Thursday 19 June 2014

A glorious final day here in France. Amazingly the weather has followed the same pattern as the previous two years. No rain, overcast at the beginning of the week and then glorious sunshine.

Last night's dinner was a starter of salami and then a main of chicken (some form of) and tagliatelle pasta finished off with chocolate mousse. For those who are a bit concerned where the bread had gone, it was there-in plentiful supply.
A good night's sleep was had and a slightly later wake up of 7.45 followed, before we experienced breakfast once more and behold! there were some croissants added to the table and very nice they were. Don't worry, everyone's favourite 'the bread' still topped the charts.

Morning activities of indoor iniatiatives (done outdoors?!) and circus skills followed. Mr Powell proved they he had spent far too much of his youth playing with a diabilo. Needless to say he didn't impart any of the knowledge to the children but just spent a nice trip down memory lane for an hour with his diabilo.

We then strolled off to Criel Sur Mer beach and what a wonderful sight it was (see twitter). Glorious sunshine, a reasonable pack lunch and 60 Y6's thrown in for good measure. Having been thoroughly stressed out by the ice cream shop last year I attacked it early and with more gusto this year. I put my action plan into practice and reaped the rewards.... (always learning). Mr Campbell finally had his moment of a coffee away from the children (amazingly it has been 4 days) although we were only on the other side of the glass! He was a bit impatient waiting for his ice cream, but I insisted the children went first! A few beach games then ensued before we made the pleasant walk back.

The excellent cider farm, just beside the centre, was then visited whilst the last of the activities were finished off-archery, fencing.One girl " I've always been more of a gymnast than an archer!!" Mrs Turner got stuck in on the fencing and Mr Powell had a david/goliath moment, when he was defeated by one of the smallest girls in Y6!

The children then had a good hour of free time on the field in glorious sunshine. Disco or watching England this evening before the journey home. I'm not going to lie, the pain of watching England is going to be an interesting experience with the 20 of them that want to watch it. I'm not sure if it is going to make it worse or better or who I will celebrate with when/if we score.

Must dash to dinner,  where the birthday girl is going to have a surprise cake. I showed her dad's comment from twitter and she was delighted. It's also the frogs legs and snails starter so is not worth missing.

We have had a very enjoyable week and some great quotes from the children to keep us amused.

Yesterday (Day 3) when I was talking about the 'centre' i.e. the place where we had stayed for the past 3 days, one boy put his hand up to ask where it was. This going abroad thing can be very disorienting.

Twitter updates tomorrow on the way back. We go to a market very close to the chateau in EU and then start our journey back. Hoping that the world's biggest car park will not be playing it's usual Friday afternoon tricks.

Please wait for the children inside the school gates and we will give out passports and any cheese that has been bought there. They will wheel the suitcases back in from the coach on the road-the coach can't get in the drive as it is too big.

Au revoir.

Wednesday 18 June 2014

Good afternoon,

We've had a very enjoyable day. Hopefully you have been following a few updates on twitter-I got a little excited earlier, as we were in a French restaurant having some crepes and the wifi connection was actually working, a stark contrast to the centre!

Dinner last night was bread, mixed salad (or bread for the children as they continued munching), ravioli, bread, cheese, bread, ice cream and then if anyone still wasn't full up there was an option of bread.
Dinner has finally become the civilised affair it was meant to be from the start. The children sit at tables and the food is brought to them and they serve each other. Scenes reminiscent from Oliver in the orphanage still occur when the bread reappears on the table. We managed to successfully negotiate 60 children through the showers in just over 30 minutes.

After dinner the evening activity was mini olympics. It lived up to my initial billing of not very olympic and not very mini with 60 excited Y6's involved. There were some winners, which were just about established through the mist. There was then some free time on the field, where I am pleased to announce that the extra paperwork in piriton has not really come in useful- the grass seems to have calmed down this year. We left the field at 10.10 with a lights out time of 10.30pm. Ridiculously optimistic, some boys were still wondering if they had to brush their teeth at 10.50pm or indeed why they had to remove their jeans in order to sleep.

Breakfast followed its usual routine and I managed to restrain my frustration! I have to give an update on Mr Powell's 'captains' regime for room points. He has now morphed into Richard O Brian from the crystal maze " Captains, I trust you enjoyed your sleep, your next task is......" I am hanging around each time just to catch a glimpse of this wonderful routine. The girls are now really trying to entice Miss Stout, with some even desperately asking at shopping yesterday if they could buy some ribbon. Why? To decorate their rooms!!

I didn't report yesterday on the amount of French that is being spoken. Lots of children are diving in there in and around the shops to great effect and should be very proud of themselves. Although one child has been taking it a bit far. "Do you know Mr Holmes, I am the only person who is saying merci to the bus driver, everyone else is speaking in English."
"That's great, but unfortunately he is from Birmingham".
 We have just been to the potential banana skin that is the cheese farm, however I think we just about kept our heads above the water- the lady who owns the farm speaks entirely in French and the children have to translate. We ordered a fair few heart shaped cheeses to bring back.

The blue hoodies have proved very useful on the excursions, as we have been able to easily spot those trying to escape our mits! Thanks to the parents who organised them. However, they may come back in various states-hot chocolate, breadcrumbs and I don't think some have taken them off yet.

We went to Dieppe this morning for a short tour and a crepe in a restaurant. Mr Campbell finally managed to have a coffee outside of the centre, but alas the rest of his staff were surrounding him, so he didn't quite have the peace and quiet he craved.
The tour in one group was unfortunately interrupted this mornng, by a man walking over with a mischevious smile on his face whilst one of the kingswood staff were talking and offering " Don't believe a word he is saying it's all .............." in a wonderful cockney accident. You can never escape the English..........

