Last week all of Year 7 enjoyed the annual Wales Residential, staying at Dunfield House, Llangorse Multi Activity Centre and Baskerville Hall. Those at Dunfield and Baskerville all followed the programme described below by Anir, while those at Llangorse had a different outdoor activities day including horse riding, rock climbing and caving.
On Tuesday, we came to school armed with suitcases and rucksacks rather than bags and books. No one would go into classrooms today or for the rest of the week because we were going to Wales. Instead of solving equations in maths, we would be admiring the view from the top of mountains. Instead of writing essays about the Middle Ages, we would be down in a mine, admiring the brilliance of the black diamonds deep underground. Instead of copying down notes on the differences between separate biomes, we would be taming the rapids of the rivers in homemade rafts.
It all began with a step onto the coach for 3 hours until we reached "Big Pit." It was a huge, disused coal mine turned museum. Led by our tour guide, we entered the depths of the mines. As we went lower down, the tunnels became shorter until even the shortest of us had to bend over. We learned about how people would find out about the carbon monoxide levels and about the blind horses that lived underground and lost their sight in the pitch-black mines, all for the extraction of the coal. After our tour finished, we returned to our coach and set a course for our accommodation: Dunfield.
Not long after, we were set to scale a tall hill to practice for tomorrow. It was a stunning view from the top, but nothing compared to what we were going to see tomorrow. Then we had a scrumptious, salivating dinner and went to our rooms, made our beds (some better than others), and called it a day.
The next day we woke up to a filling breakfast and the prospect of scaling Corn Du & Pen Y Fan in the Brecon Beacons, the very place Brecon in our house system is named after, one mountain a few metres taller than the other. This was no small feat. A select few blasted off, while some people took extremely long breaks to catch their breath and were far behind the pack. Once we had reached the top of the second mountain Pen Y Fan, we stopped to enjoy lunch before the equally gruelling trip down to the stream at the bottom of the mountains, where we stopped for a paddle. Later, we had some free time to play and dinner to eat. After we were fed and watered, we went to our rooms and went to bed, ready for the adventures of the day ahead.
For the final day of activities, we did a multitude of exercises, including a low-ropes course, go-karting, archery, and rafting. First, we did a low-ropes course. At first, we did it with our vision unobstructed, then with blindfolds on. It felt like I was riding the vampire ride at Chessington World of Adventures when I did it blindfolded. Then we attempted building and racing go-karts. It took a while to create the steering, and we used a chariot-like steering system to get it working. Next, we tested our sharpshooting skills with archery. Let's just say that not all shots hit the target or anywhere near the target and, in some cases, other people's targets.
We took a brief respite from the action with lunch, but then we got straight back in the it with building and using rafts to tame the water. All but one raft went horribly wrong, but the water was only waist deep, which some people didn't know when their raft fell to pieces and made quite a big fuss. Later, we dried off and went back to our accommodations for the last time, as we were due to leave tomorrow morning.
On Friday, we got on the coach to take us home. Not much happened until lunch, when we stopped at a service station with half of Year 7 queuing for a Burger King and the others queuing for a KFC! I felt sorry for the employees there. They were not expecting that! They are already overworked enough. But this was not enough to encourage the others not to have their burger. Three hours later, we made it back to Wilson's to conclude a thoroughly exciting and invigorating experience. Thank you to all the staff who gave up their time to enable us to have this unforgettable opportunity.
Anir, Year 7