting wet in the slightest. 

What was really pleasing was whenever we met other cyclists or dog walkers, they all commented on how polite and well-mannered our children were. We were very proud of them. 

The rafting went equally well and of course included everyone leaping into the river and swimming about, which is, if I’m being honest, the part they seem to look forward to the most. 

However the highlight of the day was taking the entire group body boarding at Appledore beach. 

The waves were great for this activity as there were lots of fast ones that you could glide into shore on. Body boarding is great because everyone could do it, it is less tiring than surfing so you can do it for longer and it is easier to ride on a wave.  

The kids absolutely loved this afternoon. I think it would be fair to say that most would choose it as their favourite thing to do at Skern. We did have few children who were convinced that when they fell off they swallowed the entire ocean but they were all so desperate to have another go that no one was out of action for very long. The teachers took loads of photos and tried to get as many children in them as possible but it wasn’t easy keeping track of who they had got. 

After about 90 minutes we piled back into the mini-buses and headed back to the site for a glorious hot shower before a dinner of pulled pork with all the trimmings or cauliflower cheese or veggy burgers.  

Our final evening activity is the Skern Lodge Olympics which is taking place as I write this. 

Room inspections have been happening and you will all like to know that they do know how to tidy up their rooms and tidy up after themselves. 

Tomorrow morning we are all on site for the morning and we should be heading off about 1pm. 

We look forward to seeing you at about 5pm but we will let Mrs Loughlin know how we are doing as we head home. 

Hopefully the children will be talking your ears off about their adventures over the next week. 

It has been a fabulous week. Your kids have been a real credit to us, to you and to themselves. 

On Wednesday 27th September 2023, following our wonderful residential visit to SKERN Lodge in Devon, pupils presented their experiences to a large number of parents and family members. The children’s presentations covered activities such as: rafting, bodyboarding, tunneling, climbing and abseiling, high ropes and crate stacking, zip wire and assault course, Tarka Trail biking and seashore trail… along with their views of the food and accommodation. These enabled pupils to excel in their oracy and showcase their work by sharing their presentations. It was also lovely to see so many parents and family members share in the children’s celebrations and awards.

Here are just a few snippets from the event…

Here is the link to the PowerPoint presentation, which was shared with parents during the celebration – this includes the achievements during the residential week alongside the expectations moving forward as Year 6: