experience

North Camp 1 Blog 2019

7 July 2019

Sunday, 7th July, 2019

Once the parents had left and the children were checked in, everybody met outside. 

The children were drawn in, as if hypnotised, towards the luscious smell of a crackling BBQ. Burgers that would melt in your mouth were complemented by a beautiful green salad. Many of the children had been to the camp before and were hugging and catching up. Many were new and had never been to the camp before, but got involved in the games straight away and were introducing themselves. We always remind the children to look after each other, especially when they’re nervous. BE KIND, BE KIND, BE KIND.

THEN, the games began…

Stuck in the Mud was the most exhausting game. Everybody was sweating and running for water. I am expecting that all of us will be very fit by the end of the week, even the children that pretended to be tagged so that they could hide from running. This was very funny. We also played some new games like “Captain’s Coming” where children pretended to be pirates scrubbing the decks and had to had to get into groups of 2, 3, 4, or 6. British Bulldog was probably the most fun game. The children had to run between a wall of tutors and reach the other side of the field without getting caught. They were very good at this because many children are very very fast, ESPECIALLY Fred. 

After an evening of fun and games, we were rewarded with hot chocolate and marshmallows. YUM. 

Then, the children went to their bedrooms, got ready for bed and started relaxing together. Some of them were doing face masks, some were reading, and some were just laughing together. I really look forward to the rest of the week. 

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Monday, 8th July, 2019

After a night of getting to know each other the kids enjoyed their first breakfast at L&E! There was lots of choice, including good ol’ English crumpets (an English delicacy). 

To get warmed up, we played a big game of dodgeball while listening to fun music. Lots of dance moves were made. 

Then after, the kids could segregate into the Creative, Adventure, and Sport activities. For Creative the kids could make themselves a superhero and do yoga (as taught by the expert Hayley). For Adventure there was den-making! The kids really got into making their stick-dens as homely as possible. One of the dens had a shelf with plants and decorations. Some of the dens had doors… or even toilets! For sport there was ULTIMATE frisbee and rugby. The kids really got stuck into this and were very quick learners. 

Biscuit Time at morning break was very funny. Some of the children (not naming any names) were using very intelligent tactics to get more biscuits than they were allowed, including creating silly diversions. 

In the afternoon, Horse riding started – which was “AWESOME!”. Dexter was as reliant as ever so Valentina was very happy. Blue is a new horse and Carla feels she’ll be able to jump really well.

For the BIG event of the day there were EPIC Ice Breaker Games. A personal highlight was wearing a pair of tights on our heads that was filled with a ball. We then used the hanging ball to knock over cups. We all looked like hilarious anglerfishes (definitely worth a Google by the way). Sam performed an excellent demonstration. 

Afterwards, lots of pictures were taken with volunteers who were wrapped in toilet paper to look like funny mummies. Chubby Bunny was another highlight. This involved children squishing as many marshmallows into their mouth as possible, while saying “chubby bunny”. There was lots of laughing. The record holder of L&E Chubby Bunny squeezed a ridiculous 22 marshmallows in their mouth! However, the funniest faces were pulled in the Chocolate Challenge where volunteers would have to only use their face to move an After Eight Chocolate from their forehead into their mouth. 

The kids have now had their hot chocolate and are in bed, ready for tomorrow!

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Tuesday, 9th July, 2019

Day two kicked off with a scrumptious combination of eggy bread and baked beans which seemed to go down a treat. That was followed by an intense, yet friendly game of dodgeball which was perfectly accompanied by the soothing voice of Leona Lewis in the background. 

The morning activity of forest art gave the kids the opportunity to get some fresh air and be creative, while the scuba diving allowed the children to try something new. Due to the slightly damp conditions, football was played in the state of the art sports hall facility for our sportier campers. Nobby the chef pulled out all the stops with a lovely chicken curry to round off the morning activities. 

Hockey and camp fire building took place in the afternoon, alongside another thrilling scuba diving session. The kids then enjoyed a panini for the evening meal, before we all gathered round the camp fire for some hearty songs from around the world with some delicious toasted marshmallows. Finally, the day was rounded off with some hot chocolate which ended the evening on a high before bed time.

Click for Day 3 Photos

Wednesday, 10th July, 2019

The sun rose upon the grounds of Aysgarth for the first Wednesday of camp following an overnight rainfall that could only have been summoned by Thor premeditating his upcoming theme night appearance. A uniquely British serving of a platter of various meats and rolls provided the fuel for the high-octane day ahead.

Bucking the age-old L&E dodgeball tradition, we started the morning with a game of musical statues, with shapes being thrown by the campers that frankly defied description. The morning adventure activity was extreme capture the flag, a tactical game which engulfed the campers in physical and mental strategy. In our English lessons the campers were testing their skills of description and communication with various character themed games, before cooperating by following a traditional English recipe and baking a Victoria sponge cake which rumour has it would have earned a Paul Hollywood handshake. Wimbledon fever hit North Yorkshire, as our campers channelled their inner Heather Watson’s and Rafael Nadal’s in a riveting tennis session, whilst the creative stars showed their urban side by producing both indoor and outdoor chalk drawings that would rival Banksy’s finest work.

All the while, throughout both morning and afternoon we had a special off-site adventure activity of canoeing, with campers breathing in the full magnificence of the Yorkshire countryside from an unusual waterborne viewpoint.

After a classic burger and salad lunch, the afternoon got underway, and my word what an afternoon it was. Our creative option was a one stop trip to Karoakeville, with a relaxed and familiar sing song session that everybody got really involved in. The on-site adventurers went scavenger hunting, solving a combination of riddles and anagrams to find an avengers themed solution. The basketball participants had the honour of being mentored by a former North Wales champion, and the level of skill shown in the session resembled Dylan Hughes in full flight.

To conclude another action-packed day, campers further embezzled themselves into tomorrows theme night spirit by watching The Avengers. Movie night provided a calm end to the third day of what has been a brilliant start to our 2019 L&E adventure, and post hot chocolate the campers snuggled in bed looking forward to the exciting possibilities ahead tomorrow.

Click for Day 4 Photos

Thursday, 11th July, 2019

The day began with everyone excited to start the 5th day of camp! After an early night following movie night, we were raring to go for theme night! But before that, all the days exciting activities needed to take place! Morning began with a scrumptious breakfast of scrambled eggs to help fuel the first decision of the day – Bench ball, Water polo and the chance to make some gorgeous chocolate truffles! 

Bench ball was tremendous fun, being the goalie is boring though! You’re not allowed to move and have to stay on the bench! The kids just want to run around! The kids got to test out their baking skills as well, by making chocolate truffles! They ended up being really nice and fluffy, with exciting toppings like coconut and chocolate sprinkles. Water polo was great too, the kids pushed Jack and Connor in the pool, but it was such a success that we decided to do it again in the afternoon! 

The afternoon began with a yummy roast dinner. It gave the kids an opportunity to try some traditional British food. Honestly, it’s the best!! Badminton provided the kids the chance to test out their racket skills, with Emma, who used to compete competitively, providing her excellent expertise. Excitingly, with the sun shining, the opportunity for the first waterslide of camp! It was so so much fun and everyone got really really wet, and a little bit soapy too! Everyone needed a shower after…

As an alternative to Badminton, there was also the first L&E Strictly Come Dancing lesson! This involved Sophie teaching a Cha Cha Cha, Waltz and Samba to some keen dancers, who had loads of sass and style. Paul and Simon were the star pair, having a Cha Cha worthy of a 10/10! 

All throughout the day, Sam was taking people climbing! It’s a bit scary hanging off a rope that high, but it’s incredible fun.

After a dinner of chicken pasta, we got to participate in theme night, all the tutors were dressed as their favourite Avenger – Jack got painted all purple, he was Thanos, the bad guy of the evening. After competing challenges testing our strength, speed and mind, we proved we were better than the Avengers, and got to throw water balloons at Thanos (purple Jack). After this, a big water fight broke out, a silly end to another fantastic day at L&E!

Click for Day 5 Photos

Click for Horse Riding Photos

Friday, 12th July, 2019

Life is not about the amount of breathes you take, it’s the moments that take your breath away, this was the belief the L&E campers had throughout the day. With the end of the week lingering, the anticipation for the L&E Oscars evening was at fever pitch. The only thing holding back the excitement was the fear of missing out on capturing the grand prize of star camper.

Dodgeball in the morning was naturally not met with any boredom even if it was the fifth session of the week, dodgeball enthusiasm shows no sign of decreasing at this rate with these happy campers. An extreme and very safe adventure activity of tree climbing was only ventured by only the very elite campers.  Creating a better Oscars presented by names such as Chris Rock and Jimmy Kimmel is no easy fetch, thankfully our most creative campers were on hand to create an event with more ambiance than a candlelit dinner. France is known for wine, cheese and weird cricket rules; therefore, it was a shock to see the enjoyment and satisfaction from an interesting game of French cricket.

Another week, another chef, but dinner will never be the same without chef Nobby’s famous curry and charming wit. 

In the Afternoon, the campers evolved into Alastair and Johnny Brownlee, when everyone participated in a well scheduled triathlon, even though nobody has heard of the Yorkshire heroes. This tiering event was a perfect assist to the main event of the night, all the camp needed was a dashing host, stepped up Sam Ridgway.

With many awards being handed to the most deserving nominee, the only thing left to do was to hand out the star camper award. Deservedly Morten welcomed the award with open arms, while the audience were animated with raucous applause.

Click for Day 6 Photos

Saturday 13th & Sunday 14th

What a lovely weekend we’ve had! Trips to York, Lightwater Valley Theme Park and a trip around the Dales villages.

It all happened over an extraordinary English weekend of sport where the very traditional game of Cricket World Cup Final was being held plus The British Grand Prix and The Wimbledon Final.  England became cricket World Champions for the first time in history – a memorable experience for the the children who watched.

We ended Sunday evening with a lovely BBQ sat in the sunshine.

We’re incredibly excited for the week ahead…the Young Global Leaders Course and the Football School starts on Monday!

Click for weekend Photos

Monday, 15th July, 2019

We launched into week two with some eggs on toast and hunger games dodgeball. 

For creative, there was Strictly Come Dancing with Sophie (samba, cha-cha-cha, and more) in the morning. Slowly, but surely the L&E camp is becoming more flamboyant. ULTIMATE frisbee was repeated (due to previous popularity). The most compelling activity (the adventure one) was Campfire Cooking. This was led by the expert fire-maker Jack. Little chocolate-chip cakes were cooked in oranges that we heaved into the fire (that had a chair burning at its centre). I felt epic. 

In the afternoon the artsy kids did some graffiti (wash off – we’re not delinquents I swear). For the more sporty children there was volleyball. This was Very popular. Sardines (a curious form of hide and seek) took place in the L&E building, which was followed by SUMO WRESTLING. 

The Young Global Leaders course started today! We did a lot of teambuilding activities (including detangling ourselves in groups, passing along a hoop while holding hands in a circle and “Two Truths and a Lie”. There was discussion about other global leaders and what it means to be a good one. The kids were also presented with the power of planning the night’s evening activity.

Football camp also started today which, as I heard, went very smoothly. Regarding technicality, dribbling was the centre of attention. The camp tutors leading it (Matt and James) made it known that they were really impressed by energy and commitment that their group had. There was also a fun, competitive game at the end.

Monday FUNDAY was this evening’s activity (as planned mostly by the Young Global Leaders). I may be slightly biased, but this was an really really legendary evening.  There was apple bobbing followed by finding a Malteser in flour. The outcome of this decision was soggy, flower-covered children who looked like small Santas. A binbag fashion show also took place (photos will be on Facebook). The outfits were FABULOUS, but the catwalks were even better. An L&E Egg-drop was the big finale of Monday FUNDAY. We all chanted “scrambled eggs, scrambled eggs”. This was a nice circle ending to the beginning of the day with the eggs on toast. EGGCELENT :,) 

Click for Day 9 photos

Tuesday, 16th July, 2019

As the campers rose on a sunny 52nd birthday of Will Ferrell they enjoyed a classic English breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast.  After filling themselves up and running back upstairs to brush their teeth, they pattered down to the sports hall to play the traditional L&E morning warm-up… dodgeball.  All the kids followed the five rules of dodgeball… dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge and the standard of dodgeball in everyone (staff included) has improved massively since the start of last week.

