Motoring (safely) down the M4

We're coming home!

M4 service stop negotiated and enjoyed by all; I think the KFC staff gulped in trepidation as their queue quadrupled in size upon our arrival! 

Students are in good spirits looking forward to seeing parents, carers, brothers, sisters, cats, dogs and chickens. 

We are making good time and will see you all soon.

The Glasbury Gang of 2014

P.S. Please keep checking the blog as we will upload more pictures next week, when we're back at school.

Photo's

Having fun in the forest on Waterfall walking day:

 

 

 

The hot chocolate when you get back to the bus SOPPING wet is the best:

 

 

Views over the beautiful Welsh mountains:

Day 4: The students say...

Adventure day.

Today we ended up being soaked to the skin! Most of us must agree that it was our favourite activity. So what made it so special? Well, we started off in the in the Brecon Beacons, working our way down a hill (there are lots of those here). The very first challenge was to walk through…THE TUNNEL OF DOOM! (Actually an abandoned rail way tunnel but we prefer our name). It was pitch black and you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face…spooky much?

To follow up THE TUNNEL OF DOOM! We then went ventured a short distance to THE ZIP LINE OF TERRORRRRRRRRRRRRR! After several painful jokes from Stu, the instructor, we were sent across a short yet exciting trip across the river, helping each other get off the zip line at the end. This took more effort than you may think!

Once everyone had two goes of the zip line we made our way to the final activities of the day. This was the most fun we had all week and consisted of sliding down rivers (mostly on our bums!) trying to shuffle across waterfalls and bobbing around in pools.

At the end of the day, much soggier but still smiling, we made our way back to the bus all looking forward to a hot shower.

Cleo Doncaster, Ava Lawrence and Chloe Kyriacou

Day four and we're still smiling...

Good Evening from Glasbury,

Today was our last full day and some of us are definitely feeling the effects of four very full on days of activities. We are still very much enjoying ourselves though and returning to the centre (often soaking wet)  full of success stories.
Tonight saw our final dinner and the duty group did a sterling job of table preparation and serving, this was followed by the seemingly gargantuan task of packing and preparation for our final day and the journey home.
Once packed and clothing choices prepared, the final game of football was started and, in fact, still plays on now! We need an offical referee to give the "bad light" call I think...
Tomorrow will be very hectic, however with military style operation we will all be able to have our final activity day and be back in time for a shower prior to our very long journey home. We will, as per the journey down, stop en route for re-fuelling and I will update our progress at that point. We will ask all students to make contact with parents/carer's when we are half an hour away so that you can all be there to greet us upon arrival!

See you in 24 hours (or thereabouts)!!

Day 3: The students say...

Team Jordan

 

Our trip so far (by Evie Lawrenson, Ellie Fitchen and Molly Curtis)

After 4 hours in the coach on the way to Wales, we finally arrived at Glasbury. We were shown to our rooms in the main house and bunker house. Our rooms are really spacious and we are really happy with our roomies. Our group has voted Molly and Cameron as the best Cavers and Ellie as the most improved Caver as she was terrified at the beginning and led the group by the end.

Today (by Angus Baker and Isaac Moore)

Although only getting 7.5 hours sleep, we were up and ready for another day of adventure (water falling). It was tough to get up, but we persevered and achieved an accomplishment of beating the Niagara falls (Glasbury falls). We both had very sore legs because of football injuries and orienteering injuries but instead of complaining we conquered the pain. We got ready and after we were on the road. The drive was about an hour, but it felt like a week. We had arrived after stopping off at the caving site and filling up our petrol, as Stu forgot. We departed from our minibus, walked down to the Glasbury falls, sat down and eat lunch. After lunch, we geared up ready to face the waterfalls. Our first challenge, to walk across the falls, go under the waterfall, crawl to the boulder and be taken out of the falls to safety. There were many little pool crates that we could go and bathe in, however as the they were freezing we couldn’t stay in for long. That’s not all though, at the end of the good day we were treated to go down a nice waterslide and it was very fun. As we thought everything was sky high, Stu, the forgetter, decided to reject our request of ice creams. He claimed to have no money but we all knew he did. So, therefore he should be getting them for us tomorrow otherwise he will be facing a few unhappy students...

Day 3: The students say...

