7.15am Top of the morning to you all. Wednesday, Day 3...the mid-point of the trip and a time to assess the week so far and look ahead to part two of the installment. So this morning finds me in reflective mood but first the big news of the day...
...the sun has officially left the building overnight and it has been pelting down while we slept. On the positive side, the biblical deluge has subsided and it is doing its absolute best to be slightly cheerful for our full day outdoors. The Isle of Wight cows must look really strange this morning...I expect they're either kneeling or perched in some sort of half reclining/half leaning against a lampost sort of style. I'm desperately hoping they get themselves on their feet very soon...or I will have to send Dr Doolittle out for one of her meterological chats with them :-)
Now, back to my reflections. Only two weeks ago, Charlotte was still shuffling around school on her crutches after her recent knee operation so it has been absolutely fantastic to see her charging along the sandy beach, scurrying up the rock climbing wall and whizzing along Queen Victoria's zip wire yesterday with a beaming smile. I'm thrilled for her as it must have been really frustrating to watch everyone enjoying sport in school this year and not being able to join in. It never ceases to make me smile to see the bonds of friendship strengthened on a Year 6 residential and this is certainly happening this week, epitomised by Katie and Tiffany who have clearly had velcro sewn in to their leavers fleeces before departure. They have been intertwined since we left school and have laughed their way along everywhere we have gone. Marvellous. The boys have been incredibly supportive of each other and as I sit waiting for them all to be woken up, I am wondering whether Joe has 'been just sitting there since 5 o'clock' as he informed me yesterday morning. I loved his recount, particularly the part where, looking slightly quizzical, he said "I did try talking to Charlie but he didn't say very much then fell asleep again" That's the sort of thing you do at 5am I suppose :-)
Mrs Holt and Mrs Capindale have now appeared downstairs with reports that waking the children up this morning has been a challenge. Apparently only Room 6 were easy...oh and Joe was awake in Room 11 whilst Charlie and Kieran slept on. I expect the latter needs to get his brain re-charged for todays fascinating insight into the world of science, nature and albino squirrels. Ooh, here come Harry and Gus...and EnderMan shuffling into the room. Congratulations to the boys for being first in the land of the walking today. Harry is strangely quiet (I expect he is also reflecting...or is very tired) and Mrs Holt is sitting by the window shouting "Go on Sun, you can do it...oh, there's a lady with wellies, a mac and a brolly...that doesn't look good." Ok, that's the early morning news. More to come later - I have the feeling this is going to be a very interesting day when absolutely anything could happen. Keep checking back for the latest updates; it's time for me to start the second wave of the great wake up operation...
7.55am Quick Stop Press...a boy has been heard...and seen using the chest of drawers to store clothes! This previously unheard of behaviour was witnessed first hand by yours truly. If I was wearing a hat I would have now taken it off to Harley for this marvellous achievement. I will be requesting a commemorative blue plaque to be installed on the door of Room 4 to mark this auspicious event.
Stop Press 2...Mrs Holt informs me tht Joe is very proud of himself for 'having a lie in today until 7.00am' I expect no-one is more relieved than Charlie. Joe has now arrived downstairs wearing a beaming smile...he is officially delighted with his lie in :-)
Stop Press 3...it is now 8.05am and some girls have eventually joined the large group of -I-Pod wearing boys downstairs. Congratulations to Amy, Isabelle and Alannah for leading the girls' 'charge'...if that's what you can call 3 zombie-like characters in pyjamas muttering "I'm tired" as they slump on the floor. Natasha has now arrived and you have to wonder if she knows what day it actually is. This has clearly been spotted by an eagle-eyed Mrs O'Connor who has just said "Morning Natasha, you look very lively today!" Happily Natasha is awake enough to have enjoyed that comment and have a good chuckle to herself. Ooh, Brogan is now here with a sleepy morning look to rival Natasha's but the boys are bouncing...or meditating with their I-Pod music - sitting on top of a bar stool, Louis resembles a F1 driver tuning in for a Grand Prix. They may be losing the tidy room competition to the girls but getting up is definitely the boys' domain. Boys 1 Girls 0 in the mornings I believe.
Stop Press 4...Don (the hotel owner) has just told the children that their rooms are 'the tidiest he has seen this year'. This is high praise indeed and may serve to strengthen my bid for the commemorative blue plaque on the door of Room 4. And...it's stopped drizzling outside...what a trip this is!