The morning activities chosen were basketball, den building and papier mâché. In basketball, after doing a few testing drills, the participants were then separated into 4 teams; Dumplings, Team 3, NBA and Ragamuffins.  After a round robin tournament, they then played semi-finals and ended with a final of the dumplings verses the Ragamuffins ending in a sudden death penalty shoot out which lived up to the exciting billing, with the Ragamuffins just edging the contest.  Our adventure team ventured off to the woods to build dens.  The creativity and survival instincts of the campers was inspiring, and they made seriously impressive dens in the amount of time that they had to work with.  Finally our creators made some papier mâché sculptures which rivalled the 7 wonders of the world!

After a delightful traditional roast beef dinner and ice cream, the campers were treated to an impressive range of activities; a final instalment of this weeks campfire cooking where we made the biggest fire yet and today made chocolate muffins with white chocolate chips. This, like yesterday, went down like a house on fire. Our keen sportspeople took on a joint task of rounders and it’s american friend, baseball.  Everyone hit a home run with this activity and caught, hit and threw with great aplomb.  Finally our budding Picassos went to the art room to design and create props and posters for our upcoming theme night; ‘The Greatest Showman’.   

The day ended with the weekly L&E campfire, which showcased the immense talent of all the campers. Many of the campers got up to perform, highlights included some impressive quick rapping, impressions of the staff by campers and even a series of ‘opera offs’.  Ending with the delicious melted marshmallows and hot chocolate, the campers snuggled up in bed, chatting about  the excitement that tomorrow may bring. 

Click for Day 10 Photos

Wednesday, 17th July 2019

Today camp rose yet again with the sun shining, which surely promised joy and happiness for yet another wonderful day at L&E. Breakfast this morning was a treat, with Beans and Sausages on the menu, Connor loved them so much he had 4! The choice for activities was equally exciting with Water Polo, Tree climbing and old style poster making on the cards. 

For those who did Water Polo, they were given expert coaching by Jack. It was such great fun that the kids were given a chance to do it again in the afternoon. Tree climbing was fantastic fun too, it’s exhilarating getting up to those heights, and it’s so exciting that we’re allowed to do it too! The Poster making was cool too, the kids learned how to use a tea bag to make the poster looked old fashioned! Some were so good that they’ll be used for our Greatest Showman theme night tomorrow!

Lunch was delicious as usual, everyone was treated to Hunter’s chicken and little mini roast potatoes. It was so so so good! The Hunter’s chicken was really tangy while the potatoes were super herby. For dessert, we had a chocolate muffin with a whipped cream filling, which was superb too. 

After lunch, along with the aforementioned Water polo, we also were offered the option to do either Tennis or the chance to make our own dream catchers! Tennis was cool to do – with Wimbledon having happened last weekend it was fun to recreate the Finals!! The quality of the tennis match between Andrea, Paul, Connor and Emma L was so high that we had to call in Caroline Flack to inform which couple was announced the winner. Making dream catchers were awesome too, Hayley taught us how to transform a few twigs of wood into a really cool dream catcher. On top of this, Sam was running trips backwards and forwards to a lake to do some Kayaking. This was super cool too, although falling in the water was really cold!!! 

This evening kicked off with a delicious meal of Pasta. We were given 3 choices, Spaghetti Carbonara, a Cheesy bake or Green Pesto Pasta! On top of this, we were given some yummy garlic bread! All this set the scene for watching the Greatest Showman ahead of tomorrow’s theme night. The soundtrack is so so good, we were all singing along!

We’d also like to give a mention to the Young Global Campers, who tonight are out camping. Unfortunately for them, it’s raining tonight, the first time it has done since arriving to camp. Despite this, let’s all hope it’s a fantastic experience for them – and they learn some valuable skills from it all.

To finish today’s blog, we unfortunately said goodbye to Zara today. Zara has added to everyone’s time at camp and really impressed all the tutors here. She was a fantastic student and she will be missed by all her peers, let’s hope we see her again next year!

Click for Wednesday’s photos

Thursday, 18th July 2019

The Young Global Leaders returned from their wilderness adventure, enthusiastic to begin the day with the rest of the campers but rather tired from a night of sleeping outside and learning survival skills. The activities for the morning were hockey, climbing and cheerleading which was a new activity for lots of the campers and members of staff too! Hockey saw the kids take part in a tournament which was fiercely competitive but a lot of fun too. There was also the option of rock climbing which was also extremely popular because allowed them to go into the Yorkshire Dales and experience rock climbing outside.

In the afternoon the campers had the option of playing rugby or yoga. Some of them who didn’t have the chance to go climbing in the morning went in the afternoon and others helped to create props for the theme night. Thursday is always an exciting day at camp because its theme night! This week the theme was The Greatest Showman.

The night began in the dining hall with face painting, magic tricks and fortune telling. We then all went to the performing arts centre where the staff preformed an opening dance number to ‘This is Me’ from the film. The kids were then split into teams and undertook a series of activities including a game of charades, juggling and acrobatics. The night’s finale was a dance competition between the teams. Each team had to create a short dance routine to the song ‘The Greatest Show’ and the performances were incredible considering the limited amount of time they had to do it in. The competition was a tie between Paul and Jack’s team and so they took part in a dance battle which crowned Paul’s team as winner. All in all Thursday was a great day and theme night was a huge success!

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Friday, 19th July 2019

Breakfast was met with a surreal feeling from both campers and staff, the last full day of these spell bounding two weeks really had arrived. The keen footballers throughout the week made a sharp turnaround post breakfast to head to Manchester United’s world famous stadium Old Trafford for an exclusive stadium tour. The tour included a pitter patter around a museum full of memorabilia regarding United’s illustrious history before being escorted around various sections of the ground including the dressing room, the tunnel, the press room and out on the pitch side to sit in the dugouts. The children were left inspired and enthused come the end, what an experience!

Meanwhile the Motley Crew back at camp got on with karaoke throughout the day, while those who fancied a run about began playing indoor football. GOAAAAAAL GOALL, always believe in your soul.

The evening activity consisted of the much anticipated beloved L&E Oscars, a perfect way to round off every week, reflecting on days gone by, rewarding those who have shown their true colours. This Oscars night was an emotional one above all others, a fortnight had gone by with few campers leaving and the group is closer than ever. The disco followed, a favourite with the campers, an opportunity to showcase your rhythmic spirit and get your groove on. 

Come the end of the Disco, the tears began to flow like Alice in Wonderland when she falls down the rabbit hole. Many of the staff took a moment to step back and observe the contrast between the emotions from some of the campers at the start of camp to the emotions from all but few campers come the end of camp. Tears of angst and reluctance regarding the weeks ahead had transformed into tears of angst and reluctance to leave their fellow campers behind and return to life before camp. Sad, but simply beautiful.

 Learn & Experience 2019 Group 1, regrettably, signing off!

Click for Friday’s Photos

Teen Travel UK Tour Blog

27 July 2018

Saturday -Tuesday

We are eleven  people from all around Europe:

Lukas – 15, from Sweden.

Emily – 16, from Holland.

Paul – 16, from Germany.

Serafina – 15, from Germany.

Beatrice – 16, from Germany.

Maria – 16, from Spain.

Marianne – 15, from France.

Gaia – 16, from Italy.

Sam – 15, from England.

Connie – Travel Mentor, England

Julie – Travel Mentor, Scotland

Apart from Sam we all arrived in Manchester airport at various times on Saturday. From there we drove to L&E North camp to plan our trip and get to know each other better. We decided to depart the next day but before we left we all watched the final match for the World Cup and ate at he barbecue with the rest of the camp. After the barbecue big Sam drove us to our first stop in Grassmere where we stayed for one night in a hostel and we all went to the park in the town and we unanimously agreed that we all slept better there than at the camp.

The next day we had breakfast in the self serve kitchen of the hostel and Sam and Lukas made dough balls in the oven. We then took a bus to Brokehole where we went on a treetop trek which ended in a triple zip wire that was 200 meters long! “It was exciting!” – Gaia. Connie had to have her shoe taped onto her foot because it kept almost falling off.

We then took the same bus with a different bus driver who wasn’t as nice to Windermere where we had lunch which was pleasurable. After that we booked the accommodation for Glasgow the night after, furthermore we found a train connection from Kendal to Glasgow that was also affordable for the next day. We then took the bus to Kendal where it then started to rain on our walk to the hostel we were next staying in. After a break we went to Booths to buy food for tonight and the next morning. Sam and Gaia cooked a delicious meal for dinner – pasta with cheese sauce.  Lukas told some ghost stories (not that scary) and we all sat and chatted until bed time. 

Tuesday – Thursday

After a lovely breakfast in Kendal we took the train to Glasgow. It was a long journey and we had to stop and change the train – at the intermediate station Julie had to pretend to be a dog because of a dare!

Since this morning a fun game had started ,where everyone has to “kill” someone else in a specific place and way, two people were already killed.

We arrived at the hostel around 5 o’clock and we ate at Wetherspoon. The evening was full of talks and bonding and we also started to see Shrek

Deaths of the day:

  1. Connie – singing the national anthem on a train, in the morning.
  2. Marianne – smelling something in a shop, in the morning.

Wednesday 18th

The next day started slowly. We woke up at around 10 am and after a good breakfast we took the bus to Glasgow centre. After a short trip to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and the park everybody was allowed to go of in groups of at least and discover Glasgow on their own. Most of us went to a burger and than make a short shopping trip.

Back (in at) the hostel Marianne started making crêpes – Sam as chef in training. We than went to bed “in time” because the next day would start very early.

Deaths of the day:

1)  Paul – reading a book on a playground, at midday

2)  Beatrice – singing the national anthem (german) in the bathroom, at lunchtime

Thursday 19th

To day we had to get up at 6.30 am to get the bus to Loch Ness at 7 am. Because of the early time we didn’t eat breakfast, so we had packed (a lot of) (many) snacks for the bus. The bus trip to loch ness took us about four hours but we had a few stops at beautiful places to make pictures and get a pass from the sitting.

When we arrived at Loch Ness we had two options. We could either go and see the castle and than make a cruise on the Loch or only do the cruise. 

  • Spent the day in Glasgow (shopping, eating, a pigeon poop on Lukas…)
  • Tastes good
  • Take bus (discover scottland)
  • loch ness
  • Take the bus back (strange songs)

Friday…

In the morning we arrived in Edinburgh. Making our way through the streets in the rain, we found a bus to take us to the hostel, not far from the city centre. Sam was in charge of directions and we followed him (cautiously) down several side streets off the main road. Despite a slightly scary looking front door,

we walked through into a travellers paradise; a ping-pong table, PlayStation, comfy sofas and relaxed, friendly staff awaited. The hostel was made up of converted shipping containers, neatly arranged with every amenity. We felt at home right away. 

No time to relax though; we dropped our bags and went straight into town to explore. We picked up some lunch on-the-go, and made a beeline for the Royal Mile. It was hard to miss the incredible architecture as we wound through the streets; the National Gallery of Scotland and the Castle were particularly impressive. Reaching ‘Camera Obscura’ – a museum of oddities, illusions and mind games – we were were happy to get out of the drizzle. It full of bizarre, interactive activities and we emerged later on, giggling on to the streets. Straight on to a restaurant for food, we then just had time for a quick walk up to Calton Hill for the sunset. It did not take much persuading to get everyone to sleep back at the hostel after such a jam-packed day.

