OSMINGTON BAY
When we arrived at Osmington Baywe had a quick tour then unpacked, and went for tea which was meatballs. The second day we had very fun activities like climbing and problem solving. On Sunday we did the bigger activities like the big swing and the trapeze. Annoyingly I’m scared of heights and it took me a while but I did them at last! On the final day we had breakfast and packed and went to our final activities, abseiling and the zip wire. I really enjoyed them.
Lewis Rowe
On Saturday we did my second favourite activity – quad biking. We started by doing a practice lap with a red lead which the instructor held, so if we went too fast the lead would ping off the bike and the engine would cut out. Alex and I did well on our first lap. However, on my next go, I misjudged the edge of the track and I turned the quad bike on its side. Luckily, I flew off and landed on my feet. I think I was the only one to fall off.
William Roxby
When we went to do quad biking, two PGLpeople showed us the controls, how to get on and off use the brakes, and the monkey position. We needed to wear a safety helmet, gloves and goggles. I crashed because I didn’t stop and went into the tyres.
Stephen Woolley
On Saturday, our last activity was climbing and everyone was ready for a challenge. It was harder than expected. We each carefully stepped into a harness, tightened it and chose a helmet, then our instructor Toby showed us what to do and gave us our positions. My climb was difficult but with everybody encouraging me I reached my goal. It was such fun I wanted to have another go. Danielle Dopson
There were eighteen walls to climb. The hardest was number one and the easiest was number eighteen and we were on numbers five and six. There are three jobs, the climber, the belayer and the fisher. The climber obviously climbs and the belayer is the person who pulls the rope to make sure they are secure and don’t fall. The fisher puts the rope onto the floor after the belayer. Toby conquered his fear of heights by scaling wall number six. William was like Spiderman getting to the top of number five in a flash. When you are climbing you need help from your friends and the instructor but you always have a great time even if you don’t get to the top.
Freddie Powell
For the scavenger hunt we got into four teams. Ours was called The Funky Seaweeds. First we searched for a silver thistle, a distant planet, a plastic bag and something between H and L. We found the distant planet easy because earlier we saw a Mars bar wrapper by the bins. At the end we had the chance to gain extra points by singing and dancing a song in certain categories, for example ballroom style or opera. Mr Brady, Mrs Davis and Madame found this hilarious. When our leader, Roy, added up the scores The Funky Seaweeds had come first!
Charis Hubbard
The leap of faith was an activity where you had to climb up a telegraph pole. Then you had to stand up and jump off it. The aim of the jump was to try and touch a pink buoy. Tom was the only one who touched it in our group, but everyone got to the top of the pole. I would really like to do it again!Ben Whaley
This was my favourite activity. Once you were at the top of the very tall telegraph pole there was a small platform no bigger than a piece of A3 paper. You had to stand up and then the pole would wobble and then you had to jump and touch a buoy that was hanging from a piece of rope. We all enjoyed it a lot and wanted another go.
Tom Cordery
At the giant swing, we had to put our harness and then our helmets on before we were allowed out of the safety zone. Mr Brady and Tom went first (Tom went first on everything!) and the rest of us had to haul a rope that pulled them into the air. Once they were level with the top of the swing we shouted ‘3,2,1’. They dropped from the air back down to earth then back into the air again, and then they swung like a normal swing. When it was mine and Lewis’s turn, we put our hands up and screamed, because we were having so much fun!
Abi Robson
Jess and I decided to go together, as we were both scared of heights. When it was our turn we didn’t go right up to the top but on our second go we did! From the top you could see a cliff a little way away. I’m very proud that Jess and I faced our fears because the swing was very high.
Megan Emery-Taylor
Abseiling was one of my favourite activities. We had to step through a harness and pull it up like a pair of trousers. Our instructors called us up two at a time and I was with Richard. We had to climb up three big ladders. The scariest part was leaning back over the edge of the gigantic tower with our heels hanging off the edge. Everyone tried some jumps off the wall which was amusing.
Matthew Larter
I deeply enjoyed OsmingtonBay. Every day the food was delicious and my favourite meal was the ham, cheese and pickle baguette! Also the chalet had a well-working power shower in the bathroom. However, the mattresses were rather hard and I kept missing the steps on the bunk bed ladders. My favourite activity was abseiling. We had to get roped up to a yellow safety rope and then climb through metal bars, and attach to the black rope. When I was going down I was shaking but then I started to jump and it was great. Then I tried some spins and I bashed my arm. I loved it.
