Coven:The Final day at camp

Dawn breaks over the campsite on Friday morning.

This lovely sky was pictures at 6.45 a.m today.

All were asleep apart from the Headteacher determined to get to the staff showers first!

The final morning of a brilliant week. The staff and children were really tired and everyone looking forward to a hot bath and being able to sleep between clean sheets in the comfort of their own bedrooms.

The children are exhausted and need a good long rest before coming back on Monday next week. They have been brilliant.

Orienteering last night. The kids were given maps and had to explore either the "Secret Signs" clues

Or the "Buffalo Hunt"

The clues were concealed behind trees and the kids had to do something like brass rubbings using crayons on their answer sheets to prove that they had found the clue while using the map.

Clue found.
Brass rubbing to follow

Two Buffalos!

Rubbing the crayon on the found clue

The team score board at bedtime Thursday night.

Learning how to dismantle a tent day 5

Breakfast on the last day at camp

I love this picture!
Two kids having fun in the drying room putting their gear away and hiding behind mattresses!

The tent dismantling continues

Folding the fly sheet

Luggage stowed in the marquee

Meanwhile an exhausted headteacher tries to cat-nap in the staffroom!

After the tents were dismantled and stowed away for use by the next Coven visitors there was yet another activity. Pass the rope around your team members while holding hands in a circle!

Teams had to use milk crates and boards to cross shark infested waters. With these sharks- could they do it?

This team almost got there
but the plank fell in the water.
Back to the start!

Challenge 2

Construct a platform from wooden branches
and ropes capable of carrying a bowl of water.

Take the bowl of water to the stone circle
and balance it on the central stone.

Having done that, take the water
over a picnic table and return it to base.

The winning team would be the one
with the most water left in the aluminium bowl
having got it safely back to base.

Whoops! We've lost all the water!

This team almost did it.
Look at the web of branches they created.

Over the picnic table. No problem!
But they dropped it 2 metres short of the base!
The result was a unique Coven draw between two teams

After that the team totals were totted up for the week.
The winning team was Team "E"
Well done to :
Amelia Edwards
Liz Wood
Emily Hardy
Emma Baker
Ryan Turner
Ben Marriot

Team "E" wins the Coven medal.

Last night all teams voted for the best team member. The results of this special award will be announced in the whole school assembly next week on Friday.

My staff have been watching all the kids during the week and will present special awards to individual children who have impressed us during the week.

This might be to a child who has overcome "home-sickness" and stayed the course, or pupils we have noticed who have excelled in personal targets or others who have been excelled in some other aspect of the week at school camp.

I would like to thank parents and pupil campers for saying a personal thankyou to Mrs Jennings and Miss Ward before going home today. A school camp sounds a bit like a holiday for my staff.

Not so. They were on duty 24/7 and had to resolve every issue your kid's raised during the week.

All of us are very tired.

As a Headteacher I can retreat into my office and catch up on a week's paperwork.

(Staff and kids always say that all a Headteacher does is drink loads of coffee in the school office. I wish!)

Mrs Jennings and Miss Ward have to be raring to go and teach again on Monday and continue to make a difference to Y5 and Y6.

I thought it lovely that some kids told me today that they were going to write a letter of thanks to Mrs Jennings and Miss Ward.

As a Headteacher I am very proud of my staff who took a week away from their families and friends to make sure that Coven happened.

I am also very proud of your children.

I've teased most of them to death during the week but got to know them all well as individuals.

That for me is a privilege.

Thank you, as a parent, for taking the risk of sending your child away from home and entrusting him/her to school for a week.

I am sure that your child will have discovered what it means to be a team member and be independent.

These are life skills which are not easily taught in a school classroom.

My final thanks are due to the team at Coven who were excellent and very professional.

Best wishes to the kids that came and , after a long sleep, I look forward to seeing you all on Monday.

Have a good weekend. No doubt there will be many stories to share over the coming weeks!

Martin Tibbetts
Lichfield (not Coven !)
Friday, 26 September 2003