Runway's End week 2024
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
Group 5
Group 6
We are having a fantastic time at Runways End.
*Please note that the site has no wifi and extremely poor signal. We will endeavour to post photos when we can, however, all staff are staying up into the late evening ensuring all the children are safely asleep.*
Monday 26th February
We arrived at around 11am and had our safety briefing of the site. We filled in our reflective booklets and assessed where we felt we were in relation to the 4 key skills for the week: nature, well-being, teamwork and resilience. We will complete these throughout our week to see how we improve.
After our packed lunches, we explored the site and got ready for our afternoon activities.
All groups took part in team challenges where they had to work together to solve different tasks.
Each group then completed the following activity:
Group 1: Climbing (slab)
Group 2: Night Line
Group 3: Auto-belay Climbing
Group 4: Climbing (slab)
Group 5: Team tasks
Group 6: Auto-belay Climbing
The children got to set their rooms up after their first 2 activities and meet their fellow dorm-mates. They will be responsible on making sure their rooms stay neat and tidy throughout the week for room inspections.
Dinner was a selection of pasta dishes, garlic bread and hot chocolate fudge cake!
After dinner, the children returned to their activity groups to take part in the staff-led orienteering. They had to run around the grounds of Runways End, with their torches, to find the correct letters for the code. The final answer, to get 5 bonus points, was to recite a nursery rhyme to Mrs Hagger. All the children had a great time exploring the grounds!
Tuesday 27th February
First breakfast of Runways End was extremely successful. Bacon, sausages, beans, mushrooms, toast, hashbrowns and a selection of cereal.
After breakfast, the children began preparing for their first room inspection. Varying scores throughout the rooms with some feedback given to improve their score tomorrow. Lots of children tired this morning after an exciting first night away.
Activities for the morning:
Group 1: Canoeing and Orienteering
Group 2: Orienteering and Canoeing
Group 3: Abseiling and Nightline
Group 4: Fire lighting and Team tasks
Group 5: Nightline and Archery
Group 6: Archery and Climbing (slab)
Lunch was sausage rolls, crisps and chocolate followed by some free time where children continued to explore the grounds here.
Activities for the afternoon:
Group 1: Nightline and Abseiling
Group 2: Team tasks and Climbing (slab)
Group 3: Canoeing and Orienteering
Group 4: Orienteering and Archery
Group 5: Climbing (slab) and Fire lighting
Group 6: Fire lighting and Team tasks
Dinner was 'build-your-own' beef or chicken burgers with chips and salad. Ice cream for desert.
The children then had a little bit of free time whilst the staff set up movie night! Projector and a film sorted, the children enjoyed a chilled evening with their PJs, pillows and popcorn!
The children fell asleep very quickly after a busy busy day.
Wednesday 28th February
The day started with plenty of rooms needing to be woken up for breakfast as they were fast asleep!
Activities for the morning:
Group 1: Team tasks and Fire lighting
Group 2: Fire lighting and Auto-belay climbing
Group 3: Climbing (slab) and Air rifle shooting
Group 4: Abseiling and Nightline
Group 5: Auto-belay climbing and Abseiling
Group 6: Canoeing and Orienteering
Lunch was a selection of sandwiches and crisps.
Activities for the afternoon:
Group 1: Archery and Auto-belay climbing
Group 2: Abseiling and Archery
Group 3: Fire lighting and Team tasks
Group 4: Auto-belay climbing and Canoeing
Group 5: Canoeing and Orienteering
Group 6: Nightline and Abseiling
Dinner was hotdogs, chicken drumsticks, pasta and salad. Desert was hot waffles and squirty cream!
After dinner, the children returned to their activity groups to take part in a scavenger hunt. They had to run around the grounds finding different items and reporting back to their leader. Group 2 won and gained bonus points for their team!
Thursday 28th February
Lovely breakfast this morning as usual!
Activities for the morning:
All groups took part in Epic Engineering
Group 1: Air rifle shooting
Group 2: Caving
Group 3: Low ropes
Group 4: Air rifle shooting
Group 5: Caving
Group 6: Canoeing
Lunch was a selection of pizza, garlic bread and fruit.
Activities for the afternoon:
Every group took part in shelter building, where they were urged to build their shelter as quick as possible as the rain started to pour!! Luckily, most teams stayed dry once they were under their shelter.
Group 1: Low ropes
Group 2: Air rifle shooting
Group 3: Caving
Group 4: Low ropes
Group 5: Air rifle shooting
Group 6: Caving
Dinner was a ‘build-your-own’ chicken or pulled pork wrap with curly fries and salad. Desert was an ice cream cone.
After dinner, the children got into groups and decided on a team name. They took part in a HWJS quiz and completed a geography, Disney, book cover challenge and sport round. We have 2 teams that came joint first.
Friday 1st March
With a downpour overnight, the site was filled with lots more puddles. Fortunately, the weather became a bit better by breakfast and the activities were able to remain as planned.
Breakfast was a selection of pastries and fruit.
Activities for the morning:
Every group took part in ‘Rushing Rockets’. The children had to launch a bottle full of water by pumping air into it. So many rockets went soaring into the air and cleared the towering trees!!
Group 1: Caving
Group 2: Low ropes
Group 3: Archery
Group 4: Caving
Group 5: Low ropes
Group 6: Air rifle shooting
After a selection of sandwiches, crisps and biscuits for lunch, the children made sure they had all their belongings and headed for the coach home.
All the children have worked incredibly hard this week. They have worked well as a team to overcome challenges and have pushed themselves out their comfort zones. We are incredibly proud of the children’s resilience and determination to try new things. They should all be incredibly proud of all their hard work- we certainly are!