Olly Dyball
Some of our best moments were when Mr Brady came to wake us up. Every morning he would knock on our doors and windows, shouting good morning. Then he would start singing theme tunes to baby programmes such as Gigglebiz and Postman Pat. One of my favourite activities was the zip wire. We used wire two which was the fastest. As we waited we were all so excited. I clipped on the rope attached to the tower and as I sat down my heart missed a beat. There was a short countdown and I was off. I screamed and didn’t stop till I reached the end.
Anna Bussell
My favourite part of the weekend was the abseiling where I managed to swing out off the wall then came back and slammed, back first, into the wall and it hurt a lot. During the weekend I learnt a lot about my friends and what they are like out of school. On the second day group 1 played aeroball, the matches were three minutes long. The teams were A and A, (Alison and Anna), Alex and Stephen, The Woolly Hats, later changed to the No Woolly Hats because they took off their hats halfway through, Carrot and Duck (Charis and Danielle), ONE (Sam and Freddie), The Science Maniacs (Mr Brady and Toby) and Gromit (Will and I) and of course we won.
Max Dooley
Our Saturday evening activity was called Ambush. It was just like Hide-and-Seek, but we could hide anywhere in the grounds of Osmington Bay. I was with all the girls from Year 7 and Olly, Tom Max and Toby. We had arrows that we had to lay on the ground so the others had some idea where we were going, but we were allowed to set a diversion. Our first hiding place was by the aeroball, but little did we know Olly had decided to turn the arrows the opposite way when nobody was looking, so then the other team had no idea where we were.
Lauren Lyddiatt
Jacob’s ladder was around 40 feet tall. There were only six bars and you could only stand on five of them. We climbed in threes with a belayer and a fisher - these people made sure you were safe all the time you were on the ladder. The teachers all had a good go and so did we. Some groups made it to the top using all different types of techniques. It was challenging but great fun.
Abi Heath
I went with Abi Robson and Lewis Rowe. The first plank of wood was the easiest; however, to get to the second wasn’t! Lewis, Abi and I had a theory which we thought would work, that Abi and I would try and get up first by locking fingers and pushing each other up and then we would pull up Lewis. It was quite difficult because there was a big gap between the two planks. Once we were up we suddenly realised that it was quite high. I was trying to help Abi up whilst Lewis was hanging upside down! Only one group made it to the top which was Ben Whaley, Richard Molyneux and Mr Brady! I’m proud to say that I’ve conquered my frightful fear of heights!
Jess Moore
I really enjoyed OsmingtonBay. On Sunday night Lewis and Ben, stayed up till around midnight playing bed volleyball across the two bunk beds. I was trying to get to sleep – you can imagine how much sleep I got! My favourite activity was ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ as I managed, with the help of Mr Brady and Ben, to climb right to the top. It was a very frightening activity as I constantly felt like I was going to fall off as the wooden beams swayed in the wind, but if I had the chance to go again I wouldn’t stop to think of my answer – YES!
Richard Molyneux
One of my favourite activities was archery. We walked up to the range for a demonstration with the bows and arrows. The instructor was brilliant. We didn’t do so well - we had three practice shots each and we were very unsuccessful. Then we went into a game called the pizza game. We had to shoot all the colours that make a pizza, flour which is white, water which is blue, tomatoes which are red and cheese is yellow.
Alex Wood
At the beginning we were shown how to put the arrow on the bow, then how to aim and shoot at the target. After, we had a go ourselves, and then played the Pizza Game. I was really bad at it and only got about one or two on the board, which weren’t near the middle! The instructor was the best and got all his shots on the bulls-eye.
Sam Tester
One afternoon we played a game called Sharky, Sharky, Sharky in the activity hall. You had to run across the hall, as a fish, without getting caught by the sharks. If you were caught you turned into funky seaweed and had to stand on the spot doing a wavy arm dance and chanting “Funky funky seaweed!” If you were funky seaweed you could catch people but you were not allowed to move from your spot.
Toby George
The third night was amazing. We met Andrew, the night watcher, earlier in the day. He let us go out of our dorms and into all of the other girls’ rooms, whilst the teachers were at their evening meeting. We all turned our music up to full blast and shared sweets between us. (It was sort of like a mini disco.) This has been the best school trip that I have ever been on! My favourite activity was the leap of faith (trapeze) because it was definitely the most challenging, and I love challenges.
Alison Parker