Children are just at team tech (making things out of giant mechanical pieces-a bit better than lego) and French games before we go for dinner. Then this evening we have archery and fencing with children swopping tomorrow to have a go at the other activity. Aiming for a bit more tiredness tonight, so that when that light goes out, the children go out!
Weather today was a bit cloudy with the sun breaking through-hoping for a bit better when we are around the centre tomorrow. 




Tuesday 17 June 2014

A quick send there to see if the miraculous connection would work. I'm trying to make hay whilst the connection is still there, so apologies for the lack of proof reading.

Tuesday am.....

Just to finish my thoughts on breakfast and I don't want to repeat myself from the past, but it really is a up there for the award of destroying a rainforest award and least efficient process of how to give 100 children milk. In a nutshell, the cereal is all in individual packets and to prise some more milk out of the kitchen is as painful as going through the new Twickenham high street lights (topical). Once I had ranted for the upteenth time to the other teachers about why they carried breakfast   out like this we set on our way to Rouen (just over an hour).

The Kingswood instructors give us a tour of Rouen in 4 groups. My guide was fantastic, Mr Campbell was very sceptical about his but I think it's fair to say he won Mr Campbell round, although they did lose 10 minutes of their shopping time for not being in the most perfect of lines! (Kingswood rules not Mr Campbell's). After a very interesting 2 hour tour, we sat down to have our packed lunch. Some local dogs came to visit and without sharing too much detail I think the French care a little too much for their pets after they've just been to the toilet, the personal touch and pampering of the behind regions was witnessed by all the teachers and one lucky child- who joined in our wide mouths and hysterical laughing, I'll let our sprint challenge winning girl tell you more on her return. Talking of the same child; herself and her siamese twin of a best friend are not in my good books. I was enjoying a very nice 40 winks on the way back from Rouen and they preceeded to play a clapping game for over 20 minutes which only existed of 3 lines over and over again. My rest was interrupted and revenge will be sort. The personal mobile devicies are coming in very useful on the coach as the dvd player is not working all the way through.

Shopping time needs to be mentioned as we renewed our yearly partnership between the sweet shop and Twickenham dentists. There was some surprise restraint from some of the children in it, although none was shown from lots of the girls in Claire's accessories. The shocking sun glasses have made a very early appearance this year- Eu market on Friday will be suffering for a depression for years. A few children have blown their weekly budgets today with some frivilous spending.
The children have just started their pre dinner activities of french games and team tech. I'm going to have a punt on bread being on the menu at dinner tonight.

The weather has been overcast and a bit breezy at times but no rain. Miss Stout was very concerned about the the possibility of sun burn this morning (16c is warm for up north) but amazingly we have all managed to escape through the thick cloud and wind!

Probably won't get back on later. The evening activity is mini olympics, which from past experience will be mini-chaos of the not so Olympic variety.
Good afternoon/evening,

Apologies for the delay, but getting onto the wifi is like winning the lottery. We have just returned from Rouen and had an excellent day.

As mentioned previously the journey down was incredibly smooth. I have increased my job roles with the poor driver yesterday having no postcodes for nausicaa or even the chateau. His bus is also pushing the boundaries on width and height of buses. So I have also been doing a fair bit of directing here and there to get him through tight spots-we nearly didn't get out of the eurotunnel in Ashford.

Mr Campbell has been settling in well, I did have to break the news to him on Monday morning that this trip to France did involve 60 Y6's as well. Mr Powell gave him some intense French lessons on the way down, "One Coffee please and nothing for them lot,". He has managed to utilise our one native French speaking child into ordering him various things (mainly coffee). Talking of Mr Powell, has taken the room points to a whole new level. We have given him a baton and he has well and truly shot off with it. With his whistle in hand, the poor boys who have volunteered as room captains are now at his beck and call. The third reich would be proud of his recruitment and application of procedures. Catchphrases are coming out left, right and centre and I'm not sure how this is going to end. It was very entertaining to follow him around on his dorm inspections this morning-"Well done boys very impressive, shame about the pack of tissues with the dust on" Miss Stout has taken a lot softer line with the girls and I haven't heard any whistles yet. Also the girls corridor was eerily quiet at 11.30 last night whilst I was filling in some forms for the centre. However the girls are realising that some nice touches are the way to winning her round on the room points.

Dinner last night was bread, sausages and lentils, bread, cheese, bread, raspberry tart and bread. After the not so trail of mystery, there was some free time on the field till 10.15pm. My tactic of completely ridding the boys of any ounce of energy was not entirely succesful........

All kept in their rooms until the official waking time of 7.15am. Breakfast was then enjoyed: bread, cereal, hot chocolate, bread, orange juice, bread, fruit and if you fancied some bread that was there as well.

Monday 16 June 2014

Good evening.

Just a quick post, as hopefully there will be a more detailed one later.

We had a fantastic journey down, easily made our crossing-much to the surprise of children and adults the journey only took 35 minutes!
Nausicaa was thoroughly enjoyed by all, even those of us who have now visited it three times.
The coach journey down to the Chateau was smooth enough for a few over 11's to enjoy a quick 20 winks.

Dinner was munched through by all and the children are currently enjoying trail of mystery.

Friday 6 June 2014

Welcome to the Year 6 France Trip 2014 Blog.
From Monday 16th June to Friday 20th June.
Welcome to the blog for the Y6 visit to France 2014.

Monday 16th June till Friday 21st June.