We awoke to a sunny day ~ yes, the sun does shine in Scotland! We all headed to the motorbike and music festival we had booked a few days ago, it was on the same side of the city as us which was good. It was very cool – lots of different styles of motorbikes, we even got to sit on some of them!!  We also had a shot on a theme park ride – Sam has been on so many his facial expression didn’t change at all but all of the girls hair was going round and round and round!  

After we got back to the hostel we collected our bags and headed back into town to try and get some onesies for the bus journey. Unfortunately we couldn’t find any we liked so we bought some blankets and some neck pillows which turned out to be invaluable. We went to a restaurant to get some food and to also make a plan for the next part of our trip. Our big map came in handy – it’s good to have a visual of the UK to see how far away each place is from the other. We all worked very hard to plan the next part of our trip – we were getting very tired which was good as we knew we were about to spend the next 9hours on the overnight bus to London. 

The bus station wasn’t far from the restaurant which was great as we were all quite tired and ready to try and sleep. Although the bus was a little cold we did manage to get some sleep. Next stop – LONDON!!!!!!!

L&E Road Trip

21 March 2018

Here at L&E we love meeting new people and spreading the word about our amazing summer camps, and that is exactly what the L&E Road Trips are all about!  This year, the L&E Road Trip saw us visit Milan, Paris and Munich where we met up with some old friends and made many new ones.

Our meet-ups went very well and we were so happy to see so many of you and talk to you about our 2018 programmes.  Our luck was in as we had some L&E Alumni to meet us in each destination who acted as L&E Ambassadors while we were in their city.  Their help was invaluable!!!!  Not only did they assist with the occasional language barrier, we got some personalised tours taking in the sights of their home town.

There seemed to be some abnormal weather to greet us in both Paris & Munich.  After weeks of rainfall before our arrival in Paris, the river Seine was swollen to four meters above its normal level for that time of year.  Then when we arrived in Munich the temperature dropped to -10 degrees, which even for a Brit is pretty cold!  The cold weather did make for some amazing sights around Munich, the most amazing of which were the VERY brave surfers who took to the Eisbach which is a small channel of the Isar River.  You really have to see it to believe it!!!

We understand how tricky it can be choosing the right summer camp for your child, this is why we think the L&E Road Trips are so valuable to parents.  They offer the opportunity to meet an L&E representative and really get a feel for how our camps operate, and if they’re lucky, they’ll get to meet an ex-camper or a Teen Traveller, there is no greater insight than hearing it straight from the horses mouth!!!  Our 2018/19 L&E Road Trip will be bigger and better than ever so keep your eyes peeled as we hope to come to a city near you.

L&E Teen Travel: UK Tour 6th – 20th August

7 August 2017

Days 1 – 3

Hello everyone, first of all we want to introduce ourselves. We are a group of 4, 3 girls and 1 boy (poor boy). Hello, my name is Emile and I live in South of France. I’m 15 and my hobbies are athletics and music. Hi, I am Emy and I am fifteen. I am from Toulon, this is in the south of France, my hobby is ballet. Hi, I’m Silvia and I’m fifteen, I’m from Milan, in Italy. My favourite hobby is volleyball. Hi there, my name is Jipke I’m sixteen years old and I’m from Munich, but I’m Dutch, my hobby is singing. 

The first day we met, we were all so excited and nervous to find out who we would be spending the next two weeks with. We met at Heathrow Airport and when we had all arrived Julie drove to our first place – L&E South Camp which is at Forres Sandle Manor school in Fordingbridge. The mood in the car was awkward, because everybody was shy to speak and we all we’re very tired. Julie helped the mood by singing loudly! We arrived at the school an hour and a half later and we met the others from summer camp. After a BBQ we planned our fist trip which was to Poole the next day.

The next day (Monday) we planned to take the bus to Poole to go kayaking, but it wasn’t that easy as we thought! We missed our first bus, and while we were waiting for the next bus we thought we could grab some coffees. One thing guys, never grab coffee while you are waiting for the bus, trust us its not funny if you miss two busses in a row! (Hahahaha). The kayaking was funny but so exhausting. When we arrived back from kayaking we made vegetable curry in one of the kitchens in the school, hmm so yummy.

We spent one more night at school so we could make some plans for the next few days. Right now we’re on the train to Cardiff and later on we are going to the trampoline park in Cardiff!

Days 4-6

n our last blog we said that we were going to go to the trampoline park and that we did! We booked 1 and a half hours but after 10 minutes we were all so exhausted!! We were taught how to ‘wall walk’ by one of the instructors which was very cool.

The next day we went to Cardiff castle and took a photo with the Welsh flag. As Jipi jumped onto Silvia’s back for the photo her phone fell out of her pocket and the screen cracked…..she learned a valuable lesson that day! We then went to walk back to the hostel to collect our bags as we had a train booked…unfortunately Julie suddenly remembered that the train was earlier than she thought so we had to run!!! Luckily we got there in the end and thought it was now time for us to properly take over all the planning!

The train to Liverpool took 4 hours so after dropping our bags off at the hostel we wanted to take a walk. Our hostel was right next to Albert Dock and luckily for us there was a theme park there. We all (apart from Julie who looked after our bags) went on some of the rides then we ate fish and chips and watched the amazing sunset.

The next day we went shopping in the city centre and bought some key items including a notebook to put our expenses in, a pen and most importantly, a toothbrush for Jipi! We then went to the amazing Beatles museum where we learned all about how the Beatles got together, their history and what happened to each of them after the band broke up. We also bought some presents for our families! It was a quick bus trip to Manchester where we ate dinner in an American style restaurant – lots of burgers and milkshakes!

We have named our group ‘Dudeacorns’, our name was going to be ‘Unicorns’ but we then we decided that ‘Dudeacorn’ was better – its like dudes and unicorns together.

Days 7-9

Here we are again. In our last Vlog we were in Manchester. Now we are writing the blog in the car, waiting for our laundry to be finished. Car? Yes we are sitting in a car. We rented the car in Manchester, we opted for a bigger car so we would all fit with our bags!

During the day we went on the “highest” building in Manchester which was in a hotel, we walked in even though we weren’t staying in the hotel just for fun to see the view of Manchester. After that we visited the science museum and then we went to a shopping centre to eat something before going to the pick up the rental car.

Julie drove us all the way to the Lake District, where there wasn’t signal and Wi-fi : the adventure ! In the morning, after a good sleep and a brunch in Windermere, we went to Treetop Trek where we had a good fun into the trees! No chill time: just after the Treetop, we had to go to Newcastle for a night in a hostel as we couldn’t find any other place to stay that night, and thanks to Silvia who spoke Italian with the receptionist we got a discount!

The next morning we drove to Glasgow, where we bought somethings that we need for the camping such as sleeping bags and food, then we had some time to relax. In the morning we then had a amazing real Scottish breakfast which included black pudding…..some of us liked it…some of us didn’t. We then drove to Edinburgh to give back the car and to check in to our new accommodation – a campsite….lets hope it doesn’t rain tonight!

We are all very excited about the Edinburgh Fringe…lots to see and do!!!!

Days 10 – 12

So, we finished our laundry and drove to Edinburgh to leave our bags at the campsite then we went to give back the car in the city. In the month of August the Edinburgh festival is on which includes the Fringe which is the worlds leading arts festival, suffice to say Edinburgh is VERY busy during this time. In the afternoon we looked at what shows were on, there are hundreds to choose from so it is very hard to choose! We managed to watch 3 shows, the first one was about superheroes, wired but funny. The second show was a guy talking about funny things he sees & hears when he is travelling around the world, again weird but funny. The last show of the day was a magicshow! The guy was super funny, we absolutely loved it and we managed to get a picture with him after his show! It was raining very hard this night so when we got back to the campsite it was straight to bed.

The next day, we went to the city by bus and we walked up Arthur’s Seat which was very cool. Arthur’s Seat is an ancient volcano which looks over the whole city and beyond. We were very lucky as not only was the sun shining but there was a piper at the top of the mountain – there were lots of tourists taking photos with him as he played some traditional Scottish music. We then walked back down and headed into the town to have some time in Princes Street gardens in the sun. We then found another show to go to, it was really funny despite it wasn’t quite what we expected. In the evening we walked around the main street to find the bus stop and while we were waiting we saw the fireworks that came from the Castle where the Military Tattoo was happening – very cool! The next morning, we took the bus to the train station where we left to go to London!

After arriving at the English capital, we took the famous underground and stopped at Queensway station where our hostel was situated. After we unpacked our bags, we bought some food to make in the hostel, the one microwave in the hostel is going to be very busy for the next four days!

Days 13-14

We awoke after a very good nights sleep on Thursday morning – our beds were especially comfortable after our camping expedition! After some relaxation we made a plan for London to ensure we did everything we wanted to do over the next 3 days. First on our agenda was 221b Baker Street – Sherlock Holmes’ house. There is a very cool shop under the house which we went into and had a look around – we also managed to get a photograph with the ‘police officer’ who was standing outside (not sure if he was a real police officer!). It was then onto Camden Market to have a look around all the weird and wonderful stalls. After some tattoos (henna) and some Dutch pancakes we made the short walk to Amy Winhouse’s house were we sat in the little park across from where she used to live and chatted for a while. It was then back to our hostel where we watched a movie in the common room.

The next day we headed straight to the London Dungeon – this amazing experience takes you through the history of London where you meet such characters as Sweeney Todd, Jack the Ripper, Guy Fawkes and Mrs Lovett. There was a very big rain-storm just as we came out of the attraction but as always it cleared and we headed to the m&m store (not the Eminem store Julie!) to check it out. After this we then travelled back to go on the London Eye. The views were amazing and due to the storms the sky was very atmospheric. We were all very tired after our big day so we headed back to the hostel via Nando’s where we got some dinner.

On our last full day in London we decided to rent some bikes so we could cycle around some of the Royal parks of London. Our hostel is right beside Hyde Park so we saw Kensington Palace on our way to get our bikes. We cycled through Hyde Park in the sunshine and then down Constitution Hill all the way to Buckingham Palace. The Queen was in her residence that day….how do we know, because the Royal Standard was flying from the flagpole. We then took our bikes back and grabbed some lunch as we wanted to visit Oxford Street and Harrods before the day was over. Harrods was amazing, we headed straight for the Toy Store which did not disappoint. We played with electronic footballs, giant Frisbees, remote control cars, drum kits, pianos and fake snow…just goes to show, you’re never too old for toys!!!

We decided it would be a good idea to pack before we headed out for our last dinner. Our room is very small so we took turns in packing our bags. We agreed upon an Indian restaurant for our last meal and luckily there was a nice restaurant not far from our hostel. We ordered some mocktails and chatted about our trip – it seems that Liverpool and Edinburgh were the favourite cities. We ate tapas style so we could all try each of the curries, some were spicier than others but we loved them, especially the peshwari naan!

The next morning some of us made it to breakfast and some were lucky enough to get breakfast in bed!! We had to get the underground to Heathrow but on the way we dropped Silvia off as she was staying in London to meet her parents. We waved goodbye to her on the platform…it was just like in the movies! The rest of us then went to the airport where we said our last goodbyes. What an amazing trip!

New Forest – Poole – Salisbury – Cardiff – Liverpool – Manchester – Lake District – Newcastle – Glasgow – Edinburgh – London.

The End.


South Camp Diary – Week 1 & 2

31 July 2017

Sunday, 30th July

Sunshine, The New Forest and a great group of campers are the best ingredients for an amazing first night at the new L&E South Camp! The children arrived, excited for a new venue, and a new group of friends to be made. They ate a glorious BBQ on the terrace followed by lots of games with the tutors. The campers were undefeated in a game named ‘splat’, much to the tutors frustrations. As the sun set over the old manor house, we all retired to some chocolate cake for Daniel’s birthday and then into our dorms for a good night’s sleep, all excited for what tomorrow will bring!