9.15am Breakfast over and we are almost set for departure for the day...although Isabelle has just said "we're nowhere near ready in Room 8" whilst laughing to herself and plugging in her I-Pod. This is what happens when you are in charge of the cosmetics section of a John Lewis outlet. I'm glad to see the pressure is not spoiling her enjoyment and she has her priorities right. Sitting opposite me at the moment resembles a grocers shop as I have Jason, Harley, Conor and Gus in alternate green and orange hoodies. All very colourful...clearly the boys are intent on brightening up the rather dull day with their chosen attire. The Inland Revenue are also here. Mrs Holt was discussing the price of the new luxury apartments that have been built across the road. Starting prices £250,000 for a one bed flat. "Don't forget the VAT" interjected Louis. Until now, I didn't realise that the Inland Revenue ever took a holiday break. I'm glad to see that maths thrives on the Year 6 trip :-) The colourful grocers shop has been added to with a little bit of tropical blue and yellow - it's Katie and Tiffany...stuck together again. Lovely...and yes, they are still grinning from ear to ear.
Mrs Holt has just begun the pre-shopping pep talk so it will be interesting to see if the boys deviate from sugar and weapons today. I will be on hand to record events as they unfold. Until later, have a wonderful day everyone.
5.45pm Good evening everyone, I'm back with a quick pre-dinner update which starts with truly sunsational news! Not only has it remained dry all day but the sun has been out for most of the afternoon. At times it has been glorious and this has helped the children enjoy another fabulous day. Considering the shocking forecast, this is quite amazing...and it means that my 100% 'no rain on the Isle of Wight' record remains intact. Job done. If it holds out until Friday, I may get invited back again next year :-) Ok, time now to rewind back to this morning...
After leaving the hotel we made the fairly short drive to Sandown to visit Dinosaur Isle. We were the first school group in the centre so pretty much had it to ourselves. This allowed the staff to be creatively mischevious and the children to be very responsive (as usual). On the way in, Mrs O'Connor was determined to impress Mrs Holt with her knowledge of dinosaurs and fossils. Getting hold of an answer sheet to the children's worksheet, she furiously began to read. Approaching a display case surrounded by children she then said "Look Mrs Holt, there's an ammonite." "I know, it says so on that large sign" Mrs Holt replied effortlessly. 1-0 to the Year 6 teacher. Undeterred she move onwards to where another group were examining a range of fossils, bones and other interesting objects. Picking up an ammonite, Isabelle asked me "Mr Tindall, what's an ammonite?" "Ah well, you need to ask Mrs O'Connor, she's an expert on ammonites" I replied with a smile. The question was asked. " They come from the sea and they're fossils" Mrs O'Connor replied (fairly convincingly I thought). Caitlin then picked up a large bone structure with holes resembling eye sockets. "What do you think that is?" the man asked. "A skull?" Caitlin replied. Good answer really..it looked potentially like a head shape and Natasha was in agreement. "It's a deer's bottom" the man informed them with a grin. "Ok then" was all Natasha could manage. Caitlin said nothing...then put the bone back on the table. Shortly afterwards, Conor arrived and picked up the same bone. Conor has such a fabulous dry sense of humour and I love it; he's hilarious at times. The man informed him what he was holding. Conor simply weighed it up carefully, shrugged his shoulders and turned saying "I'm holding a deer's bottom...that's not something I've ever done before." Superb. I would be very surprised if you could not hear Mrs O'Connor laughing in Addlestone :-)
Moving onwards, Mrs Holt was armed with her flip camera and on the hunt for unsuspecting 'victims'. She approached Katie and asked "Katie, have you found the very playful dinosaur yet? It's called Toysaurus" "Err, no, not yet" Katie replied. "Jason, have you found them yet? They hunt in packs like children. They're called Toysaurus" she continued. Looking carefully at his sheet for the information he would need, he finally gave up, took a deep breath and said "No, not yet." Ok, sorry for the upcoming delay but it is now dinner time. It's fish and chips tonight and, after last year's quadrilateral fish, I am intrigued to find out if Isle of Wight fish have now evolved to have streamlined bodies and a tail. I will let you all know soon. Bye for now!
7.00pm Wow, what a day of lovely surprises it has been! Following the unexpected sun this afternoon, Darwin's theory of evolution on a plate has just been enjoyed. Isle of Wight fish is now streamlined like proper northern fish. Tasty it was too, as were the chips that went with it. The children's plates were clear so I guess they enjoyed it also. Right, back to the action at Dinosaur Isle...
