6D residential day 1

Is it really June? It’s cold up here at How Stean Gorge and we got wet on the evening walk, but we are having a good time. This class is a lovely group to take away and they are very kind and supportive of each other. They are being brave and resilient. Your children are a noisy bunch though!

We had a stop-off at Coldstone’s Cut on the way to residential. We walked up to the summit and looked down on the quarry workings. We were reminded of the origins of limestone and additional compass points.

Once we arrived at How Stean, we ate lunch and then moved into our rather smart lodges- a definite upgrade from our usual tents!

We then split into three groups:

Group 1 Ali-Ahmed, Zach, George, Ivy, Millie, Avisha, Kiran. Saad. William and Mia

Group 2 Kieran, Shailen, Theo, Aliza, Umaiza, Charlotte, Tallulah, Seth and Seb

Group 3 Samiya, Sam, Zakariya, Annie, Zain, Seren, Lola. Mikael and Dawoud

Group1 did the Via-Ferrata course: following a metal line traversing the gorge, with double carabinas. William was like ‘Spiderman’ and Kiran is much stronger than she may appear! Not everyone completed the whole course but they pushed themselves and tried hard.

Lots more photos and videos of Group 1 are here.

Group 2 went caving. Everyone did three caves and about half the group did Cave 4 as a further challenge. The group caved very well: brave and supportive of one another. Charlotte led the way for the girls, whilst Theo had some initial quiet trepidation then smashed every challenge! Seth, Seb and Kieran also completed every part of the cave system. Everyone did really well!

Lots more photos and videos of Group 2 caving are here.

Group 3 went abseiling and gorge scrambling. Almost everyone did the abseil and everyone went in the water. They scaled a small waterfall and had great fun jumping in. Some of the group did get a bit cold…