For more photos from Sunday click here

Monday, 31st July

Well what a way to start the first south camp! The children all arrived last night and we enjoyed games and a yummy BBQ together to get to know each other.

We hit the ground running today with a great session of Dodgeball, the children vs tutor games got very competitive! We then got straight into activities with one group heading out into the school grounds for some outdoor art, another group into the pool for water polo and the third group hopped into the bus and went down to Mudeford Quay to do some crabbing! The fantastic English teachers took their groups for their lessons.

The outdoor art group used natural resources to create pictures, they have turned out really well! The sporting group had great fun in the pool playing water polo, before heading out to play football after biscuit break. The crabbing group, adventured to Mudeford and had a whale of a time catching a total of 13 crabs!

After a great Lasagne lunch and a little bit of free time, the afternoon activities got underway. The activities included; creating stop-motion videos, den building, yoga, tennis, rounders, kick ball and wood weaving. The children really enjoyed these activities and were all socialising well.

After the activities were finished the pool opened and lots of us enjoyed a cool off! We then enjoyed dinner together and the evening was filled with fantastic ice breaker games from communication games to making up dance routines.

The children have bonded well and the camp could not have started on a better note!

For more photos from Monday click here

Tuesday, 1st August

Today’s blog post comes to you in campfire song!

The day started with dodgeball,
What else could it be?
The kids are getting better,
It’s plain to see…
Souki and Shido are Japanese champs,
They hurl the ball faster than a car from a ramp.

We’re having a right laugh at L & E,
Making great friends, you and me.
Many things to do and many places to go
It’s better than North Camp!
I’m telling you so!

After lunch and free-time,
There were towers to climb.
Up them like lizards
Abseiling down fine.
Lacrosse with Ashleigh,
Let’s recap the rules,
We scoop like an ice-cream
And twist like no fools,

We’re having a right laugh at L & E,
Making great friends, you and me.
Many things to do and many places to go
It’s better than North Camp!
I’m telling you so!

A swim to cool off,
Board games in the shade,
Beautiful brownies and fajitas well made,
Songs around the campfire,
Burning marshmallows,
This perfect evening,
Spent among the fellows.

For more photos from Tuesday click here

Wednesday, 2nd August

“My dear rain…As you pour down with all your might,
Will you come to me as my guiding light?
Will you wash my heart?
Will you quench my thirst?”

As Anup B Deen wrote in the poem, the rain can sometimes be a blessing and it certainly didn’t dampen our spirits today!
A group of 17 brave children headed to the Aqua Park and either kayaked or paddle-boarded their way around the huge lake. Great fun was had by all and we are certainly looking forward to returning for the inflatable challenges there tomorrow! Back at the ranch, our English immersion group were in full swing and I am pleased to report great progress (along with a lot of fun) is being made by both groups. The drenched water-sports gang returned to lashings and lashings of hot chocolate and hot showers. Suitably refreshed (and now dry) the Sports Hall was turned into the setting for games and mini challenges. The group skipped, threw and bounced their way into the L&E record books.

After lunch, board-games, badminton, volleyball, origami and dance-choreography were all on the menu. The children had great fun and Shane proved his ability to thrive in the London property market in a very competitive game of Monopoly. Dance rehearsals continued during break-time as the dance crew added the finishing touches to their routine. It was wonderful to hear the children making ‘small-talk’ and really enjoying each other’s company throughout the afternoon. Following a delicious evening meal it was time to contact home before watching the dance show. A couple of stunning solo acts from Elena and Maria who were then joined by Charlotte for a ‘Little Mix’ mash-up; the video proves just how professional and polished the performances were.

Once the popcorn had popped we all settled down to watch, ‘Swallows and Amazons’ in the theatre. Pillows and duvets were strongly encouraged andI had never heard children applauding at the end of a movie before – I guess Jade and Vicky picked well! Finally it was time for hot chocolate and relaxing in the Common room. It spoke volumes about how tired some of the children are as they started to head upstairs to bed before being asked by their tutors.

Sleep-tight L&E South: the sun will come out tomorrow and we have another busy, exciting and enlightening day ahead of us.

For more photos from Wednesday click here

Thursday, 3rd August

After a rainy day on Wednesday everyone was looking forward to the chance to get outside in the sun. Now, we might not have ended up with the completely rain free day Sarah had promised us but that did not stop us and the morning was filled with activities off site.

Those studying English headed into Salisbury to put into practice what they had been learning in lessons. They were split into groups and with the help of an able tutor they had to find their way around the city while completing a scavenger hunt.

The rest of the campers headed out to the New Forest to explore the lovely countryside. They used a GPS device to find Geo Cache orienteering points and had to work as a team to navigate. The campers all reunited after their excursions over a lovely chilli con carne for lunch.

The afternoon was filled with exciting activities; campers showed off their skills on the football pitch and helped to prepare decorations for the theme night ahead of them. Half of the camp headed out for an adventurous afternoon at the water park, jumping and splashing their way around the inflatable obstacle course, lots of fun was had by all!

The day finished with an extravaganza of a theme night. Forres Sandle Manor had the pleasure of welcoming famous World Leaders to dinner, this included Cleopatra, the Queen (x2), Ghandi, Napoleon, Teresa May, and Beyoncé. After being struck down by a natural disaster the campers had to step in and take up the mantle to lead the country. Teams competed in a range of challenges to see who would be strong enough to take the lead, some excelled in grape throwing while others showed their memory skills navigating their way across a minefield game. The night culminated in Team 6 winning the evening’s events and will hopefully be worthy world leaders.

It has been a fantastic day at South Camp, and we have so much more to look forward to!

For more photos from Thursday click here

 

Friday, 4th August

As the final day for some campers approached, we were greeted with some glorious sunshine and tasty waffles and syrup for breakfast. With bellies pleasingly full, the campers headed on down for the final game of dodgeball of the week.

The very excitable campers (and tutors!) set off to the waterpark for their adventure option where they bounced, jumped and spectacularly slipped into the water and off the obstacles including trampolines, stepping stones and swings. It is safe to say that Ashleigh and Rowena need a fair bit more practice before they try again! Our budding musicians got in touch with their inner song writers to create a fabulous song about the four seasons to the theme tune of ‘if you’re happy and you know it’ which went down a treat with the other campers. Our sporting superstars took to the AstroTurf for a hockey session with Vicki and Jade, which saw Hongjie and Josephine stand out from the crowd with their sporting prowess.

A traditional English meal of ‘bangers and mash’ awaited the campers for lunch, which seemed a success as their meals vanished within minutes of arrival! The annual L&E triathlon was postponed due to the lack of bicycles; therefore Sophie and Sammey put their heads together and created a fantastic afternoon which saw the children participate in ‘The Italian Job Relay’. This saw the children split into groups and competing against each other to win more tools and ammunition for the water fight at the end of the afternoon. The children took part in 5 different team events, a ten legged race, a penalty shootout, a Mario-cart timed race, a swimming drag race and ending with eating a biscuit in the fastest time. Hawaiian took the winners medal which resulted in the ‘Pizza’ half of the campers gaining access to water pistols and more water balloons than the ‘Pasta’ team. A quick dip in the pool to warm up after the water fight and a fantastic afternoon of team building, meant that the campers had plenty of time to get themselves ready for the upcoming Oscars evening.

An important part of L&E tradition is to celebrate the achievements and successes that the campers have shown throughout the week and we almost certainly weren’t short of these moments tonight! From Ghassan the camp joker to the kind Beatrice, we had plenty to cheer about. The deserving Moin had the honour of being the recipient of the first ever L&E South camp Star Camper award which is fully deserved and he goes home with some super exciting L&E merchandise to wear!

As the first week of L&E South comes to an end we can look back at some fantastic memories and some wonderful friendships created. We say goodbye to a few campers and hello to a few more on Sunday! But first the campers have a very exciting trip to London tomorrow so are tucked up in bed getting some rest ready for an incredibly busy day!

For more photos from Friday click here

Saturday, 5th August

The campers from L&E South Camp ventured to the big smoke today to explore London and all its glories! They managed to fit a huge amount into the day visiting the Queen at Buckingham Palace, Covent Garden for some shopping and spent some of their pennies in many of the wondrous shops. Campers visited Harrods to window shop, for many international designers, and then spent some time roaming the food hall to see all the wonderful pastries. They had a great time in Hamley’s checking out all the new and top toys for 2017! They also enjoyed the delights of China Town and many Old English Sweet Shops along the way! They picnicked in Hyde Park, enjoying the beautiful flowers blooming and one of the groups managed to get to the Science Museum and were blown away by the natural disasters exhibit. With tired legs, bellies full of ice cream and sweets and smiles on their faces, we left the big city to head back to camp. It was a wonderful day, with lots of new experiences, laughter and most importantly great friends to share it with.

For more photos from Saturday click here


Sunday, 6th August

It has been a busy day here at L&E with a group of campers off to Oxford for the day and the other ventured to the delights of Fordingbridge where they paddled in the river, explored the village and saw the sweet shops! The weather was very kind to us and there was lots of smiles and excitement over the visiting ducks.

This evening, the many happy South campers welcomed lots of new faces to another fantastic week of L&E! Lots of seasoned campers helped the new children to their dorms and then we enjoyed a glorious BBQ on the terrace. Then the fun began! Many games were played on the field including a very heavily contested game of capture the flag. There were some very impressive manoeuvres from both tutors and pupils to avoid detection in enemy territory.

With hot chocolate warming their bellies they went off to bed and although took a while to quieten down, they are now asleep unaware of the incredible plan the tutors have devised for the week ahead.

For more photos from Sunday click here

Monday, 7th August

Day one, and what a ‘rippa’ of a day it was. From surviving the waters of Fordingbridge, to making sure impacts from heights were going to make crucial members of our team not crack…as the wise Mr Dumpty once said “Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.” Time to get serious though, all the kids were safe throughout the whole day. The morning began with our usual breakfast but a victory was foreseen in the future but what was it to be? Some kids to finally shower? Sammy to keep her clothes dry while swimming? Or none one to trip up the stairs? However, low and behold, the Tutors finally won dodge ball against the kids, not once but twice!

After the great celebrations by the Tutors, the kids then chose to either build mini rafts to race down the river in Fordingbridge, lifesaving skills in the pool or create a dance video. At one point, Will thought he could walk on water during the lifesaving skills session but, needless to say, he ended up quite wet. We are yet to see this dance video but after hearing the stories and hearing the laughter, one can only imagine how great the video will be. Mini raft building was a great success, not one raft sunk and all managed to finish the race.


The day seemed to race away and the ice breaking evening was soon upon us. Get to know bingo was lots of laughs with Amelia taking home the bragging rights with the win. Teams were then formed and eggs needed protecting from falling from great heights. Surprisingly 4 out of the 6 teams managed to protect their egg from the world champion egg thrower Sarah and weren’t they proud of it. By the end of the night, many laughs were shared and new friendships made.

For more photos from Monday click here

 

Tuesday, 8th August

Today the heavens opened but with ham and cheese croissants for breakfast, and 3 out of 4 wins for the kids in dodgeball, L&E wasn’t rained off.

The day began with many exciting activities. In sport, a moist game of tag rugby. Our young adventurers set off on a Bear Grylls hike to the forest to build a log den and out mega-huge creative group of magnet makers, sculpting treasures to stick on the fridge. The English group learned about hobbies with a classic game of pictionary with big man, Will.

Lunch was beef or mushroom and broccoli pie with lots of lovely jelly to get us wobbling onto the next activities. The adventurers bounced off the inflatables, at The New Forest aqua park with a particular shout out to Mr Oliver who fearlessly climbed the iceberg and leaped off without a crumb of fear! Others laughed their way through a benchball session, showing off their mad skills with the tunes booming. Another group of campers headed to the stables to ride some elephants/horses. There was notable improvement from everyone, particularly the beginners doing rising trots on their second day, yeeeehaaaaah!!

