View from Beeston Castle

Backblip

What have I let myself in for?!

Set off on a coach at 9.30am on a school residential with 44 Yr2 children ie 6-7yr olds. We are staying in Burwardsley in Cheshire. We arrived at the centre to drop off our bags, the coach then took us to Beeston castle. It is a steep climb up the hill normally but even steeper the route we took. First we looked for evidence of dragons in the caves at the bottom of the hill. Then we pretended to be soliders who had come to attack the castle. We had our armour on our backs (lunch boxes) and we had to scramble up through the woods. The final phase was a run up the very steep bridge at the entrance to the castle itself ... for the children that is, the adults declined to run!

The weather forecast had been bad but it was glorious sunshine as we climbed and when we sat down for our lunch. However, we could see the rain storm approaching thick and fast. Thankfully it bypassed us but we did get the strong wind that was pushing it, which the children thought was fun.

After exploring the castle we then walked the 3 miles back to the centre. I discovered that sort of walk soon becomes tiring at such a slow pace and with children hanging off your arms!

Tea at the centre was followed by time to play outside as the weather was nice. It turned into a bit of a mud bath for most though. Glad I'm not the parents washing the clothes! A song round the camp fire in the woods finished the outdoor session, a drink and bedtime story officially finished the day ... except it was another 2.5hrs before they all settled down .... gone midnight before staff could get to bed!