Matthew
Rogers writes......On Monday 21st April the Year 8 boys went on their Outdoor
Pursuits trip to the Frontier Centre in Northamptonshire.After a fairly long coach journey and a break on the way, we arrived at the Frontier Centre. We waited in the coach whist we were instructed where to go and then parked outside the Harry Whittaker lodge. We got off the coach and put our bags inside our rooms, as this was where we would be staying over the next few days. We only had a very short time to put our bags in the rooms, as we were going to start our first activity already. Over the three days we were split up into 5 groups and each group did one of the three activities every day. On the day we arrived, my group was doing Initiative Games. This involved going around the campus with a few instructors, doing different games which we had to work out a way of doing best. This was very enjoyable, but testing. When we had finished our activities, we had a short amount of free time before dinner. After dinner we had some more free time during which the tuck shop was open for anyone who wished to use it. Before we went to bed, we had the option of two different films. This was a relaxing end to the day.
We
woke up bright and early for the next day and headed to breakfast. After
breakfast we went to our next activity. My activity was the High Ropes. This
involved climbing a variety of very high obstacles with just a safety rope
attached to you. Even though this was nerve racking, it was probably my most
enjoyable activity, especially when I managed to reach the bar of ‘The Leap of
Faith’! In the afternoon of Tuesday we thought that we would be going on a long
and tiring walk but instead the instructors agreed to do some extra activities
with us. Each of the groups was set to one activity, including things like
climbing, archery and abseiling. After we had finished these extra activities we
all went on a short group walk around the lake. By this time we were all tired
and hungry so we were relieved when we got back to the Centre for dinner. Our
evening ended the same as before with some free time then a film. As there was a
very important football match on television, we had the option of watching that
instead!
We woke up on the final morning with the weather looking rather different to the
beautiful sunshine we had had on the other two days. However, we all went to
breakfast and then onto our final activities still looking forward to them.
My final activity was Canoeing. We all got into groups of three or four and carried our canoes down to the river. As well as paddling up and down the river, we also had much fun playing other games including ones with balls. At the end we all got the chance to jump in the river. Even though it was not advised, most people did jump in. It was extremely cold! After our activities we all got dry after the wet weather and put our bags on the coach. We got back to school at approximately 4 o’clock after a thoroughly enjoyed break for us all!
Below are photographs taken during the trip. Click on the image to enlarge the photograph