Water polo in the pool, fajitas and chocolate brownies for tea then off to the bonfire for some games, songs and marshmallows. A huge variation of performers and languages, learning campfire songs that we will always remember. Everyone’s confidence is building, friendships are becoming stronger, brains are boggling and fun is bellowing throughout our beautiful L&E South camp.

Bring on tomorrow!

For more photos from Tuesday click here

Wednesday, 9th August

After a scrummy breakfast, mid-week of camp commenced with the usual lively game of dodgeball, which never fails to get everyone up and ready for the day (even with the dollop of British rain).
After the warm-up, the English class started a show-stopping morning of screen-play and story-writing. Sequined masks, pink feather boas, flamboyant hats and giant glasses aided the prodigy actors and writers.

The new L&E sport activity of Acro-Yoga proved to be a great hit with the campers. All sorts of shapes and balancing acts were performed by the budding acrobats/yogis with mind-blowing flexibility and strength! Meanwhile, the creative among us had a tie-dye session, where white t-shirts were transformed into multi-coloured spiralled art-work.

Over in the woods, the adventurous were ‘cameoed up’ and preparing for survival. ‘The Island with Shane and Wilson’ (release date Feb 2018) involved the campers using natural tools to make dams, fires and dens; in order to overcome the natural elements.

After a feast of meatballs and pasta for lunch, the afternoon kicked off with a badminton and table tennis extravaganza tournament. The winners were Yu and Shizuku in badminton and Daniel and Adam in table tennis.

In the art room, vibrant paper-mache dragon egg making and face painting captivated the young Picassos.


The adventurous horse riders had another fantastic day where there was great progress with all the riders. The last of the campers went to the water-park for a whirl-wind adventure of kayaking and paddle-boarding.

After an exhausting day, the campers had a relaxing evening curling up in their pyjamas and duvets to the classic movie, “School of Rock”.

For more photos from Wednesday click here

Thursday, 10th August

The midnight oil is burning and another day is done,
The campers awoke to sunshine and another day of fun.
A breakfast of waffles, sausages and spaghetti hoops,
Set the day up although everyone was pooped.
In the dodgeball hall, there was quite the commotion,
Everyone enjoyed the rapid motion.
The climbing wall returned and the monkeys ascended,
While in water polo, the players defended.
Pottery making in the sunshine yielded some wonderful pieces,
And the adventurers took on photo orienteering without their fleeces.
Post-scrummy lunch and off to the beach we went,
A wonderful afternoon in the sunshine we spent.
Sandcastles and swimming, ice cream and grinning,
Heading back to the bus, queue the cliff-top singing.
Back at camp, young padawans got in their stride,
Trying to bring Darth Vader back to the good side.
The evening ended with an aquatic battle on the moor,
Hot chocolate followed, we all hit the floor.

For more photos from Thursday click here

Friday, 11th August

On the penultimate day of camp, it was a very weary start as the campers made their way down the stairs to breakfast. With the breakfast bell ringing, a few more times than normal, campers finally followed the smell of Belgium waffles which wafted from the kitchen. With camper’s bellies full, it was time to dodge, duck and weave in the grand final of the tutors vs campers dodgeball rivalry. The soft ball whizzed around the hall, flying millimetres from campers as they dove out of the way of the tutor’s wrath…well that is how we saw it. The tutors were cowering from the onslaught of dodgeballs being hurled their way. They managed to pick it up in the final game, but in the end, it was another devastating loss.

After our morning warm up the campers went off to their morning activities. The sport group tried their hand at some tennis and hockey, pushing a pulling the hockey ball across the artificial surface whilst a mini Wimbledon game was going on. The creative students painted their clay sculptures in the sunshine appreciating the natural beauty around them. The adventurers tried their hand at some campfire cooking, with some very damp logs! Lunch was a feast of a truly English classic of: sausages, mash and beans!

This afternoon a group of campers went for their last horse riding lesson and had a lovely time galloping around the stables and managed to do some little jumps on their ponies. The rest of the camp participated in the weekly sporting competition. This week it was a mega triathlon, seeing all campers giving it there all in either their individual events or team efforts!

Everything was leading to one of the main events of the week, the Oscars! Supper was filled with chicken nuggets, chips and lots of excitement for the impending awards ceremony. The evening was filled with acro-yoga presentations and an extraordinary music video from the creative crew! Many of our campers were awarded for their talents and kindness, with Novella being awarded out Star Camper of the week!

It has been a fantastic two weeks of South camp and with a slightly heavy heart we say goodbye to the 2017 summer of L&E, which has been filled with many smiles, new friends, experiences and most of all a summer of fun! As the final song ‘Grease lightning’ brought the disco to the end, there were many tears and hugs as the campers said goodnight to the final time. It has been a blast L&E! We can’t wait till next Summer!

For more photos from Friday click here

 

North Camp Diary – Week 4

31 July 2017

Sunday, 30th July

The campers slowly filtered into Aysgarth School this evening from all across the globe, coming from as far as Hong Kong! After enjoying a BBQ the kids said goodbye to their families and got stuck into the evening activities.

The first evening gives us the chance to get to know each other through some fun camp games, which everyone gets involved in. Tonight we began with packman, a camp game that mimics the arcade game as the children follow the designated lines in the sports hall making sure they do not get tagged. We then play a game of Zap, which is a game of fast reflexes and instincts. Following that we played various forms of what is called stuck in the mud in the UK, this tests kids balance, cunning, agility and speed. Following that we played a game of fruit basket, which is another game of concentration and speed, as children sprint around the gym in teams attempting to be the first into their respective fruit baskets. Finally we finished the games off with a classic camp game of 40/40, which is a mix of hide and seek and tag.

As you can probably tell the evening was jammed packed and following the evenings activities we came in for a hot chocolate to relax before getting ready for bed. After giving a small talk, giving the kids an idea of what lies in store this week, we all went up to our different rooms for the evening and got to know each other a little before settling into bed. It has been a great first evening and we’re sure it will be a brilliant week with a brilliant set of campers.

For more photos from Sunday click here

Monday, 31st July

The day started with eggs, the day ended with eggs. Now let us tell you what happened in between…

Our final week’s campers woke up surprisingly early to beautiful sunshine (for ten minutes) and tucked into eggs and soldiers for breakfast. The group then headed down for their dodge ball debut, which they all enjoyed. After wiping the floor with the tutors, the campers then chose their morning activities: the creative kids brought their consequences stories to life with the magic of multimedia, the sportsmen and women amongst us battled the blustery conditions during a morning of tennis, and the adventurers headed off in luxurious Lenny (the Land Rover) to Aysgarth Falls where they wandered alongside the torrent that has become the River Ure since our last excursion. Safe to say they would not be swimming today, but it was an enjoyable outing all the same as the weather held up until we left.

After filling up at lunchtime, the afternoon activities commenced. Sport was volleyball, which went down a treat, and in the creative session the campers completed the other half of photos of our very own tutors. This afternoon’s adventurers returned to Aysgarth Falls, where they explored another part of the river, in awe of the raging rapids. After some hill rolling races and an ice cream to cool us off, we headed back to the homestead for an evening of icebreaker games.

Campers new and old became friends as they worked together to complete challenging tasks set for them by our tutors. The games flew by as the sun set, and everybody gathered around for the grand finale – the egg drop. Each group’s eggs were secured using the various items provided, and we all watched on as eggs were either scrambled or saved by the campers’ eggcellent inventions. Many were scrambled, but a few were salvaged!

Hot chocolate and bed ended the exciting evening, with all the campers ready and raring for the week ahead.

For more photos from Monday click here

Tuesday, 1st August

The 1st August, a date all L&E North Campers will now remember as Yorkshire Day. Waking up, the campers were treated to a traditional Yorkshire morning of sunshine and croissants… okay, maybe not quite traditional, but still fantastic!

The morning consisted of a variety of exciting activities: the creative bunch made eye-catching dream-catchers, which will ensure your loved ones are sleeping safely and soundly tonight. On the other hand, the children with a little more energy were put through their paces in an intense sports session. The children played Ultimate Frisbee, Handball, Benchball and some high-intensity catching games. As well as this, Tuesday is of course ‘Scuba Day’ which meant our experienced divers got the chance to show off their skills, and new divers got the chance to try something amazing. After a filling lunch of sausages and Yorkshire puddings (not the last you’ll hear about these), the campers got the chance to scuba again. As well as that, the sporting bunch got the chance to showcase their footballing skills, and excitingly, the creative children built their very own paper- airplanes – these weren’t your average paper-airplanes, they were carefully crafted, intricately designed flying machines. Then, it was time for the big event itself: the Yorkshire Olympics. You may be wondering what this is, and you’d be right to do so because it’s something we invented today! 7 events, all of which somehow involved the use of Yorkshire puddings. We had children throwing, catching, kicking, carrying Yorkshire puddings all afternoon, as well as developing their understanding of local phrases. Never before has a Portuguese girl uttered the words, “Ey up r kid!” Come to L&E if you want something new and different!

After a relaxed evening swim and tasty tea, the children headed down to what was to be the final campfire of the year for the North Camp. This meant that the children were singing merrily away, with older campers keen to teach newer campers the songs they’d learnt. The tutors watched in awe, as seemingly shy and quiet children got up to belt out their favourite songs, as everyone laughed and joked around the blazing fire. Instead of marshmallows, the children toasted Yorkshire puddings around the fire and were giggling away at their amusing end to the night. Rest assured though, the children did get their marshmallows in a comforting hot chocolate before bed. The perfect end to the perfect Yorkshire Day.

There once was a camp called L&E
Where children go and make no enemies
Only to make friends and have lots of fun
Where bonds are made and are never undone
Here’s to another day full of vibrant energy

For more photos from Tuesday click here

Wednesday, 2nd August

Yet another blissfully rainy day fell upon L&E, however the children hopped out of bed and got down to breakfast just as normal. After brushing their teeth the traditional dodgeball games were played with courage, honour and massive throwing arms being displayed from both sides. After the dust settled from what was a fearless dodgeball battle the children chose their morning activities.

The creative option was egg protection. The children had to engineer a protective structure or design to make sure an egg could safely land once it was launched into the air by a water balloon cannon. Michael’s egg was the only one to survive the landing. The sports option was quick cricket, with enthusiasm and warm catching hands the children began playing adn some incredible catches were made and countless runs were made. Special mention goes out to Panashe for his two stunning one handed over the head catches.

The activity for those who selected English was pizza making. After the rest of the camp heard that there was a sudden influx of new English students! After a hearty lunch and a little down time the children began their afternoon activities.

The sports option was water polo which came out as one of the more popular options. Water polo in itself is a difficult game, however the children took to it like fish to water. The creative children dabbled in a little Coca Cola and mentor rocket building as well as water rocket building. After launching the water rocket so far that they lost it, they began on their Coca Cola rockets. The adventure option that was run throughout the day was canoeing, the children braved the cold lake in canoes, paddling around having a blast. Once the rain began the canoeing came to a stop and the children jumped off the jetty into the lake.

After a long day of full on fun, adventure and creativity the children watch a movie tonight to wind down. Following the movie is a delightful cup of hot chocolate to set them up for a good night rest.

The day ends with the tutors visiting their dorms and having chat with the children, jokes are made, advice is given and as the tutors leave the room the children fall asleep to get rest for the next day.

For more photos from Wednesday click here

Thursday, 3rd August

The morning arrived with some heavy showers as some of our campers braved the conditions to go rock climbing and despite the cold and wet weather the kids had an exciting time in yorkshire’s stunning natural settings. The others stayed on camp to enjoy some morning Yoga inside swell as some dodgeball.

