Our youngest Senior House children, Form 3, went to Edale Outdoor Activity Centre in Derbyshire for trips week in June 2019. The trip was designed to promote teamwork and leadership skills, encourage participation in new and exciting challenges and to practise all important listening skills. Set within some of the Peak District's most stunning countryside, Edale is ideal for walking, caving and climbing activities and the children also had the chance to tackle the open water with boat-based activities.
The children were kept busy from breakfast to bedtime with a huge variety of land and water based adventure activities, such as abseiling, kayaking, canoeing, climbing, caving, archery, a treasure hunt, orienteering, and ‘weaseling’ (scrambling and climbing through rocks). Mrs Nikki Macpherson, Form 3 trip leader, explained, “The children flourished in their outdoor surroundings and wholeheartedly embraced all the social, physical and mental challenges they encountered."
One Form 3 enthused, “I loved the trip because it was very sociable and it got all of us incredibly active. My best memory is abseiling because we were lowered down a 25 metre bridge which, at first, was scary.” Another said, “My favourite highlights were weaseling, caving and abseiling because they all challenged you and tested your fears but we managed to conquer them.” And another recalled, “I enjoyed abseiling most because I got to do something I never thought I could do and when your feet touch the ground you feel so good about yourself!”
