Year 7s start new ‘phase’ at Phasels Wood
On Tuesday 12 September, the Year 7s embarked upon a fun-filled adventure at Phasels Wood. Everybody had a blast, made new friends and grew closer together as a year group.
Tuesday dawned quickly and we woke up ready for the challenges lying in wait. The journey to school was miserable as the weather outside was drizzly and cold but that did not seem to stem the flow of bubbly excitement. A slow stream of children flooded into the dining hall and sat in anticipation as the rest of the school started their day. The Year 7s were directed to the LRC to be registered and after splitting into groups we were taken to the coaches. The coach journey seemed to last an eternity but when we finally arrived we waited for our group leaders to find us, split into groups and walked to the lunch benches; emotions like excitement, nervousness, happiness, fear and belonging boiling inside of us.
Once the logistics of activities and how to find them were out of the way we could begin the exhilarating day ahead. The first activity for our group was The Rock; a rock climbing wall that rotated like a treadmill so that you were climbing but moving towards the ground at the same time. As a result, you had to climb to avoid falling off which felt quite unusual. Eventually this activity came to an end and we headed to the teamwork building exercise. The first task that we were to complete here was an obstacle course that could only be completed by guiding a ball under a bench over the following one and into a bucket without dropping it. The catch was the fact that the only legal way of guiding the ball however was by allowing it to roll through a portable piece of pipe. The pipe could only be adjoined to the end so the ball could roll through it and onto the next pipe. The hardest bit was steering the pipe chain in the desired direction.
After that there was a completely different task one that tested how well we could communicate with each other. One volunteer looked at a picture and the remainder of the group had to build that picture out of blocks. This may sound relatively simple but the volunteer could not touch or point to the position of the blocks, they could only use their voice to describe where to place each one.
Lunch followed shortly after and we had all worked up quite an appetite after the morning’s fun activities and this gave us an opportunity to recharge and prepare for the afternoon.
The following activity the Cresta Run, was phenomenal, oh the fun we had on the Cresta Run. We pushed carts up the hill, jumped inside them and raced back down to the bottom where we would hit some tyres and bounce back slowing to a halt at the start. The bumps of the ride jolted us about in our carts leaving us a little shaken at the end but the thrill of winning was worth the jarring impact of the tyres.
The fourth and final activity was definitely the most feared; a tower dotted with handholds and footholds towered high into the sky to the point that we could no longer see the top through the opaque layer of clouds (it wasn’t actually that tall, it just appeared more daunting due to fear of heights). We slipped a harness on from our feet to our shoulders tying a knot which attached to a series of ropes that would cushion our fall from any height. The tower and fears alike were conquered by many that day.
At the end of the day we met at the benches to return to Yavneh. The atmosphere was filled with sadness as a day of immense fun had come to a close but at the same time we were extremely grateful to have had the chance to enjoy the experience. Thank you to all the staff and parent helpers involved as without you this trip would have not been possible.
By Charlie Levy 7O