Day Three: Mountain Hiking

Today, I went to Crippin Mountain to do a day of fun filled mountain hiking and climbing. We took the bumpy journey in the van and landed in a field just below the mountains. Looking at them, it was slightly daunting considering I knew I would be climbing to the summit. We were given two maps and a compass, and Group F and I found our way around the rocky lanes using our (terrible) navigation skills. Our Instructor, Steve, and Mr Tillet gave us a talk on how the rocks were formed, and why there were so many sheep! After we had walked for about a half hour, we started occupying ourselves by telling each other riddles, and we were also talking about how tired we were. Little did we know, we had an even tougher journey ahead of us. We took a long time to get to the rockiest bit, and then the real teamwork arose. We lined up, and took turns in going at the front to blow the wind off each other. After a long time, we got to the summit. We were all very proud. It took an incredibly long time to get down, and all our feet hurt! We were just walking the last part when we came across two farmers with unnamed puppies, and they named one after me!

By Nina Honey

Today started with getting up at 7.30am which was very hard for me! The first challenge of the day was breakfast I had to make sure I got to the cereal before everybody else. After that came job checks and tidying my room! We then found out what we were going to do today, we were told we were going to be walking up a mountain. I felt very exhausted by this but happy and excited at the same time. We set off in the mini bus, after half an hour we arrived at the bottom of the mountain. OMG how am I going to make it to the top without falling over? As it got steeper and steeper I got more and more tired as we got closer to the top. About 60m from the top we had to scramble using our hand and feet to get to the summit. The summit was 768m above sea level. When I got to the top I felt like I was the king of the world. We then began to head back down. We finally made it back to the minibus and I felt hot and tired. I found today hard, fun and exhausting.

By Joseph Roche-Ward

 

 

 

 

Day three and we're in high spirits

What an amazing week so far! After the first day of activity which included adventuring through an abandoned railway tunnel in the pitch black, zip wiring across a stream and scrambling down the river and over small waterfalls, and the second day which entailed a walk behind a waterfall it was time for team F for FABULOUS to take on challenges of day three. Todays challenge consisted of hiking up a mountain in the Brecon Beacons. The challeng was to reach the summit of Crippin (768m). Off we went to begin our ascent. The challenge began with a steady climb to the fist rest point way in the distance (will we make it?), we managed to reach the rest point for a well-earned rest. We soon realised that making the top would be no easy feat! We pushed on rest point came and went and somehow we mustered the energy to reach the base of the last steep accent to the summit. We had lunch to regain some energy before tackling the last 60m scramble to the top. After what seemed like forever we managed to reach the summit. A look of elation and exhaustion was fixed on each member of the group as we took a moment to take in the stunning views and soon realised what all the hard work had been most definitely worth it. We then began to make our way down and let gravity do the work as we enjoyed a pleasant decent back to the van. Every member of my group has stepped up to every challenge that has been put to them and with determination and team work managed to overcome them. Everybody is in high spirits and looking forward to the rest of the week’s activities. Bring on the next challenge!

 

 

Mr Tillett

Day 2: The students say...

Luan and Mary’s Glasbury trip so far:

After a FIVE HOUR long journey and stressing about our rooms and activity groups, we were pleased to know our rooms and groups were what we wanted. Then we had a long argument about who was sleeping where (obviously we got the best bunk). The next day, our decision to have two hours sleep wasn’t looking like such a good idea, we was told what we were doing- "adventure". Adventure was amazing!! We did: homemade zip wire (don’t worry the instructor did it). Next we walked very slowly through a pitch black deserted train tunnel. Clearly something had to go wrong (had to be one of the boys); Lewis lost his retainer but then magically we found it! Finally the part we all enjoyed, we climbed up the water fall whilst the current was pushing against us. The day flew by quickly as we imagined it would and after some actual sleeping last night, today we pushed through the caves in record time and beat Miss Jordan’s group (ON EVERYTHING). We all did the hardest one of all, superman squeeze, and Mr Perry was very proud to tell the other teachers this. Looking forward ‘NOT’ to walking tall mountains tomorrow yippee!!

By Luan and Mary

Day 2: The students say...

My activity today was canoeing, at the start it was pretty hard having to swim against the strong current but we got the hang of it pretty quickly. We were taught how to steer the canoe with the paddle as a rudder and you had to push away to go right and squeeze the paddle to go left. As we paddled down stream we had to stop on a shingle beach but as some people were close to the left side some of the others were next to the bank on the right so as the ones on the left drifted onto the beach the people on the right were pulled away by the current and drifted down stream (some people had to be rescued). When we travelled down stream, we let the current pull us as we looked at the spectacular sights. Near the end we stopped on another shingle beach and started to jump into the water, we walked out into the current and then lifted our feet up to let the water do all of the work. After that we enjoyed a lovely hot chocolate and a nice slow ride home in the coach.

