Year 6 Residential Visit - North Yorkshire Sept 2023

Monday 18^th September

We’ve had a busy first day on our residential visit to North Yorkshire. After waving everyone goodbye at school, we settled into our coach journey. We made a stop at Peterborough – where the sun was still shining! – and then set off for the journey to Eden Camp in Malton. Half way through this part of our journey, the rain started to come down very heavily and it was still raining by the time we got to Eden Camp. Luckily, we had an indoor hut for our lunch and, by the time we’d all finished eating, the rain had stopped!

Everyone enjoyed looking around the huts at Eden Camp and we were also lucky that we had the whole of the Prisoner of War Exercise Compound (Adventure Playground) to ourselves.

After a short journey, we arrived at Cober Hill and settled into our rooms. Dinner was carrot and coriander soup, chicken goujons, chips and peas and chocolate sponge with chocolate sauce.

We went back to the Hall to celebrate Martin’s birthday with cake, candles and balloons (Happy Birthday, Martin!) and then we had a relaxing evening colouring, drawing and doing Sudoku puzzles.

Everyone settled rally quickly at bedtime, ready for another busy day tomorrow.

(Note from Miss Griggs (Tuesday 7:30 a.m.): the children have been absolutely fantastic and so well behaved. Everyone has had a good night’s sleep and we had no issues whatsoever overnight.

Tuesday 19^th September

Today we enjoyed a lovely cooked breakfast, as well as cereal and toast and got ready to set off for Magna. This is an amazing old steelworks which now houses four pavilions – Air, Water, Fire and Earth. We arrived in time for lunch and then set off around each of the pavilions. Everything was interactive, so we all had a great time with all of the ‘hands on’ activities. We got to see a fire tornado and then also ‘The Big Melt’. This showed us how steel used to be made in the factory – it was very loud and there were lots of flashes, sparks and bangs!

After a delicious dinner, we had a board games evening, which we all enjoyed. We also celebrated Harry’s birthday too. Happy Birthday Harry!

Wednesday 20th September

Today we had an early breakfast, as we had to make an early start for our long journey to Beamish in County Durham. The weather wasn’t great, although most of the drizzle was while we were on the coach. We arrived at Beamish just in time for one group to go to the Victorian schoolhouse and the other to tour the museum (which is open air). Miss Griggs’ group were first into the Victorian schoolhouse and we were met by Mr. Hall, the very strict Headmaster. He was quite stern with us (including the adults- even Miss Griggs got told off!!) and we had a lesson just as it would have been in Victorian times. All the boys had to take their caps off and we had to practise our handwriting, times tables and maths calculations. These were tricky, as they were in old money.

Poor Miss Pender’s group got caught in a very heavy rain shower, but it didn’t stop them having fun and enjoying a ride on an old tram. We all met up for lunch and then Miss Pender’s group went for their session at the Victorian schoolhouse. Miss Griggs’ group took a ride on an open top tram and we also visited the main street, where we went into an old dentist’s surgery and also an old bank. It was great fun exploring the vault.

After our journey back, we had dinner and then enjoyed Movie Night – Hotel Transylvania!

Thursday 21st September

Today was Miss Pender’s favourite day – the chocolate factory! After another lovely breakfast, we set off for York. We set off through the streets of this beautiful city on our way to the chocolate factory, not forgetting to try and spot the very famous Mrs. Miggin’s Pie Shop on our way. When we arrived at the ‘York Chocolate story’ we split onto our two groups. Miss Pender’s groups went to their workshop all about chocolate and how it is made and Miss Griggs’ group went to learn about the history of chocolate. (After lunch, we swapped over) We all got to eat lots of different sorts of chocolate on the way, including coca nibs and a special liquid similar to that made by the Aztecs when they first made chocolate. We also made our own chocolate slabs and decorated them with all sorts of toppings and we also made white chocolate lollies. At the end of our tour, we also saw how the special hand-made chocolates are made and we all got to enjoy a hand made Banoffee chocolate – they were delicious!!

Once we got back to Cober Hill, we had the mammoth task of packing our cases and tidying our rooms before dinner and then the disco! Dinner was delicious fish and chips. The disco was great fun – we had a lot of glow sticks and Elliott was determined to beat the school record of 134…..which he did!

Friday 22nd September

Today was our last day in North Yorkshire. The sun came out for us and, after breakfast, we loaded the coach ready to say goodbye and thank you to everyone at Cober Hill for looking after us so well.

We set off across the Yorkshire Moors on our way to Whitby – the beautiful sunny weather meant that we could spot Whitby Abbey in the distance from the coach. When we arrived, we set off towards the ruins and got ready for our traditional ‘hats’ photograph, which we hope you agree looks great!

We spent some time in the gift shop at Whitby Abbey and then made our way back to the spot where, each year, we eat our lunch. Friday’s lunch is always very special as it is traditional Whitby fish and chips (or sausage and chips). Miss Pender and Mr. Everden arrived with lunch just as we got to our spot on the hill overlooking Whitby and we all enjoyed lunch in the sunshine.

At about 1 o’clock, we said goodbye to Whitby and North Yorkshire and set off for home. We stopped about half way through our journey for a break, drink and a snack and then continued on towards Colchester.

It was lovely to see everyone waiting for us when we arrived back – we had a great week!

(A note from Miss Griggs: Very well done to all of the children, who were impeccably behaved throughout the week, so much so that we were stopped everywhere we went and complimented on the children’s manners and behaviour, including by the staff at Cober Hill. The children were delightful all week and a pleasure to be with. Huge thanks also to Miss Pender, Mr. Hewitt, Mr. Everden and Mr. Fulcher for accompanying the children and me on the residential.)