After dodgeball the morning activities started which included boardgame making, where we tested the kids inventiveness and saw who could designthe best new game. We then tested out the finished products having a great time. In English everyone enjoyed a murder mystery game, where an elaborate plot was created by the teachers that the kids were involved in. After getting in character, which included fancy dress, the kids acted out the scene and enjoyed the process of working out who the murder was. The other children enjoyed a morning of mixed sports in the sportshall which allowed them the chance to try out any games they hadn’t in the week before. We played bench ball, handball and ultimate frisby, all games that focus on teamwork which everyone enjoyed getting involved in.

By lunchtime everyone was ready to enjoy their meal and refuel for the afternoon session. Some campers again went off rock climbing in much friendly weather conditions and had a great time scaling the Yorkshire cliffs as well as abseiling down them. The kids who stayed on camp played badminton and also enjoyed some gymnastics and aerobics sessions. Elsewhere kids were given free reign in the art room to work on some of their previous work as well as working on new paintings, drawings and designing their own bags.

After an afternoon swim everyone came in for dinner and then got ready for this evening theme night. The theme was world leaders and the kids were given the interesting plot of an Alien invasion. With some great outfits from both children and staff getting everyone in the mood, we headed to the school theatre for a world peace conference, however something was not quite right as the leaders of the conference such as Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump and Theresa May, played by out staff, were slowly being taken hostage. The kids soon figured out that Aliens had abducted the leaders and were planning to attack earth. In order to save the day the kids were split into groups and partook in several activities and challenges through which they were given a code that defeated the aliens. It was a great evening with lots of laughter and fun. The kids succeeded in their tasks and the aliens were defeated.

By the time theme night was over and the kids had had some hot chocolate we all got into pyjamas and headed to bed. It was another great day at camp and we look forward to tomorrow, our last day; lets make the most of it!

For more photos from Thursday click here

Friday, 4th August

The final day fell upon L&E, and for the first time this week, the sun shone down upon us all day long. The camp obviously takoook full advantage of this. Breakfast was served then the camp moved on over to dodgeball, where as usual the competition was fierce, skills that had never been seen before were brought out for the final day, trick plays, fake throws, ladies and gentlemen your children had it all.

After the dodgeballs had stopped bouncing the children awaited their morning activities. The sports option was touch rugby, where the children learned the fundamentals to play one of the greatest games on earth, a special mention going out to the warrior that is Lauren who played through a shaky ankle showing true bravery. The creative option was the long awaited science experiment morning. Attracting most of the caldrons attention, the creative activity was a hit, displaying amazing feats of science and chemistry. The adventure option was campfire cooking, (so when your sons or daughters get home ask them to cook you some “fire bread”). The campfire cooking is always a massive success at L&E and today was no different.

  

In the afternoon was the famous L&E Triathlon, where the children competed in a gruelling 3, 5 or 7 lap swim of the pool, an impassable obstacle course and then a run to finish. The competitors showed great dedication to the events with Alice and Andrea changing from the 3 length event to the 7 length event because they wanted to challenge themselves. After completing the triathlon and catching their breath the children then moved over to the water slide. A massive sheet of tarpaulin coated in soap and water sounds like the best final afternoon anyone could ask for. When the tutors said that it was time to get showered and clean after the slide the children had a rebellion and through sheer will power they kept the slide running.

 

After dinner the campers were treated to a surprise ice cream van……the chimes played to the children’s surprise and they all ran out to get a cone! It was then soon time to get dressed up and head the performing arts centre for the Oscars Ceremony. Many performances were shown at the ceremony, Sam, Joe and Holly put on an amazing show with the diablo, Anna and Johanna sang and danced to the famous song ‘Eye of the Tiger’, sending shivers down the spine of the audience members, Kai and Michael would have done Penn and Teller proud with their amazing magic tricks, with an incredible disappearing act performed right before the audience’s eyes, the pair completed their show. Faye performed a song form the movie Moana which touched the soul of everyone who had seen the movie. The gymnastics fans were pleased that our very own camp tutor Will Smith (not to be confused with the super famous actor) and Alice performed a gymnastics routine, the routine had a comedy aspect which was played by Alice pretending that she couldn’t do gymnastics, her poor form made the crowd giggle and Will’s best efforts made the crowd cheer, the perfect mix! A special mention goes out to Sven who won the Star camper award for this week. The tutors couldn’t think of a more deserving winner of the award and were proud to give it to Sven. He has been influential not he sports field, dodgeball court and creative sessions and has displayed all the characteristics of a star camper.

Once the oscars disco died down and the children got dressed into their pyjamas, the drank a warm cup of hot chocolate and move towards their bedrooms. Their tutors have their reflections on the week that has passed and look forward the following year. We look forward to seeing all your fantastic children this following year!

After 4 weeks we’ve reached our last day,
For many weeks longer we wish we could stay,

Camp’s in the North,
Camp’s in the South,
From the highest of hills to the old river mouth,

We’ve covered the land with adventure and sport, not forgetting creative
Whose results we support.

With trips to bedale
And aysgarth falls,
Masham was a highlight
Exciting for all.

The tutors and children
Smiles on their face
Friday pm the triathlon race,

Another year gone,
And it’s almost September,
But the summer we’ve had, we’ll forever remember.

For more photos from Friday click here

North Camp Diary – Week 3

24 July 2017

Sunday, 23rd July

It wasn’t promising weather for this weekend’s campers, whose planned trip to Whitby looked ominous. But as the camp tutors predicted the sun did grace us at sunny Whitby! It was a wonderful day full of seaside sweet shops, beach cricket and of course a trip to Poundland!

On Sunday, there were several tearful campers and tutors as we said goodbye to last week’s campers. Not long after that the excitement kicked in for our new arrivals. Many of the ‘old hands’ were there to welcome the lovely, bright new faces. New friends were made within minutes and games of pool and ping pong were created as the rain confined us to the main house. Our lovely planned BBQ was relocated indoors and the children enjoyed the burgers and chicken that was on offer. With parents being bid farewell, it was time for the games to begin.

With a quick dash through the downpour to the sports hall, many a game of fruit basket, stuck in the mud and bulrush commenced. The children had a great time getting to know each other and with hot chocolate in their bellies, new friends made it was time for bed. As the whispers quieten down the excitement builds for L&E North camp week 3.

For more photos from Sunday click here

Monday, 24th July

Campers woke up this morning under a grey sky but very keen on enjoying their first day of the week. After having eaten a delicious breakfast, they took the road leading to the sports center for our first session of morning dodgeball. Whilst being very competitive, every one got to throw the ball around and try out new strategies based on the Roman army, using gymnastic mats as shields to counter the balls. This early warm-up ended on a crushing victory of the kids over tutors, who were wildly outnumbered.

Campers then went into their different morning groups. Creative did stop-motion and a bunch of new ideas were found very popular throughout the group. The English class went on a treasure hunt and very much enjoyed learning new words, in the most comical way. In sport, plenty of energy was spent in the sports hall during an incredible indoor football session. The brand new French class was launched today in L&E with 5 children eager to learn a new language. The session was highly engaging and all had a great time.

In the afternoon, the sporty amongst us tried their talents at a session of waterpolo. An intense, but fun effort, as always in sports here at L&E.

In adventure, another exciting treasure hunt was proposed to kids during the 1st half and a nice walk offsite to finish the session evolved.

The creative group started a music video with another great set of costumes for the children. The children when from set to set and had fun creating new scenes.

Dinner was a feast of fish, sausage and salad which was devoured by tutors and campers. It was then time for…”icebreakers” one of the most important nights of L&E. All teams gave their best in the different tasks that they had to do. Several sprints and egg throwing events were on the menu and hot chocolate was offered as a reward. Everyone went to bed, having had a great evening and looking forward to the new day at L&E!

For more photos from Monday click here

Tuesday, 25th July

After beginning the day with a sumptuous breakfast of scrambled eggs on toast, the campers of L&E prepared for the day ahead with the age old morning activity of dodgeball. They ducked, dived, dipped and dodged their way to success, and moved on to a variety of morning activities.

The adventure options today consisted of the all day adventure scuba diving experience, which proved extremely popular amongst campers, as well as extreme fire preparation for tonight’s campfire, and also provided the opportunity to cook a few morning treats. Vegetable based painting was the creative inspiration of the day, making pictures using onions, peppers and also potatoes.

The sporting endeavour this morning was indoor kickball, progressing from the previous dodgeball session to an energy fuelled competitive session were fun was had by all. I’m English the students went on a bear hunt, surveying the school grounds to find an elusive bear, whilst experiencing the versatile facilities aysgarth has to offer. Finally our French students studied and sampled the many aspects of a traditional French breakfast, working on their language skills all the while.

Following a cracker of a curry at lunchtime, the ever reliable British weather decided to give us a glorious afternoon, and henceforth an afternoon of outdoor themed activities commenced. The sport option was a return of the immensely popular touch rugby, where a small tournament engaged between students inclusive of all, no matter of age and rugby playing experience. The creative bunch excelled in tie dying socks, each turning a simple white pair into a psychedelic fashion statement that wouldn’t be out of place on any parisian runway. Due to the fortunate turn in weather, campers got another go on last week’s favourite, the waterslide, slipping and sliding their way to the bottom of our slope in a fun filled hour.

The daily swim was next, followed by a pizza, wedges and vegetables, with all left in the day now being the highly anticipated campfire. Down by the fireside we had many group performances, with camp favourites such as ‘boo-chicka-roo’ going down particularly well. Then some excellent solo performances from the likes of Greta and Siena were followed by campfire games and a toasted marshmallow or two. The day ended with a nice hot chocolate, and then all went to bed.

For more photos from Tuesday click here

Wednesday, 26th July

Sausages and bread, we had for breakfast (say fast in southern accent)
Then to dodgeball, where we had a blast
Whilst some of our brave adventurers
Took to the water to become canoe emperors

In creative, the children took to the hills
Creating papier mâché volcanos, oh such thrills
The sporting option for morning,
Indoor hockey, goals without warning

Some went for a walk
Wilson, the children had to stalk
Then a much-needed lunch
Noodles eaten by all with a munch

Whilst another group set off to canoe
Those left in camp had a quick brew
The shuttle cocks went flying,
Badminton the children were trying

In creative we danced with Hayley
A routine that we must practise daily
After dinner, we had some time to chill
To reflect on the day that was such a thrill

We watched Jungle Book, all snuggled together
Hoping that tomorrow, we’ll have nicer weather
The week is still young and we’re all excited
To continue our journey, all united.

For more photos from Wednesday click here

Thursday, 27th July

We all woke up this morning surprised how quickly the week is going. After a lovely breakfast and some dodgeball to wake everyone up, the excitement of the days events began.

In English classes horror stories were written, acted out and filmed ready for being presented at the Oscars awards tomorrow, along with music videos in French lessons.

In creative, final touches were made to the volcanoes created yesterdasy and they are now ready for erupting. Others used their creative skills to prepare for tonight’s theme night and we made and decorated piñatas.

Meanwhile, others were splashing about in the pool playing volleyball and the adventurers were off monkeying about climbing rock walls. After lunch, the fun exploded as rockets were created and blown off with water to shower everyone. A competitive tournament of indoor benchball and handball ensued and more adventurers went rock climbing.

We all enjoyed a deserved dinner and finally it was time to let the wild fun of the theme night – jungle book, to commence!

Costumes were put together and we all got into character of our favourite jungle animals. We embraced our musical sides with dancing, defeated piñatas, cracked riddles, painted and tested our pack abilities as wolves. In the end we succeeded in defeating sheer Khan and were able to create the firery ‘red flower’.

After all the excitement of the day it was time to wind down with some hot chocolate before heading to bed, where some impressive bedtime stories were told by Tashy, and everyone settled to bed, ready for tomorrow’s fun and games.

For more photos from Thursday click here

Friday, 28th July

After a fantastic and enjoyable Jungle Book theme night it took the campers a little longer to be roused from their beds this morning. However, when they made it downstairs there was a yummy breakfast was waiting for them as were the tutors with smiles on their faces.

