Ardres 2015: Thank you

The group, just before we left on Friday morning

Now that we're all back safe and sound, I expect the children are regaling parents with tales of all the good things they got up to in the sunshine last week.  I certainly hope so.

The Ardres trip almost didn't happen this year.  I reserved the village and got things under way with the paperwork then asked the usual staff if they would like to join me.  For a variety of perfectly good reasons, none of those who have come before were able to make it, so I was in a bit of a fix and it looked like the trip would have to be cancelled.  As a late and somewhat desperate last resort, I sent out an email plea to all the College teachers and also asked some of the other staff if anyone would be prepared to give up their half term to save the trip.  Mr Batstone volunteered straight away and said he also thought that Mr Ritchie might like to come.  A little while later Mrs Salih came forward, followed by Ms Morgan when I needed even more staff because so many pupils wanted to go.  We owe the success of the trip and the huge enjoyment that was had by all last week to these good people and I am sure you would all join me in extending our appreciation that they were prepared to give up their time for the children.  In the event, they made a really good team and it turns out that they all enjoyed the trip as well, giving very positive feedback afterwards.

Thanks also, of course, to the supportive parents who have read and responded to my email deluge and particularly to the pupils who were so enthusiastic and positive towards all the activities and hardly gave us any trouble at all.  Two of the instructors separately told me that this was the best group that had stayed at the centre all season and they had very much enjoyed working with them. After handing the pupils back to me after the sessions, the general comments from the instructors were that the children were "lovely", "great", "brilliant" and so on, which is really good to hear.

Thanks also to Mr Taylor-West for being so keen that the trip should go ahead and to Mrs O'Neill-Roe and Mr Warner for helping deal with the paperwork and financial side of things.

I have already asked Acorn if we can have the same again next year, so I am hoping to be able to launch the 2016 trip in the middle of the Michaelmas term.

I will be posting a link to a gallery of a selection of photos as soon as I can get them sorted and uploaded (there are quite a few!).