The biggest disappointment upon hearing our proposed camp at Porthpean was cancelled was that the children would not have the chance to stay away from home. This is often the biggest cause of anxiety for the children and a real milestone to reach; we did however manage to squeeze in a sleepover at school on Thursday night!

After our trip to the beach the children (and adults) whizzed home for a quick shower before returning to school for an evening of games and barbecued food! It’s always good to get photos of them in their most natural state- eating!

We are legally allowed to call the sleepover just that now as all children got at least some sleep. However, come breakfast and the 9.15am start for orienteering, it was clear some got more than others. The faces truly represent the morning mood for most- a stark contrast from 12 hours previous!

For the orienteering activity the children used a pre-drawn ordinance survey map of the school and some of our permanent orienteering signs. Each pair wrote their own general knowledge question before using the map to find the remaining questions. Once they’d woken up, they were buzzing around the school site answering questions from “Name of the American president?” to “Name of Peppa Pig’s brother?”- I won’t say which but Mr Peck only knew one of those!

With the children getting their second wind shortly after break, on completion of the orienteering course (winners pictured above, well done girls) we rounded off a brilliant activity week with some exceptionally competitive games of 40-40 in. A great way to finish what has been a fantastic week. Thank you to everyone involved, the places we’ve been, the staff who’ve been there and special thanks to the children for their exceptional efforts and behaviours- without them it would have been us adults playing in the Jungle Barn on our own, beating ourselves at cricket and boule and riding the Thunderbolt without a hand to hold!