Breakfast was soon done and dusted and it was then time for what is usually the fast and furious and fiercely competitive morning dodgeball however this morning there was a twist as also on offer was the more relaxing yoga to re- centre and prepare us ready for the day ahead.

As usual there were lots of different activities on offer this morning to cap off an exciting week. In French the group spent the morning rehearsing for their performance at the oscars which was epic! I think it is safe to say that all the girls have enjoyed learning French and have definitely improved with thanks to our resident French tutor Baptiste – it was lovely to see all of the group personally thank him at the Oscars.
In English this morning the group ventured out in the local town of Bedale with a list of items to find. All impressed and some creative options for some of the things on the list where found. Some campers took it upon themselves when asked to find a old thing to buy a financial times and change the year on it! Most items on the list where ticked off and everyone stayed together which was the most important thing to Sam and Paul! In creative they made the most of Hayley’s creative skills before she leaves us this weekend and made and launched water bottle rockets. They were a great success and shot high into the sky – make sure you check the videos out! One of the other creative options was making jigsaws out of the campers favourite things.

The sportsmen and women amongst the camp had a great morning playing extreme pool games – I am told a lot of splashing happened.

Food was on the agenda in adventure and the campers used the skills they had learnt earlier in the week to build a fire so that they could make bread and cook apples. Apparently they were yummy!

The afternoon saw the weekly L&E triathlon happening. With the shortage of any bikes the bike leg of the triathlon was changed to an obstacle course involving fancy dress and dribbling in and out of cones. The final finish was a scramble up the water slide to the line. The campers could choose to complete it in groups with one person doing each leg or individually and also the level of difficultly. The winning team on the longest course consisted of Simon, Matthew and Sam – special mention must go to Adrien who was close to the team time and he did it on his own.

Once the timers had been stopped and the winners calculated the daily swim commenced alongside with a highly competitive mini football match. Campers also took the time to do some drawing and explode the volcanos they built earlier in the week. Some of the campers also took the opportunity to rehearse in preparation for their performances at the Oscars this evening.

Then came the most anticipated night of camp…… the oscars. The dresses and ties were donned and that wasn’t just the tutors for an evening to celebrate what has been a highly successful week at L&E North. We enjoyed some fabulous performances including Sienna dancing, Fay singing, Hubert’s pub quiz , a dance from Georgi, charlotte, Maria, Sofia, a performance from the French group, a piano performance from Greta as well as all the usual videos and awards to honour all the amazing campers. The winner of the this weeks star camper was Greta, who was a popular choice amongst the campers and staff.

As the week draws to a close the sadness of saying goodbye to staff and campers who are leaving us this week starts but the memories of the times we have had together will last forever. L&E is such a special place and we are all lucky to be a part of it!
#LNENorth #week3 #summercamp #specialplace

North Camp Diary – Week 2

16 July 2017

SUNDAY, 16th July

The rain graced us with its presence on Saturday and set the mood for some sad goodbyes to some of our week one campers. As the campers chatted, there were many email addresses and phone numbers swapped, as well as plans made for reuniting at next year’s camps. The remaining campers were excited to roam the street of the iconic city, York. The visited cultural sights, and did a lot of shopping! Some even managed to get into the new Harry Potter shop.

York Excursion

York Excursion

In the evening, they enjoyed watching the movie, ‘Mohana’, and sang along to the soundtrack in the performing arts hall. Saturday soon turned to Sunday and it was time to welcome some new campers to the groups on Aysgarth School. As the arrivals came into the dining room, they were welcomed with open arms and encouraged to gorge on a fantastic BBQ and then teamed up in a few wide games, organised by the world class L&E tutors. With bellies, warm with hot chocolate, and new friendships beginning it was time to go to bed to get some rest for L&E North Camp, Week Two, 2017!

For more photos from Sunday click here

Happy Girls

MONDAY, 17th July

The sun was shining and it looked like it would be another beautiful day at L&E North camp. The new campers were all settling in well with the help of the veterans from the week before. With a hearty breakfast behind them, everyone was excited to get stuck into the activities for the week ahead.

After a quick dodgeball warm up, where some of the tutors became a little too competitive, the campers choose they’re activities. The trip to Aysgarth falls proved very popular and the pictures taken showed it to be a triumph.

Some real sporting talent was shown during basketball, with a game of killer managing to continue for 45 minutes. A benchball finale topped off the morning sporting session in the beautiful weather.

In Creative the campers origami skills were put to the test. It was lovely to see many of the confident campers sharing their skills with their new found friends.

Adventure topped off the morning with den building where some impressive structures were made.

The afternoon brought the chance to see some of the new footballing talent on camp. Some impressive skills were on display and plenty of goals were scored. Another fantastic trip to Aysgarth falls was again a huge success. Musical theatre made up the creative option with some wonderful renditions of Mary Poppins and Matilda.

After a substantial dinner it was time for Ice breaker games. With water, balloons, flour and Malteesers the whole affair was rather messy. However, all the campers were getting along swimmingly. As the weather was so fantastic, the day was topped off with a session on the water slide.

After showers and hot chocolate, everyone went to bed. Tired, yet still smiling. It looks like it’s going to be another fantastic week at L&E North camp.

Sleep tight campers.

For more photos from Monday click here

TUESDAY, 17th July

The radiant sun lofted into the sky, bringing us another glorious day here at L&E. The children kicked off with the famous traditional morning dodgeball. Where courage, honour and some physics defying throws were made by many of the children.

Once the dodgeball dust had settled the children were split up into their morning activities, the “children of the water”, had the option of scuba diving as an extreme adventure activity, with our instructor Scuba Steve (Note, his name is not Steve). The sports option for the morning was volleyball, as the campers ran over to the net with massive smiles plastered to their faces, and all the energy of a wind up toy. The tutors stood in the background deciding the best way to tell them that they could not find the ball. However, a dodgeball was enough to get the game going! Amazing talent was shown from both sides, however, one of the tutors being hit in the face was the highlight of the volleyball.

L&E Rounders

L&E Rounders

Later that morning, the campers were once again split up into teams, as they were about to face off in the L&E rounders tournament! With warm batting arms the teams took the field with victory in their eyes. It is an event that will continue throughout the week, however the competition is intense!

The creative squad had a full day of baking! In the morning they planned their three course meals: cake followed by pancakes and for desert, cupcakes. Then in the afternoon the campers got their hands dirty working away at their projects. However, outside in the sunshine another group of creative campers were making tea stained paper! the atmosphere was so cheerful, as they dabbed wet tea bags on paper to give them an old vintage look.

The L&E Motto

The L&E Motto

Just over the road, a mini Wimbledon was taking place where amazing tennis skills, rallies and games were being played! The tutors took on some of the children but were no match!

The afternoon ended with a massive water fight. What a way to end the perfect sunny afternoon. The plan was to start with some games, and you can imagine how long that lasted. The first cup of water was thrown and carnage descended upon the innocent games. Water flying everywhere, water cannons, cups, water balloons, and many more pieces of watery weaponry were used in this glorious battle. As the cold breeze rolled in the campers sealed refuge in the warm pool.

To end what has been another astounding day at L&E, the campers made their way to the camp fire, where songs were sung, friends were made and the tutors made fools of themselves singing one direction. The warmth of the fire roasting the children marshmallows to perfection.

L&E Campfire

L&E Campfire

After a quick goodnight from the tutors the campers fell asleep.

For more photos from Tuesday click here

WEDNESDAY, 19th July

The morning started off with a typical English breakfast of bacon and baked beans. We all then headed off for the morning wake up which is dodgeball. The camp played a few games between themselves to prepare them for the big campers vs tutors, which as always, the campers won.

L&E Selfie

L&E Selfie

The morning activities were building marshmallow and spaghetti bridges in creative, touch rugby in sports and the morning adventure group headed off to canoeing. Sadly today wasn’t one of those typically warm summer days. So the canoeists took some warm clothes for when they got out the water. The sporty campers took on touch rugby, which had them running around, doing planned moves in no time. In creative the campers choose to eat most of the marshmallows, instead of using them as building blocks. Faye and Greta replicated the London Eye with their amazing marshmallow and spaghetti replica.

Amazing Art

Amazing Art

The football team had an intense training session with resident coaches Sam and Baptiste, followed by a good match. The creative campers made pom pom accessories which could go in there hair.

The night ended with a light hearted comedy, the Pink Panther, which they all enjoyed.

Lets keep our finger crossed for some hot sunny weather tomorrow!

For more photos from Wednesday click here

L&E Horse Riding

L&E Horse Riding

THURSDAY, 20th July

After waking up bright and early, the campers feasted on baked beans and eggy bread for their breakfast. Something new relished by all, it set the camp in good stead for the day ahead. Even though the rain from the previous night had not abated, children and staff alike launched into the day undeterred.

The morning’s adventurers went off in good spirits to do some climbing. Those in the English class enjoyed a morning consisting of the Hat game and story-telling, excellent practice of their language skills especially when it came to the spooky ones! Meanwhile, the sporty bunch worked up a sweat first with ultimate frisbee and then quick cricket, all in the safe vicinity of the sports hall. That just leaves our creative group, who tried their hands at both watercolour painting and boxcar making – all in preparation for the days grand finale, theme night!

After breaking for a wholesome lunch of pasta Bolognese, we commenced the afternoon’s activities. The second group of climbers headed off and after their session it was noted how well they showed great grit and determination to battle through the elements on the rock face. Back at school, our creators first made their own microphones with which they rehearsed for the upcoming talent show – more on that later. The sportschildren tried something completely new: swimming pool volleyball! The children loved both the novelty and the opportunity to splash around in the pool.

A brief pit-stop following where the campers fuelled up on pie and vegetables before dashing off to change into their outfits for theme night.

The theme: British superstars. The first half of the evening saw the kids enjoy all manner of stands set up by some very special British people from past and present. They did archery with Robin Hood, the crossbar challenge with David Beckham, wildlife documentary making with David Attenborough and Charles Darwin, plasticine model making with Wallace and Gromit, and even high tea with the Queen and the Mad Hatter!

We subsequently relocated to the theatre for the culmination of the evening’s events, the aforementioned talent show. The audience was awestruck by the wonderful singing, dancing, gymnastics, music, and magic put on show which ended up with the entire camp onstage dancing along to Beat It by Michael Jackson. Then followed hot chocolate and bed, with smiles firmly on campers’ faces.

For more photos from Thursday click here

  

FRIDAY, 21st July

The children woke up to gloomy English skies, but this did not dampen the mood of our happy campers, as they rushed downstairs to be awoken with chocolate brioche for breakfast. We then initiated our favourite L&E tradition of dodgeball, with some of the children opting to do some relaxing Yoga instead. Dodgeball was very competitive, and some children adopted various roman military techniques using work-out mats in order to push their team to victory.

Afterwards, the children went off to enjoy their morning activities, with the English students going to Masham to participate in some riverside walking and sweetshop browsing to get the true English immersion experience. The adventurers went into the forest to create some fires and cook some camp-made bread over the embers, which went down a treat with tutors and campers alike. The sporty campers had an intense game of handball to wake them up and get the adrenaline flowing for the afternoon activity, while the creative children went off to create some postcards and paint each others faces.

Learning Survival Skills

Learning Survival Skills

After a stereotypically British lunch of fish and chips the children prepared for afternoon activity, the L&E Olympics. Adopting a comical stance, the event included numerous relay activities, such as egg and spoon racing, a particularly frantic fancy dress extravaganza, tennis and finally concluding with swimming. The events culminated in the renowned L&E Oscars ceremony, whereby the winners (Baptiste’s team!) were proudly announced. Alongside the announcements, we were fortunate enough to watch a gorgeous acrobatic display from some of our talented campers, as well as a scripted humorous piece from some of our older girls, the excitement in the room was certainly palpable. Having such a vast array of talent instilled within our campers is certainly one of the aspects that differentiates our camp from the rest. Concluding with our infamous hot chocolate, yet another gorgeous sunset cloaked a fabulous day.

