| Teacher's Blog
In a follow-up lesson to their recent residential visit to PGL, the pupils in Year 5 were asked to describe, using only 3-5 words, one of the week’s activities and everyone else was then challenged to guess which activity was being described.
So effusive were the comments of the children that it turned out to be impossible to distinguish the individual activities. Words such as exhilarating, terrifying, scary, hilarious, co-operative, nerve-racking, action-packed, adventurous, thoughtful and tricky flowed around the room, but three words overwhelmed the others – exciting, challenging and fun. It is very rewarding to know that the impact on the children has been such a positive one and the elements of excitement and fun were easy to see on their faces as they took part.
Asked to expand on the challenging side of the activities, all were able to identify aspects that they had found to be personally testing, be it facing a fear of heights, learning how to co-operate effectively or simply trusting a harness to hold them safely off the ground.
The children talked together about how they had overcome these challenges and what the experience had taught them. They discussed techniques that they had learnt to help them, such as looking up and not down whilst on the Vertical Challenge or swinging a leg up quickly to reach greater height on Jacob’s Ladder and there were many comments about team-work and morale-boosting support from others within their groups.
As teachers, we know from experience the benefits that trips and visits outside school bring to individuals and how these can be multiplied hugely during a residential visit. However, it is even more worthwhile to hear the children themselves recognising their successes and achievements amidst the tales of excitement and fun. Roll on PGL 2019!
Mrs Evans and Mr Purvis, Year 5 Tutors