Wil Arrowsmith

Day two and all is well

With students far more well rested, this mornings' breakfast was an excitable affair with many stories and experiences exchanged over cereal, tea and toast. We had groups out Waterfalling, Canoeing, Caving, on 'Adventure' and Mountain Climbing today and all returned from their days tired and happy. This evening blogs will come from Wil Arrowsmith and Mary Burder & Luan O'Neill.

But first some pictures of the day. You will note "Perry's Participating Posse" have submitted their selfie for the selfie competition. We think we're onto a winner...

On the ropes course this evening:

 



 

On "adventure" today:

 

Mountain Climbing (understanding maps):

 

Day 1: The students say...

My activity today was: Canoeing.

We were taken to beautiful canal in the Brecon Beacons, where we unloaded the canoes and rode down the canal. After many collisions and capsizing incidents, we found that our "waterproof" clothing in fact weighed us down and made getting back into the canoes more challenging. We had our lunch canal side and enjoyed a pleasant view of one of Britain’s first Aqueducts. After a lesson in skimming stones we drifted away dangerously (not really mum and dad, don’t worry!) in our lifejackets, towards some rapids… unfortunately, we were summoned ashore before we attempted negotiating the fast flowing water. After this, we canoed back and enjoyed jumping into the canal, submerging ourselves in water. Looking forward to tomorrow and hope we get hot chocolate again!!

Will Jones

Day 1: The students say...

Our activity today: "Waterfalls" was very exhausting, as the amount of miles we walked in full waterproof gear AND WELLIES was ridiculous! We traversed the cliffs and banks to reach incredible waterfalls that obviously we had to walk under… then stand under until we were drenched. We learnt at this point, that "waterproof" does not always really mean "waterproof". Everyone had to; in fact, empty their wellies of the gallons of water that made it into them. We stumbled across a swamp and our crazy instructor Stu challenged us to a long jump competition across it, Miss Perry simply stood there laughing at us, as we failed. It was a tough, but enjoyable day, we are all looking forward to the challenges of tomorrow.

Olivia Cayley and Elizabeth Anello :)

 

 

 

 

Day one and all is well

Greetings from a sunny/windy/rainy/stormy (depending on where you are and what you are doing) Wales!

We were up bright and early for our first day of activitites and students realised the importance of a good night's sleep (a fact the teachers are very happy with and hoping is remembered tonight!).

Canoeing, Mountain Walking, Waterfalls, Adventure are all activities that were participated in today and many people were required to make friends with wetsuits and "waterproofs" for their day. Many people also realised that "waterproofs" don't ALWAYS protect you from water...

We've had a lovely re-fuelling dinner and the girls are going to sample the delights of the ropes course on site and the boys a myriad of games that they are familiar with (football, volleyball, badminton). We have all enjoyed our first day and are excited for the challenges and excitement of tomorrow.

We're here!!

Safely arrived in Wales! Introductions to 'Jon', the centre coordinator and dinner consumed, we've also had our first proper meeting about Glasbury life. 
Activity groups shared and students now know what their individual week will look like for activity rotations. 
Very keen to get participating and looking forward to a good nights sleep prior to our first full day tomorrow. 

Day of departure

Morning all!!

We are now on the day of departure; I can't believe how quickly it has come around. All of the teachers are looking forward to seeing you at 11.15 ready for our 11.30 departure. Don't forget to bring a drink etc for the coach as we will only stop once on the way down. Sadly there does look like there's going to be some rain today so make sure you dress appropriately.

See you soon #4hours

P.S. If any of you have not handed in your code of conduct form, please make sure you bring it with you.

Weather Forecast

Now obviously, as we know, weather reports aren't always incredibly accurate. However, "AccuWeather" are citing this as a guideline for the week we are away. We recommend you checking on the forecast regularly, especially the morning of departure so that you know what to expect.

Are you excited?!
#3days

Kit List

 

Above is the kit list that was shared at Parents Evening. It is a guideline obviously and the weather will very much dictate what we wear on a day to day basis.

The countdown has begun! #5days