P7 of St Joseph’s Primary in Helensburgh arrived safely at Loch Lomond Outdoor Centre on Monday for their residential week of ‘outdoor learning’. After some refreshments, they were on course for a full day of activities. On offer for groups the first day was archery, hill walking and compass work. The children were enthralled by the hill-walking in particular as they were lead up the hills and passed by a waterfall, with one of the children describing the experience as ‘Epic’. One other child commented that he hadn’t understood the term ‘hill-walking’ until he was involved in it himself!
After a hearty meal, the evening was filled with indoor and outdoor quests which the children thoroughly enjoyed. Bedtime saw a host of tired bodies make their way to the bedrooms but everyone was up on time and happy, ready for the day ahead today!
Over the next 2 days the children went on a mini hill walk and lit a camp fire in a cave – each had a wonderful experience. Meantime others went ‘sqeezaling’, this means to ‘squeeze’ into caves. The children found this to be tremendous fun and one of the P7s advised that ‘if you go squeezaling, don’t panic…..you’ll fit!’ They were also involved with archery, one of the activities with many rules. One P7 child noted that ‘archery is great……strict but fun’.
With mountain-biking and abseiling also on the agenda, it looks like we may have difficulty getting the children home on Friday……………………….they would like to stay on for another week!!!!