News

Wow! What a busy and brilliant day we’ve had! The children (and teachers) have learnt how to thatch a roof, studied the environment of the Broads through some Ecology research and even found out what the local Barn Owls have been eating by dissecting pellets! We even managed to fit in a little time to use watercolours to capture the breathtaking views.

After such an eventful day we settled down after a lovely dinner to watch the footage from the wildlife cameras we had set (the fur from Chinese Water Deer had been discovered earlier), and are about to listen to a story whilst sipping hot chocolates.

We have had a wonderful day and enjoyed relaxing time before dinner thinking of everything we have experienced and learnt today.

Room inspections took place this morning during a very hearty breakfast (a lot of toast was consumed!!!) Some rooms achieved 10/10 for tidiness. Wonderful results! We then got layered up and went out on the broads to enjoy a boat trip. It was wonderful to travel along the river and see the Barton Broads. We saw incredible wildlife including an otter, a kingfisher and beautiful birds of prey etc. We learnt about some of the experiments scientists are doing along the broads to protect the ecosystem.

Hot chocolate was then enjoyed and of course biscuits were gobbled!! We then went to Toad Cottage which was an old thatchers cottage about 200 years old. The children were so excited to explore this cottage. We learnt about the past and how the lives of the inhabitants differed from our lives now.

We then had a wonderful afternoon crafting our own animals, from habitats we had encountered, out of clay. There were some incredible creations. We then played the hawks and blackberries game and learnt about food chains along the marshes.

Tea was absolutely delicious and the children are now relaxing before a Book quiz!! We enjoyed watching some footage of an otter in the boathouse!!

All in all a wonderful day. We say thanks to Mrs Robinson and Mrs Hooker for all their help and amazing support and welcome Miss Reid and Miss Murray to join Mr Cooper and Mrs McCaig.  

The coach journey was great and we have all arrived safely and quickly found our rooms.  The children have really enjoyed setting out their rooms and getting to know the beautiful building and surrounding gardens.  The children were hungry already so lunch was a great success and most remembered what sandwich fillings they had ordered!! We went through the How Hill rules and then we were layering up ready for our first activities. 

We went for a walk through the marsh which was wonderful and looked for animal tracks and signs of habitation.  We saw an otter slide and investigated some deer footprints. We also installed a trail camera so we will look at the footage tomorrow night to see what animals we have captured on camera! 

We then went to a bird hide and saw cormorants and other birds it was so lovely to see one of the broads called Crome Broad.  We also learnt about floating woodland and the different types of ecosystem and species that live in harmony in the marshland and forests. 

We looked at leaf identification and also played the ‘hugging a tree’ game… Super fun!! We then had a well-earned drink and biscuit and then went dyke digging. Amazing results the children found so many incredible fish and aquatic invertebrates. So much fun. The children were amazing and impressed us with their identification skills and safe handling of all the creatures. 

We are now having a weaving lesson as each child has a loom for the week to weave their magic. 

All the children have been amazing and we have loved seeing their smiling faces and can do attitude.  Roll on an amazing evening and bright morning tomorrow.