To round off our excellent stay at Avon Tyrell, we enjoyed a fun filled indoor campfire with marshmallows, songs and games. The children were greeted by special guests Mr and Mrs Robertson who enjoyed the conga and competitive rock, paper, scissors.

The evening concluded, in us sharing birthday cake courtesy of Mr and Mrs Dawson. It was thoroughly enjoyed so thank you.

The showered and tired children settled to bed well by 9:00pm so a good night sleep will hopefully be in store including the teachers ??

Tomorrow we will explore the grounds and facilities before coming back home. Children will be back by the end of school so normal pick up time is required.

All the children have been a credit to you and the school with on site staff complimenting their manners and enthusiasm.

We will see you tomorrow at 3pm at the usual pick up spot!

1. 
   Another busy day that started with a 6am wake up call from the children. Breakfast was wolfed down and enjoyed by all.

The morning started with a range of activities; raft building, shelter building, pioneering, archery and orienteering. The children took to them with enthusiasm, determination and resilience.

After this was lunch (pizza and chips) which again was thoroughly enjoyed by all.

We are currently taking part in our last two activities before dinner and campfire. Then hopefully bed at a reasonable time.

We will update once more this evening.

The week commencing 14^th October was an exciting one for Year 4. We knew we had our treehouse sculptures to complete so off we went into the forest on Tuesday afternoon to find the perfect stick to hold our rooms and all the compartments we needed.

Wednesday kicked off with 4AG anxiously wondering if our clay bases had set and 4WM attaching their clay bases with great caution. The rest of Wednesday was spent with both classes completing their attachments to hang, balance or fix to their treehouse.

Along came Thursday. Finally, the day where our treehouses would take shape. Lots of balancing and precarious precision to ensure our treehouses were perfect.

Friday was the time to show off to parents. Lots of happy children smiles and slightly worried parents faces filled the classes as they wondered how they would house such huge sculptures. With that being said, I had some superb comments from parents who were proud of the artistic ability, carefully assembling and overall creativity.

We’d like to congratulate the whole of Year 4 on the motivation, resilience and teamwork skills they used over the week to overcome any obstacle in their way and magpie ideas from willing peers.

This week Year 4 have been making electrical circuits. We have been learning that electricity needs a continuous loop for the circuit and that batteries must be the correct way around in the battery holder in order for the bulb to light up. It has been a testing time as we used our problem solving skills to work out why circuits were, at times, not working.

As you can see from the pictures, Year 4 children and staff have all had an exciting but challenging time at Fairthorne Manor. We have had highs and lows,  crawling under ‘electric wires’ in the cloggy clay at the Team Challenge and seeing who could build the tallest crate tower without it toppling and being left dangling in the air.

Many children faced their fears, climbing the vertical assault, reaching new levels on every turn and often asking to have another go and beat their last attempt. They also loved the Aerial Runway, a zip wire that took them over a tributary of the River Hamble.

In the evening, we were led on a night walk by our lead instructor Cam, we tested out night vision and learnt a little more about why pirates wore eye patches – please ask your child about this and I am sure they will demonstrate.

Over the two days, YMCA and Fordingbridge staff were incredibly impressed by the behaviour of all children on the trip and their enthusiasm to tackle all of the activities. This year’s trip to Fairthorne Manor was a brilliant success and we thank you for allowing your child to experience the opportunities that Fairthorne gives. Well done to all of Year 4, we had a fantastic time!

On Tuesday 26^th February Year three and four were lucky to have a visitor from the New Forest. She spoke about the effect plastic has on our environment and we were able to suggest things we can do to reduce our plastic use.