Wow!  What a trip!  This week, Year 5 have been on their first residential at Southill School and have spent the last few days at Wye Valley YHA, learning how to become spies and undertake the most secretive of missions!

We are SO proud of the resilience and reciprocity of each and every member of the class as they have overcome fears, hurdles and personal challenges to prove they are, without a shadow of a doubt, absolute superstars!

Starting early on Wednesday morning, we made our way to our new spy base at Wye Valley, arriving to meet our Spy Agents Jellied Tortoise, Golden Crow and Maroon Racoon for an introduction to our mission.  Obviously we had to create our own spy names to use for the remainder of the week as well.  You can ask us our secret spy names, but no passing them on…!

A short bout of orienteering in the hostel grounds and inside the hostel house helped us to orientate ourselves in our new mission base and find our way around. It is the most beautiful location with gorgeous views and we really have enjoyed our surroundings while we stayed there.

After a scrumptious dinner, we then continued spy training and designed some inventive gadgets to help us in our missions and trained in the secret art of Code Breaking to help decode enemy messages and pass on instructions undetected.  Have a look at our photos below, can you work out our code and see what the instructions were?!

Our second day began bright and early with preparations for training in stealth travel over water.  We made our way to the canoe center and spent the most amazing day playing, training, laughing and cruising down the River Wye.  We began with some training in how to steer, control and travel safely in a canoe.  Then we had some races, played football and practised our turns and speed in teams.  After lunch we set out on a 6 mile canoe trek down the River Wye to Monmouth and this was fantastic!  Year 5 rose to the challenge and did not once give up.  They applied all the skills we had learnt in the morning and thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience.  We are especially proud of how well they braved and survived the ‘torrential’ rapids as a team, well done everyone!  We also saw kingfishers, a heron, ducks, ducklings, goslings, cygnets, swans and jumping fish! The last ‘Monmouth Mile’ became quite windy and tricky to stay on course and by then, we were all pretty tired, but we ploughed on, not complaining once and kept our spy wits about us, making it to the end to feel extremely proud of ourselves and quite right too.

This was an amazing day in beautiful surroundings and each and every one of us has come away with a sense of personal achievement and core memories.  Keep an eye out for photos and footage of this amazing day to come soon!

Our second day wrapped with a cosy campfire, marshmallows and songs, a great opportunity to practise our sea shanties and amaze our Spy Agents with our secret singing skills.

On the final day of our mission, we finished our spy training with some shelter building and team games – key life and survival skills.  Again, we were mightily impressed with the resilience and resourceful thinking from each and every one of you Year 5.  You have come so far as a class and a team and it was so wonderful to see you all working together and achieving challenges as a result, well done!

This truly was the most brilliant residential to have been part of.  Members of the YHA praised the school continually for their manners, engagement and postivity throughout the stay.  Everyone has had an a amazing week and gained something from what we have achieved.

Have a look at the many photos below to see for yourselves what a fabulous week this has been and keep an eye out for some video footage and other surprises coming this way soon…!

None of this would have been possible without the time and dedication of the staff who attended with us and many thanks to Mrs Hill, Mr Mason, Mrs Aitken and Mrs Butler for coming with us and supporting us.

You have made us very proud Year 5 and we are honoured to have been part of your trip, thank you.