Year 5 enjoyed a week of team-building, bushcraft and den-building at Naturesbase

The Year 5s visited Naturesbase, near Cardigan Bay in Wales in the 5th week of the term and came back exhausted, slightly muddy, but full of excitement after a fantastic week.

We departed soon after 8am on Monday. After a long journey, we arrived and met Gyles and his wife Alison who run the centre there along with Tamsin who helps them run activities. That afternoon the Year 5s split into teams of 6 or 7 and set out to explore the local village of Cilcennin. Each group had to complete a survey which taught them a lot about the local community. We returned to an excellent dinner of home reared and made bangers and mash, followed by brownies, before the groups were sent out again into the dark with torches. They had to locate up to 12 ink stamps hidden around the 8 acre site while at the same time avoiding Gyles' scary twin brother Miles who tried to catch them. There was lots of screaming, laughing and fleeing in panic from Miles, but also some excellent teamwork shown by the Year 5s.

Tuesday dawned and in some fine weather, all the Year 5s set off on foot to Aberaeron, a small and picturesque coastal town. We visited a secret garden and a market garden on the way before picnicking on the bank of the River Aeron. After a look around a historic National Trust property, we continued our hike, celebrating our arrival in town by eating one of their amazing honey sweetened ice creams. Then we tried in vain to catch some crabs, a task which was impossible as the tide was out, but we still enjoyed constructing some amazing crab theme parks on the beach before hopping on a coach and heading back to the centre. After supper and a fun team quiz, everyone went to their dorms for a well earned rest.

Wednesday was by far the wettest day of the week, but this did not stop us from getting out and participating in a wide range of bushcraft and team related tasks. We discussed how people in the Bronze Age would have lived and then, after forming tribes and daubing our faces appropriately we set about building dens. These were decorated with mud figures, and the real test came when everyone had to get into their den and Tamsin poured water over it to test how good our structures were! Most of us were pretty muddy and wet enough before this without having an extra drenching! We returned to the centre for lunch, but managed to squeeze in some free time playing on Gyles' very own hill fort where we created some mud-slides just to make sure everyone was thoroughly coated in at least 3 layers of brown! After lunch we surprised ourselves by learning to light a fire using flint and steel. Every group managed this in spite of the very wet kindling, thanks to some expert guidance from Gyles. We then boiled tins of dragon's vomit over the flames before roasting and eating sugar coated slugs! After another great meal, we finished the day off with a sing-along around a campfire. 

Thursday morning meant we had to get up and prepare to return to Hazlegrove. We still had time for the regular chores of chicken and sheep feeding, but then it was time to clear out our rooms, and say thank you and goodbye. Gyles and Tamsin were great activity leaders, and Alison and Anne-Marie did a fabulous job of cooking for all 46 of us and cleaning up too! A huge thank you to this special group of people for looking after us so well and also to the staff team of Mrs Spilsbury, Mr Birch, Mr Kenny and Miss Ackerman who were thoroughly involved throughout the week. Thanks to the Year 5s too for getting stuck into the activities with such enthusiasm. It has been a trip that will live long in the memory!

by Mr Jenkins.

Click here to see all the photographs in our Flickr album