After the Toysaurus prank we got ready to head out to the beach to carry out a fossil hunt. Megan informed me that I had missed today's Smithsonian Institute lecture which apparently was an in-depth analysis of the major dinosaurs of the cretaceous period. It sounded fascinating so it's a shame I wasn't there. The weather outside was overcast and a little blustery as we embarked on the beachcombing. As with the sunny conditons last year, wind obviously doesn't suit my style of hunting as I found a grand total of zero fossils. Queen of the foraging was Alannah who found the best fossil of them all. Louis should also be mentioned in dispatches here due to his excellent work. Back in the shelter of the shop the girls were getting all cuddly with the fluffy dinosaur toys and shopping sensibly whilst the boys were gathered in the corner. One of them had unearthed these strange tube things that made a weird dinosaur sound when shaken vigorously. The cacophony of noise and the strange face pulling involved made them all look rather like velociraptor,iguanadon and of course the toysaurus :-) Dragging themselves away from their dinosaur impersonations, the boys swiftly hooked on to a new buying craze. 'Mood rings' were the new fashion item in vogue. Several were purchased and one was handed to Mrs Holt to try on. Looking at the colours, a diagnosis of Mrs Holt's mood was swiftly established. "You're anxious and fearful Mrs Holt" they said. That's what SAT's can do to a Year 6 teacher...I know, I did it for years myself.
The clock is now ticking and I need to end here for a while. We are heading off to 'enjoy' a show at the theatre. I will of course put my work first and sacrifice the show so I can sit in the vestibule and continue the blog in Word so I can copy it to this site as soon as we return to the hotel later on. Wifi does not exist at Shanklin Theatre...at least it never has done in the past but after our day of nice surprises, I may just be in luck and find that they now have it. Will keep you posted. Until later...
10.40pm A very late good evening to you all again. Sorry for the late post, just in from the theatre where I have typed all the action into Word. I will now attempt to copy and paste...
8.30pm Good evening again everyone. I’m now huddled in the vestibule of Shanklin Theatre typing on Word. It appears that Wifi actually now exists in the building but it is password locked. I’m not giving up hope of weedling my way in. Unfortunately the children are sat upstairs in the theatre which robs me of the opportunity to find out how ‘The Hacker’ acquired his nickname. One of the theatre attendants has just informed me that the Wifi is rubbish and I would be better off going in the pub across the road…this is where my professional duty is being tested but I am remaining steadfast so I will press on with events from earlier today…
As we came out of the Dinosaur Isle shop around 12noon, the sun had put in its first appearance of the day. The signs were promising and the patches of blue sky were beginning to force their way into the vast swathes of grey. We got on the coach and headed for lunch at Robin Hill Park. The drive took no more than 20 minutes and by the time we arrived, the sun and blue sky was in evidence wherever you looked. This was particularly beneficial as the very moment we pulled into the car park, we were able to enjoy the privileged sight of a large number of World War 2 aircraft on a fly past en route to Normandy for the D-Day landings commemoration. The planes included the epic sight of the iconic Spitfire banking sharply to the left as it headed out towards the Channel. Fantastic. With the sun now splitting the rocks, we decided to have lunch on the grass and then we ventured into the park. First stop was the 4-D motion simulator experience ‘Toy Store’ which apparently was ‘awesome’ ‘great fun’ and ‘amazing’. I say ‘apparently’ as I was at the very back of the line and they ran out of 4-D glasses just when it got to my turn! Undeterred, I headed back outside to join Mrs Capindale, Mrs O’Connor and a few children “Don’t worry, I’m going to set up my own 4-D simulator in the immersive suite” I told them. I will be on You Tube later looking for suitable material (staying well within copyright laws of course!)
After the 4-D ride Joshua transformed into Gollum as he had lost his mood ring. Frantically scrambling around in the gravel he searched and searched at great speed, scurrying from here to there. Only the raspy sound of ‘My Precioussss’ was missing. Catching the others up we then made our way into the maze. This was also very popular with lots of screaming, shouting and encouraging words to direct friends safely out of the rows of high wooden walls. Alicia spent a lot of time running down dead ends and when eventually safely extricated she said “I kept getting lost in there.” Job done if you are a maze maker I would dare to suggest. Next stop was the falconry display, compered by an amusing and highly knowledgeable chappie from Bonnie Scotland. Mrs Capindale was not at all keen so took ‘safety’ at a picnic bench well to the side of the main action area. Accompanied by Megan, she popped on her shades and settled down. The wee Scottish chap got within chatting range and she said “Do the birds fly over here?” “Well madam it is a falconry display” he replied before adding “Why, are you scared of birds then? What are you doing here? Don’t worry…they don’t fly this way.” Even from 70 yards away you could see the tension disappear from her face. First bird on display was an American Buzzard named Sahara. She flew off and vanished at the top of a large tree. The Scottish chappie called her home and it came swooping out of the tree like an exocet…in the wrong direction and flew so low it nearly took Mrs Capindale’s shades clean off her face. Apparently it had never flown that way before…and Mrs Capindale spent the next 30 minutes huddled under the picnic table with only her shades peeking out above the bench. I think this one single incident has made Mrs O’Connor’s year. Swoop, the Saker Falcon was next in the skies and behaved much better. Flying at speeds of up to 170 mph, he put onan amazing display which ended with it catching a piece of quail on a lure. Mrs Capindale came out from under her table during a short interval but then Patrick the Peregrine Falcon was out next so she swiftly disappeared again. Looking over to the side about 5 minutes later we spotted Mrs Capindale dressed all in black lying flat on the floor like an SAS Commando. Priceless. Mrs O’Connor snapped away with the magic camera to capture the moment and I’m amazed at how good the photo was considering she was almost apoplectic with the entertainment of it all.
