What a brilliant first day we have had at Hathersage! Our coach journey was smooth and we arrived safely at St Michael’s around half 10. We met Rachel, our leader for the day, and went through some ground rules whilst we are at the centre. Once this was done, we found out our dormitories and headed in for the first challenge of the day: making our own beds! The children demonstrated great teamwork with this task and successfully had a bed ready for the night. After lunch, we headed out to Brookfield Manor to complete some orienteering and fun in the river. We worked in teams to follow a map to find “controls” where we stamped our card. Some of us found this quite challenging but none of us gave up! In the river, we built small rafts with sticks and string and raced each other’s down the stream. We also raced rubber ducks as the river was quite fast flowing. When we got back, we had time for showers and down time where we explored the various games on offer in the centre. Notably, table tennis and giant jenga. Dinner was a delicious lasagne, jacket potato and garlic bread with apple crumble and custard for dessert. Finally, we headed out into the dark with our torches and up to St Michael’s church where we used bat detectors. It was exciting to hear the sounds of the bats even if we didn’t see any. We finished off the day with diary writing and one of our sweet treats. We are looking forward to a good night’s sleep before our walking day tomorrow. The children have been FANTASTIC all day and were complimented on their listening skills…well done Year 3 & 4!

It has been a great second day, here at Hathersage! The children slept well and were raring to go this morning. We enjoyed a hearty breakfast with bacon, hash browns, spaghetti hoops, toast and cereal on offer. Then, it was time to get ready for our big walk. We got the train from Hathersage to Grindleford which was the first time on a train for some people. Upon arrival, we started our walk. We visited Padley Chapel where two priests had hid from Henry VIII and then continued on. We were met with some difficult inclines and then it turned into even more of an adventure when it started to snow! The children were seriously impressive - continuing on through the elements and cheering each other on when they were cold or tired. We got back, showered and changed into warm, comfy clothes. The children had plenty of time to chill, including having diary time early before dinner. Dinner was yummy pizza and wedges with chocolate cake and custard for dessert. We have been enjoying chill time and are now looking forward to a movie night with our duvets and snacks! 

After a lovely, chilled movie night, the children settled and slept well. This morning, we packed up our rooms and enjoyed a continental breakfast. We left St Michael’s just after 10 and headed to Eyam. Our coach driver put on Disney songs that we enjoyed singing along to! We walked to Eyam church and listened to a member of the church talk about the plague in 1665 and how Eyam isolated itself to stop the plague spreading. After that, we strolled up through fields to the Boundary Stone which was used for trading during the plague. We headed back and ate our lunch on the coach before heading into Eyam museum. We explored the museum in small groups - completing a quiz and looking at the different artefacts. Finally, we enjoyed spending our money in the gift shop and finishing off our diaries. 
 

We have been SO impressed with the children over the last few days! For many of them, this is their first residential and time away from home and they have all shown such wonderful resilience, positivity and kindness to each other and the trip. What a wonderful experience for all!