Wednesday Campfire Night

Last Wednesday for the second last boarders' activity before half-term, the children travelled up to the school's Forest School. Situated in front of the outdoor classroom halfway up the path, all the junior boarders (from Year 3 to Year 6) sat on logs around an campfire ready for a night of music, hot chocolate, and marshmallows.

Myself, Mrs Palmer, Mrs Toomey, and Miss Martin prepared approximately 60 marshmallow-filled hot chocolates for the kids as well as 60 S'mores which had to be cooked over the fire. Whilst this preparation was going on, the boarders had a couple minutes of free play in the forest - tag and pirates seemed to be the most popular games.

Next, the talented Mr Opey and Mr Emsley bought their guitars and also a harmonica up to the fire circle for sing-a-long's with some classic musical numbers such as 'We will rock you' by Queen, 'Wonderwall' by Oasis, and even a couple of Disney's 'Frozen' songs! Whilst there was some beautiful singing heard amongst the crowd, it seemed that the lyrics of the songs were mostly yelled at the top of their lungs (mainly by the Year 6's) - but entertaining nonetheless. Luckily, all the kids were provided with the words to each song so everyone was able to join in.

It was such a lovely warm night in the beautiful setting of Forest School - all of the garlic plants have now bloomed with little white flowers and the forest floor is almost completely covered in them!
Overall it was an extremely enjoyable night which we will hopefully be able to do again in the next half-term :)

Profiteroles and Pot Noodles

Last Sunday fortunately decided to bless us with some unusual wonderful English weather - basically where one was able to go out and not freeze to death!
Equally as fortunately, all the boarding children took full advantage of this beautiful day by doing lots of outdoor sports (such as ball games), bike riding, and even a swim before lunch.
Sunday roast lunch is always delicious but when the pudding is profiteroles it became ten times more mouth-watering! It was definitely a treat for the kids who devoured it as quickly as they could.

The boarding activity this Sunday was pot noodles where the kids displayed their creative talents. This time the children made decoupage - which had bare photo frames and treasure boxes decorated with beautiful patterned paper, almost mosaic in look. However, some chose the other option of decorating an eclectic range of pottery, clocks, money boxes and plates by using paint, stencils or stamps. The results were very interesting and creative - many of which now reside all over the boarding house!

Medieval Night

A big hello to everyone after the Easter holidays - hopefully you all had a wonderful break away from work and school!

Our first Wednesday boarders' activity had the entire dining hall decorated in medieval pictures and flags, as well as pictures of knights and even some swords and shields - amazingly done by the talented kitchen staff.

 

Two long tables were made up in the middle of the room to make it look even more like a medieval banquet hall. Many flexi boarders joined in the activity - bringing the number to approximately 100 kids!

 

Ginger beer, elderflower juice, and Shandy lined the tables, as well as flatbread which the kids used as their plates for the night - I think the thing they enjoyed most was that they were allowed to eat with their hands. Cheese, grapes, corn on the cob, pies, and all kinds of barbequed meat adorned the table, a great feast for everybody!

 

Overall, it seemed like every child finished the meal saying they'll never eat anything else again because they were just too full - a very big thankyou to the kitchen staff for preparing such an amazing meal!

 

Will update again soon,

Miss Donato :)

 

Last week of Term one

I cannot believe that we have gotten to the last full week of Term One already - it seems like only the other day that we ended our holidays!
Last Sunday, the boarders' enjoyed a walk to Stourhead - an old English Manor - with Mr and Mrs Somerville. Once again it was an absolutely lovely day - we are all loving the sunny weather although it doesn't seem to last too long before typical English weather kicks in.
The walk included extremely beautiful scenery such as an old building that was used in the filming of 'Pride and Prejudice', and also a serene lake that made for amazing pictures during the trip.
It was almost like something out of a movie with the weather, the scenery, and the kids enjoying running through the trees and daffodils.
Overall, it was a relaxing two hours for both children and staff who enjoyed an ice-cream at the end!

 

Some amazing photography skills shown by Georgia Freeley, Ben Hadfield, and Paul Bostier!

                                     Teresa clearly thought this was the highlight of the day!

                                                     Perhaps a model in the making?

                      Absolutely picturesque scenery - I'm really beginning to truly love this country!

Wednesday's boarding house was the second disco of the term - this time it was 'Neon Night'!
We had a big influx of day pupils as the discos seem to be the most popular of the activities which added to the fun atmosphere of the night.
Everyone dressed up in at least one neon coloured thing, whilst others were completely covered with fluorescent clothing - it looked amazing!
St Bede's once again transformed into a disco with Mr Callow organising the lights, Mr Opie on sound, and DJ Wheatley controlled the tunes.
It was an extremely fun night, with everyone getting into the dancing and neon dress-up!
Hopefully the next disco will be just as big of a success :)

Paintballing

We had another amazing weekend last week with beautiful sunny weather - a perfect day for some paintball!

Four of the teachers from the school accompanied the boarding children on the trip. They immediately began to set up for the activity by mostly just covering themselves in war paint - especially some of the older girls, such as Christina (Year Eight) and Teresa (Year Seven).

They then proceeded to play four games of paintball where the aim of the games was simply to escape being hit as much as you could - luckily, the paintball guns were set to low impact! There was some excellent dodging and shooting skills shown, especially by Lucas (Year Eight) and Isabel (Year Seven).

The last paintball activity, however, was apparently the best as it was a pupils v teachers game. It got pretty competitive, with both sides fighting to win - especially the teachers who didn't want to deal with the abuse they would get from the kids if they lost!

Every child that went on the activity seemed to absolutely love it and even asked if they could go again next week. I'm sure we will organise another trip soon!

Signing off,
Miss Donato :)

Our sunny weekend!

Last Sunday the boarding children were able to finally experience some lovely sun on their faces! For me, it has definitely been way too long not being able to have any warm weather and it seemed that everybody was in a much happier mood - purely due to the weather being all of 18 degrees.

Mrs Hannah, Mr Garcia, and Mr Opie took the kids on a walk in the morning along the quarry that is just next to the school. Along the walk, they managed to collect many things such as fossils, frog spawn, and even a live frog - which the brave Georgia Freely had no problem holding. However, despite the hot weather, there was still lots of mud and puddles about which fortunately only added to the fun of the walk on such a nice day.

For a further treat, Mrs Mewburn and Mrs Green took the children for a shopping trip into Clark's Village in the afternoon. The majority of children came back with shopping bags, and even those who didn't buy anything still seemed to have a lovely day out. It was definitely a welcomed break from schoolwork and also a good change of scenery from the AllHallows' school-grounds.

Overall, both the kids and the teachers managed to make the most of the warmest day of the English year!

Will update again soon,

Miss Donato :)

Sunday Activities

This Sunday the boarders' were able to show their creative talents by painting and decorating mugs, plates, bowls, and t-shirts. They used special kinds of paint and stencils on the items, giving them quite a professional appearance!

Some of the artistic brilliance included slogans such as 'AllHallows 2014', 'Keep calm and be Spanish', and images such as dolphins, love-hearts, stars, handprints, and the Spanish flag.

It was great to see every single one of the kids really get into this activity and they seemed to have had a lot of fun decorating these items that they can keep now for a very long time.

Signing off,
Miss Donato :)