IoW 2022 – Day 3

After a restful sleep and an early night, the children awoke, bright-eyed and bushy tailed. On her wake-up rounds first thing, Miss Grant noticed how Bereket, Ethan and Gabriel Buch’s cabin was not only spotlessly organised, but the boys were already ‘up and at ‘em’ dressed, washed and raring to go before wake-up at 6:45am! Note to parents: expect the same upon return to school 🙂 Sergeant Grant and Lieutenant Sawyer carried out today’s room inspections, all of which showed a marked improvement on yesterday’s rounds, including size-ordered towel arranging.

Then came breakfast, again with the generous option of a hearty full English, although teachers did note that lots of children opted for toast and cereal today. Comparisons were drawn, however, between adults’ choices of muesli, fresh fruit and organic yoghurt, compared to children’s attempts to create a cereal ‘multi-mix’ by combining coco-pops with cornflakes and Rice Krispies! Naomi went a step further by opting for baked beans, with a side of coco-pops; narrowly missing spilling one into the other on her walk to her table!

This morning’s whole group activity was ‘capture the flag,’ which involved employing army-style defense and attack tactics to ‘capture’ the other team’s flag. Following this, the individual group activities of the day could now commence.

Mrs Kingman’s group (Victoria, Filip, Theresa, Gwyneth, Teddy P, Beau, Maya D, Darcy, Gabriel b, Adham) enjoyed Abseiling first, which proved both challenging and rewarding for all involved. Mrs Kingman has recognised that Gwyneth has really thrown herself into all activities this week, and her skills in abseiling only made her group even more proud. Theresa and Filip seemed uneasy at first but were skipping down the wall once the petrifying lean had been overcome. Victoria explained that it was the scariest part and Maya D used the words, ‘terrifying!” Yet both girls did not let their fear stop them abseiling the wall. We were all very proud of Beau: he did not even feel he could make it up the ladder but with much support from his peers, he was able to give us all a wave from the top.

Theresa and Filip seemed uneasy at first but were skipping down the wall once the petrifying lean had been overcome. Victoria explained that it was the scariest part and Maya D used the words, ‘terrifying!” Yet both girls did not let their fear stop them abseiling the wall. We were all very proud of Beau: he did not even feel he could make it up the ladder but with much support from his peers, he was able to give us all a wave from the top.

Miss Kingman’s group also enjoyed a relaxing and restorative Beach walk at the end of the day with Miss Sawyer’s group (Blessing, Miriam, Josephine, Grace, Ethan, Teddy J, David, Bereket and Eleazar), where the children played football and made sandcastles.

 

Miss Bates group (Maya J, Nahriah, Samantha, Natalie, Jayda, Kaya, Chidu, Daniel O and Alex) anticipated the highly anticipated ‘Trapeze’ with trepidation. Nahriah, Daniel and Maya J were the first to take on the challenge, tasked with scaling a 30ft pole and leaping off the top! Despite her initial nerves, Samantha got her friends to count her in and the brave girl took the leap! Upon Chidu’s brave leap, he commented “that felt nice…can I go again?!” Nahriah was the first to complete the extra challenge of grabbing onto the ‘Trapeze’ as she leapt. Finally, having not grabbed the trapeze first-time round, Samantha, Kaya and Alex bravely stepped forward for their second attempt! Miss Bates was very proud of this groups’ overall tenacity and determination.

Their afternoon took a more relaxing turn as they participated in a beach walk with Miss Grant’s group.

Miss Sawyer’s group (Blessing, Miriam, Josephine, Grace, Ethan, Teddy J, David, Bereket and Eleazar) took on the highly anticipated ‘vertical challenge’ as their primary activity … as usual each and every one of them absolutely bossed it, the majority of them managing to reach the top twice! Even the instructors were blown away by their pure nerve and ability, whilst the enthusiasm for their teammates and even other schools was much appreciated. By far the most impressive was Grace, who was so tempted to throw in the towel as she reached the tricky tyre at the very top of the frame, but she was spurred on by pure determination…and the long-awaited promise of throwing water over Miss Sawyer if she made it! The team below pulled together to spur her on and she made it! Closely followed by Blessing, who was equally as nervous but impressed us all.

Of course, Miss Sawyer was true to her word, and Grace was allowed the first shot in the promised drenching, which quickly turned into a group-wide attack! Little did the children know that Miss Sawyer had the opportunity to get her own back in ‘Sensory trial,’ a gruelling military-style obstacle course in which we were not short of mud and water…blind-folded! It’s safe to say that never before has there been a more hilarious sight than Blessing making ‘Angels’ in the mud!

As for sensory trail over in Miss Grant’s group (Jayden, Hannah, Nana-Ama, Naomi, Joshua, Daniel DA, Buddy, Gabriel B, Arthur and Ayden), children were very hesitant at first but once they were halfway round and past the ‘point of no return’ in terms of dirtiness, they all loved it! Joshua – who was particularly hesitant – was army crawling through the mud by the end of it. They loved it so much that Ayden, Buddy, Gabriel, Joshua and Naomi were begging to return to the muddy puddle to splash around, and to be splashed with buckets of water.

Then, Miss Grant’s group joined Miss Bates’s group (Maya J, Nahriah, Samantha, Natalie, Jayda, Kaya, Chidu, Daniel O and Alex) in a beach walk where Mrs Jones, Joshua, Hannah, Maya J and Kaya won the sand castle competition for the most aesthetically-pleasing castle despite the fact they improvised with a face wipe as a flag! For this group’s final ‘Trapeze’ activity Miss Grant was feeling particularly nervous as her group are notorious for their fear of heights. Despite this, every member of her group managed to climb at least three rings up the ladder for trapeze. Jayden shot up the ladder so quick she beat Mrs Jones filling up her water bottle! Arthur tasked himself with completing three rungs of the ladder yet once he was up, he couldn’t be stopped and managed to climb halfway up the ladder. Special shout out for Naomi who was amazing on the trapeze but especially on the ropes – she was always the first one up to volunteer and help and has been incredibly polite and friendly to all instructors throughout the week, not just today.

As our third day at PGL draws to a close, anticipation hangs in the air for tonight’s ‘Disco.’ Miss Jones, Miss Bates and Miss Grant are readying their ‘nail bar’ as we speak, and children are deliberating over the ‘sickest’ outfit to make their disco-tech debut in.

It’s fair to say it’s been another successful day at the Isle of Wight indeed. A mix of emotions are tangible in the air as we approach our final full day tomorrow – anticipation for another jam-packed day and a degree of satisfied tiredness.