Once the birds were safely back in their big white tent, we walked down the hill and through the enchanted wood to the slides. The children treated themselves to ice-cream then had a fabulous time on the giant speed slide. For a good hour they flew up the stairs and down the silver slides to their hearts content. Champion slider, achieving the greatest sliding distance, was Charlotte which is superb to report following my reflections this morning. It’s great to see her back with all the others enjoying her games. Last stop in the park was a ‘Holy Family only’ ride on the Colossus ship which was great fun. Queen of the Screams on this ride was definitely Brogan who screamed on the way up, on the way down and everywhere else in between. Trooping happily out of the park at closing time with the sun beating down on our backs, I was able to reflect that it had turned out to be a brilliant day. Thank you to everyone back at home who has prayed for good weather for us…it has really worked so far.
It’s now 9.15pm and the show is in full flow on the other side of the doors. It appears to consist of lots of loud thumping music, loads of screaming and squealing and plenty of strobe lighting. I expect the staff are loving it. The interval is rapidly approaching so I can soon find out. Outside it is now pouring with rain but this obviously does not count against my 100% record as it is evening…and we are inside. It can rain all it likes tonight as long as the sun is bright and cheerful all day tomorrow…oh, and it could do with stopping around 10pm so we can walk back and not get soaked. Interval time now, the doors have been flung open and I’ve been knocked off my chair by the wall of heat. As crazy as it may seem, I’m going to end here for now and brave the second half of the show…if nothing else it could give me some decent material to write about later. Bye for now
Amazing...it pasted without any hassle! The second half of the show was hugely entertaining for two main reasons. Firstly the sensational stylish dancing in the aisles from The Lord of the Dance and his sidekicks. The Lord of the Dance is better known in school as Louis and he was top class. Supported by Jason and Harley he boogied his way through the whole show - marvellous the things you discover on a Year 6 residential. The other big entertainment for me was one of the backing troop dancers on stage who I'm convinced they found passing by the theatre at 8.25pm. She was at least a second and a half behind everyone else and often going in the wrong direction. I loved her...she was definitely the hit on stage. All in all the show was excellent entertainment for the children and they loved it; they are in for a huge treat tomorrow morning when they return for the theatre workshop. Stop Press...Amy was clearly so blown away by the show that her tooth has literally just fallen out. Mrs Holt has wrapped it so the tooth fairy can do her magic fairy business. During the interval there was quite a heavy downpour outside but in time honoured fashion, by 10.15pm the clouds had parted, the skies had cleared and we were able to walk home without getting wet. The 100% record remains intact :-)
The children are just having their nightcap and settling down after their fantastic day. There is quite a lively buzz in the room...lights out could be an interesting time. Hopefully Mrs Holt will soon launch into one of her inspirational pre-sleep talks. Ooh, right on cue, here it is, the talk has started! I will post again later before retiring (not literally so don't get too excited!) to let you know how successful the talk has been...
Stop Press...the talk is really inspirational stuff. "There will be no time in the morning for rooty-tootying around..." 'Rooty-tootying' is clearly an Oldham-based term for 'not being particularly quick at getting prepared for the day out'. 'Rooty-tootying' is obviously a far better way of putting it. Joe has just asked what time they can come down stairs in the morning. Charlie looks concerned...clearly Joe is planning another dawn-time sitting session :-) Ok, they've gone upstairs so I will leave here to go on settling down duty. Back soon...
11.55pm All quiet in St Brelade's, the fine weather and action packed scheduled has exhausted them all. The staff are sitting relaxing and reviewing the day - all agree it has turned out far better than we could have dreamed of at this time last night. Whilst speaking of the staff I would like to take this opportunity to praise them for their sensational work this week. They really are very special and care so much for the children. They work tirelessly every minute of the day and, just as I'm very proud to lead your children, I am also very proud to call them my colleagues. They are providing the children with memories that will last them a lifetime. The forecast for tomorrow remains bright which will be perfect for the water sports in the afternoon. As with every other day, I have absolutely no idea where the blog will go tomorrow so hold onto your hats for another rollercoaster ride. Love to all of you in Addlestone from everyone in the Isle of Wight. I'll be back in the morning...
