Condover Hall 2016

Sunday 14 February 2016

Nearly Final Post!

Well, we survived our fantastic week away at Condover Hall. 54 children and 6 staff safely returned to Chad Vale on Friday, full of stories of bravery, endeavour, excitement and midnight snacks! The children were a credit to the school and families and as I said to the parents who I saw on Friday, were very well behaved, organised, independent and brave. We hope that they have returned with more confidence, some new skills and interests, all of the clothes they came with and with memories that will last a lifetime! It was a pleasure to spend the week with such a lovely team of children and staff and I'd like to say a big thanks to everyone who came and made the week what it was!

Thank-you to Mr Bowen for 'taking the reins' of the organisation of this trip (and writing all of the risk assessments!), thanks also to Miss Geobey, Mr Singh, Miss Green, Miss Haslam and Mrs Saini who led their groups, joined in with the activities and effectively were working 24/7 this week. Your dedication embodies the 'Chad Vale Way' and you have helped to make a big difference to all of the children's lives this week!

Thanks also to all the staff at Condover Hall; the children loved their week away and a lot of that is down to you. We were also very impressed with the quality and quantity of the food and friendly serving staff. A massive improvement on past years and the best 'residential food' I have had in 20 years of doing trips like this. Well done Condover!

Thanks to the parents who trusted in us to keep the children safe this week and who sent messages of support via the blog, Twitter or email. We're glad you enjoyed the blog and seeing the photos and hope that you'll give your children the opportunity to come to Manor Adventure next year or further afield when they get to secondary school!

The final photo gallery has just been published on the website (Day 5) with lots of great pictures of the Aerial Trek. I'll also create a final post (above) with quick links to the previous galleries so you can access them all easily from here. This blog will then join our archive of School Blogs on our website so you can access them in years to come!

Have a great half term everyone- I think we've earned it! :-)

Mr. Sansom

Thursday 11 February 2016

How to see old galleries that have disappeared from homepage!

We've published about 1500 photos this week- to see the older galleries please go to the website, click the 'Gallery and News' tab at the top, click 'Photo Gallery', then click the link to 'Archive Gallery' then scroll down to the bottom of the page!

D..I..S..C...O!!! And Day 4 Update

We have had an awesome final day at Condover! Kids all slept really well last night, have organised themselves really well, co-operated with each other and cheered each other on in some challenging activities- please see the photos on the website! We are now in the disco, busting some moves and having a great time! We'll be sad to pack up our things tomorrow and head home, but everyone is looking forward to their own beds and seeing their families again! Thanks to everyone who sent messages/comments/tweets; we've tried to pass on as many as possible! We're glad you liked the letters; hopefully you managed to read them ok! See you tomorrow at about 3.00pm- you may collect them slightly early from the bottom of the drive if you like, but please make sure that you sign them out with one of the teachers!

***Update- please make sure your main mobile phone contact is on and available in case we are stuck in traffic tomorrow!***

Wednesday 10 February 2016

Day 3 Update

Another exciting and successful day at Condover! All kids are good and having a great time and eating LOADS! We've worked out we're each walking about 12km a day (according to my Apple Watch) so they are definitely burning those calories. Lots of exciting activities today- please see the pics on the website. Mrs Saini went home today and Miss Haslam arrived, with Miss Crombie being the taxi service for both. Thanks for all your hard work Mrs Saini and the great pics from your iPad!

We've written letters home as part of evening entertainments and I'm about to publish them on the website; not sure how easy they are going to be to read, but we'll also give the originals back to the children to bring home. More updates tomorrow; we're looking forward to the disco tomorrow evening!

Tuesday 9 February 2016

Day 2 Update 2!

All in bed, lights off at 9.30am and everyone now soundly asleep! We've had some technical issues with uploading photos today but there should be 300+ to view in 2 galleries on the website. Please be patient- we have 54 kids and can't always get photos of every single child every day- we only have one decent camera and a few iPads but we are doing our best. All kids are fine and having a great time!

Thanks for the messages you have sent- we have been passing them on as we've received them. This blog has 'moderated comments' so I have to approve all comments before you can see them. You only need to send once, we are getting them! Maia was also very pleased to get her envelope that arrived at Condover today!

We'll arrange for some letters home tomorrow, via the miracles of technology...watch this space, although one child pre-empted this herself this evening and asked us to post the following!

Day 2 Update

The first night was 'ok'...all in bed by 9.30pm, no tears although one of the girls rooms got themselves up and in the showers at 5.00am, thinking it was 7am! We politely asked them to go back to sleep for 2 more hours! Breakfast was a choice of cereals, fruit, scrambled egg, beans and toast and pain au chocolat, which all the children enjoyed. There will be some breakfast photos on the website!

The first activities of the day have gone very well, some groups abseiling, laser zoning, fencing, buggy building and completing one of the first high ropes challenge of The Trapeze. We were very proud of some of the Y6 girls who conquered their Bockleton and Manor Adventure fear of heights and completed the abseiling for the first time! Well done!

We also celebrated Natasha's birthday after dinner this evening with singing and a cake...unfortunately we'd left the camera back at the dorms, but will take some photos of the room party they are planning for lights out.

We have some very tired children this evening, so here's hoping for a better night sleep all around; more tomorrow!