(clicking on any of the photos below will take you to the photo slideshow)
On the 6th and 7th of Feb 2009, the whole of Year 9 went away for the first ever ‘RE-treat’ to the Dalesdown Centre near Horsham. The trip was an opportunity for some informal fun together and a chance to reflect on friendships.
We spent some time reflecting on the ancient wisdom of Solomon – observations written several thousand years ago – about how friendship works in the real world. Students were often surprised by how relevant and challenging these snapshots were.
We also did a few crazy activities - the Human vs Mutants widegame, a fake wedding and some exercise involving the sixth formers, chocolate and a now-legendary tune called ‘Apache’ by the Sugar Hill Gang.
Here is the wedding video (thanks to Francis for the hard work!).
Here is the text if you need it for any GCSE work...
A few thankyous are definitely in order: Mr Tilley took a team of mighty sixth formers to make the year 9’s as comfortable as possible with food expertly cooked up on time (we don’t think that anyone had problems...). Mrs Paine became the resident house nanny, comforting the occasional scared student (Jack Ravan and Laurence Thompson who were both missing their teddies at night). Mrs Freeman took on the role of Wedding Planner with Claudia Taylor Roberts and Britney Saville (this was partly induced by the desire to become an events planner for ‘A list’ Hollywood stars). Mr Hodgson weighed in as chief mutant during an amazingly muddy wide game in the fields opposite (it is astonishing just how well he took to this role: one wonders what equipped him for it). Cheers to Mr Marsden, Alan and Clive who who drove the buses, and a special thanks to Mrs House who came out twice to help when it mattered the most.
Click here for the amazing slideshow!