Boarders battle on the ramparts of Maiden Castle

The boarders headed to Maiden Castle, near Dorchester, this weekend and enjoyed battling on the ramparts and in the trenches armed with ammunition of sponge tennis balls. The hills were great for a spot of grass toboganning too and sketches and watercolours were produced in the pop-up art studio which our Head of Art, Mrs Warford, has set up nestling on the hillside.

Saturday was rather wet but we woke on Sunday to drier weather.  Storm Doris (or one of her more minor relations) was evident in the gusts of wind that swirled around Hazlegrove.  We wrapped up warmly, and I mean very warmly!  Lots of hats, scarves, layers.  I think Skye had three pairs of trousers on and despite worrying that people might mistake us for a bunch of Michelin men, we set off in the mini-buses for Maiden Castle, the biggest Iron Age fort in Britain.  It really is impressive and very atmospheric. 

The children set off for a quick whizz around the ramparts on arrival to get their bearings and then we devoured our lunch up in the relative shelter of the trench where we had set up camp.  After sandwiches etc most children joined in some games with Mr Robertson, Mr Keddy and Miss North.  Pretending to be attacking Celts, different groups threw themselves up and down the terrifying steep trenches and up the ramparts while being attacked by sponge balls.  We all agreed it would have been very tiring to attack the castle in a life or death war situation and didn't envy the Celts one bit!  We also played some stealth and chasing games and generally completely tired ourselves out going up and down and up and down...  

At the same time Mrs Walford and Miss Wun had set up a pop-up art studio.  The more art inclined got busy sketching.  Beautiful landscapes and water-colours we produced. 

Caspar tried to fly a kite, he didn't quite take off but the kite did become detached from its string and was chased to where it had got caught on some barbed wire.  In the absence of any snow this year (to date!) we decided to improvise and managed a gentle toboggan on the pig feed sacks. 

Chapel this weekend was kindly taking by Mr Beverley from King's who gave us an inspiring talk about the value of Jesus' life.

All is all it was a wonderful day.

Click here to see the photo album from the weekend on Flickr