Warlingham Village pupils step into the unknown on outward bound trip

Year Five pupils from Warlingham Village school took a walk on the wild side recently when they attended an end-of-term outward bound course at the Grosvenor Hall centre in Kent.

Under the guidance of teacher Mark Tinsley and two other members of staff, the group of 28 pupils spent three days in the Kent countryside, taking on challenges such as rock climbing, building robots, studying wildlife and conditions in and around the local river, and team-building exercises involving stacking crates as high as possible and then climbing to the top.

“Although outward bound suggests just physical activities, the children dealt with all kinds of things on this trip,” said Mr Tinsley. “On the way to Grosvenor Hall, our first port of call was the Charles Dickens World exhibit in Chatham, where they got to learn about his life and the era he was working in.

"Once we got to our destination, they were thrown straight into the thick of things, taking on a whole host of new challenges, many of which were unfamiliar to them, so it was a real education in every sense of the word. The value of these kind of experiences is how new the projects are to almost everyone – it means no-one’s at an advantage, and everyone starts on an even footing.”

For those with any energy left, there was an orienteering word search challenge, before a thoroughly deserved pool party. “The feedback I’ve had from the children has been fantastic – clearly they had a wonderful time,” said Mr Tinsley. “They’ve said how this gave them the chance to have a go at activities they’d never tried before – and discover that they can do them. That’s exactly what we were hoping to get out of it.”