For more photos from Friday click here

Star Camper!

Star Camper!

UK Tour Diary: 9th – 23rd July

13 July 2017

DAY 1 & 2

We are the first group of Teen Travel 2017. We are a group of five including the travel mentor, Julie. We all have different nationalities, Luzia is Portuguese, Annalisa is Italian, Rose is French, Josephine is German and Julie (travel mentor) is Scottish.

We have the goal of going to London, Cardiff and Edinburgh but we also want to go to Belfast and Brighton. To achieve this goal we have a budget and we have to book and find everything by ourselves.

Planning our trip!

Planning our trip!

After arriving at Aysgarth School on Sunday we met the other Teen Travellers and spent one night at the school. The next day Julie gave us some information and then left us alone to decide what we would do. We all agreed that we would go to London that afternoon. We asked the Camp manager Sarah to give us a lift to Northallerton train station around 1pm so we could catch our train. We jumped on the train and after some naps we arrived in London at Kingscross Station. We had to get to our London accommodation so we bought oyster cards so we could go on the underground. We reached our accommodation we looked for somewhere to eat and found an Italian restaurant nearby. We were all very tired and after trying to watch a movie we all fell asleep.

On Tuesday we all woke up at half past eight and we got a very good breakfast made by Josephine and Annalisa. After that we all worked a little bit to find places to go and a bike tour for Wednesday afternoon. At 12pm we arrived at The London Dungeon which we all enjoyed a lot, after this amazing experience we had lunch and we went to the London Eye.

The London Eye

The London Eye

In the evening we went shopping and we finished our day with a really nice dinner in Chinatown with one of the tutors from two years ago. Izzy.

We spent some more time back at the accommodation researching things to do for the rest of our trip then we all went to bed as we were tired from the day!

Luzia (15 years old, Portugal)

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Days 3 & 4

On Wednesday morning after another lovely breakfast, we went to 221b Baker Street (Sherlock Holmes’s house) then we went to go to Madame Tussauds where we waited 2h30 to get in! We only stayed 20 minutes because we needed to get to Queensway’s tube station by 3.15pm to do a bike tour. The bike tour lasted 4 hours and we visited the Royal gardens of London. In the evening, we wanted a traditional meal so we went into a pub to get fish & chips where Mike (who also works for L&E) joined us.

Meeting the Royal family

Meeting the Royal family

4 Sherlocks!

4 Sherlocks!

Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace

Today was our last day in London, the hostel was booked until 10am but the train for Brighton was at 12:20 so during that time, we went to Poundland and visited the neighbourhood before leaving for the train station. Once we got there, we caught our train for Brighton which lasted an hour. Our accommodation is situated nearby the train station so it took us only five minutes to get there.

Teen Travellers

Teen Travellers

Once we were settled, we left to get lunch in a noodle place that was really good. All those journeys were really tiring so we rested for an hour before heading to the beach where rented a paddle board, we all swam and had a shot on the board. We all then went to Brighton Pier where Luzia and I went on roller coasters! Tonight, we might go to the beach for dinner and seeing the sunset.

Rose (15 years old, France).

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Paddle Boarding

Paddle Boarding

Brighton Pier

Brighton Pier

Days 5 & 6

Friday morning we had a real English breakfast with scrambled eggs and toast. After this good start we got the train to our next stop: Cardiff. After a good journey we arrived at Cardiff and went to our accommodation where we would sleep one night. After a short phase of planning we explored Cardiff. In the evening we went to a music and drink festival at Cardiff bay. There were many countries represented which offered their food. In addition to the food was there a live band and almost everyone danced. Before we went back to our accommodation we enjoyed the good weather and evening to took some pictures and had a great view at the bay. We went all quickly in our bed because we were all very tired.

Cardiff Station

Cardiff Station

Cardiff!

Cardiff!

This morning we had our free breakfast and after Julie got the car which we booked to come from Cardiff to Edinburgh we started our long journey (± 7h). During this Julie noticed that we had made a mistake: Edinburgh is not Edinburg. The mistake we made was booking a hostel in Edinburg which is in Texas and not in Scotland were we actually wanted to go. So we called booking.com and talked to a customer service adviser – the woman cancelled our booking and we didn’t need to pay anything! We then had to find somewhere to stay for tonight and we found it in Glasgow. After we arrived in Glasgow we decided to cook this evening. Annalisa cooked for us very good spaghetti carbonara, which we all enjoyed.

Josephine (16 years old, Germany)

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Jumping Teen Travellers

Jumping Teen Travellers

Glasgow!

Glasgow!

Day 7 & 8

We left our accommodation in Glasgow by 12:00, then we visited George square to listen to a Scottish live band. Then we took the car and drove to Tesco to buy sleeping bags and roll mats for our Scottish camping adventure. We then drove to Edinburgh. Once we got to our hostel, we left our bags and we went to Arthur’s seat and walked along the Royal Mile before having dinner. Then we went back to the hostel and we did laundry (finally!).

Royal Mile - Edinburgh

Royal Mile – Edinburgh

In the morning we had free time, so we went shopping on Princes Street, then we had a picnic in Princes Street Garden’s where we chilled for about 3 hours in the Scottish sun. Once we were all really relaxed after that, we went to Edinburgh castle and had a little more of free time before going to Calton Hill and getting back to Prince’s garden to end our last night in this wonderful city.

Annalisa (aged 16, Italy)

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Scottish Dancing?

Scottish Dancing?

Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Days 9 & 10

Every member of the team takes a turn to write the blog….including the Travel Mentor! After another good night sleep in Edinburgh we woke up very excited about the next part of our adventure. This adventure started with a train ride to a small town called Alloa where my father picked us up and took us all back to my house in Dollar. We then ate some lunch and started to plan our journey. After Annalisa saw a picture of the Isle of Skye last week she, and all the other travellers, have been very keen to make the journey up north to travel around the island. I dug out my old tent and left the Teen Travellers to it! It’s always good to practice putting up a tent before you reach a campsite, it is very embarrassing if you realise you don’t have everything you need with an audience of campers watching you. The Teen Travellers struck a great deal with my parents to rent the family car and kindly asked me if I would drive them, I agreed, but only on the understanding they would buy me coffee whenever I wanted! We packed the (large) car and hit the road with the sun still shining. We headed straight for the Isle of Skye and the 5-hour drive was simply stunning. We stopped occasionally to take some pictures of the beautiful lochs and to stretch our legs. It was getting near dinner-time so we got some supplies in Fort William and found a lovely spot to eat next to some grazing horses with the amazing Ben Nevis as our backdrop, it was very picturesque. We hit the road again after calling a campsite to book in for that night, it wasn’t quite on the Isle of Skye but it was soon to get dark and although the Teen’s had practiced putting up the tent, it is somewhat more tricky in the dark. We arrived just before sunset and the tent was up in a matter of minutes’ – this left us with just enough time to climb a small hill to watch the sun go down.

 

After a dry, yet windy night the Teens were excited to get to The Isle of Skye. We had breakfast and took down the tent before it blew away and hit the road again. The girls wanted to visit the famous Fairy Pools, which are in the west of Skye so we headed straight there. The Fairy Pools did not disappoint – they comprise of a natural waterfall where the water flows down creating pools in which the water is crystal clear. The girls ate lunch perched on a rock and then explored the pools. The pools are a popular place to go swimming and although it was a warm day, ‘Scottish’ warm isn’t the same as normal warm! We hit the road again, this time to Dunvegan where we would camp for the last time. The girls were very tired after all the driving so they set up camp and rested for a while before dinner. We then headed to the local supermarket where we bought a very random, yet lovely selection of food for a picnic. Our campsite is right on the Dunvegan Loch so we sat outside and filled our bellies next to the water. The girls played Uno in their tent not worrying about the rain that was moving in…it’s going to be a very wet night!

Julie (Travel Mentor, Scotland)

North Camp Diary – Week 1

9 July 2017

SUNDAY, 9th July

With the sun shining and bird song in the air, the outlook seemed bright for the commencement of L&E North camp 2017. The tutors arrived at camp, some seasoned and some new, excited to have the children return.

As the happy campers arrived through the afternoon in their dribs and drabs, the tutors where put through their paces scaling 4 stories with some of the heaviest bags known to man. Thankfully, camper Alice was kind enough to remove her weights before allowing her bags to be carried. The campers enjoyed unpacking their belongings whilst chatting to new and old friends. The quiet school was now bustling with the noises of happy children.

With the sun shining, the campers were treated to beautiful barbecue and the parents bid their goodbyes. All were content and fed and it was time for some games. Old classics such as fruit basket, 40/40 and duck, duck, goose where brought back, as well as a new introduction of Zap which seemed to have been well received.

As the day drew to a close, the campers had the chance to slow things down by enjoying a hot chocolate and chatting away like long lost friends. With only one spillage, the future of L&E north camp is looking bright. Till tomorrow, sleep tight campers and be ready for an action packed day of fun.

For more photos from Sunday click here

Evening sun!

A drizzly start to the morning did not put off our fresh faced campers who were awake bright and early for a truly British breakfast of buttery crumpets. A raucous game of dodgeball followed and

MONDAY, 10th July

once everyone was warmed up we picked our activities for the day. The English team spent the morning getting to know one another, writing an L&E rap and playing lots of games. Other children were getting creative with the tutors’ faces (not their actual faces, fortunately) and making inspirational depictions of what is going on in their own heads. The sporting contingent had a varied morning of hockey, cricket and football, whilst the adventurers learned some key life saving skills in the pool.

Den Building Adventure

After a delicious lunch of meatballs and pasta the campers were ready for a fun-filled afternoon, and, surprise surprise, the sun poked its head out! The horse riders set out to meet their steeds, spending a lovely afternoon at the stables. Back at base camp the keen footballers got to hone their skills while the other sportsmen and women played quick cricket, with Camille showing the boys who’s boss. The creative kids got down to making some jewellery – bracelets and loom band creations aplenty!

The first evening swim was a popular affair and a hearty dinner followed. Then, the moment the campers had been eagerly awaiting… Icebreaker games! Tutors Ollie, Sophie and Sam organised an exciting array of goofy games including pass the water bucket, apple bobbing, toss the egg and tug of war. Safe to say our campers were worn out (and some a bit wet and eggy) and ready for a warm shower, hot chocolate and bed.

All in all, a wonderful ‘official’ first day of camp! New friendships forming everywhere we look and smiles all around. Let’s see what the rest of the week has in store!

For more photos from Monday click here

Ice Breakers!

Ice Breakers!

TUESDAY, 11th July

It was a cloudy, crisp morning but we warmed up quickly with an energetic match of dodge ball; the perfect way to shake away the morning cobwebs! This healthy competition was maintained throughout the day, with the English Team facilitating an action-packed morning complete with hangman, pictionary, and splat runoffs which engaged the students in vocabulary recall.

Meanwhile, the kids partaking in sports started their day with bench ball and ultimate frisbee. Today’s adventure component was dedicated to scuba diving, which proved both hugely popular and successful with the campers. Beware mums and dads, you may be asked to take your children on some beach side holidays in the near future!

Scuba at L&E

Scuba at L&E

We must acknowledge Camille’s astounding achievement in her scuba class this morning. After some reluctance, she overcame her fear of water and participated fully in the course. We are all incredibly proud of her!

The creative session commenced with papier mache, followed by choreographed dance lead by our very own dance and movement specialist, Hayley. We recorded these dances into a succinct film and concluded the morning with a meditation session. Lots and lots of fun were had by all!

As expected, the evening swimming session was a highlight with our campers (a few stray water balloons might have found their way into the gym – we always ensure L&E have a special edge!). The drizzly weather prevented a campfire but the tuckered out children were more than happy with the alternative of snuggling into the Library for a thrilling screening of Star Wars in anticipation of our theme night later this week!

Another wonderful day has concluded with our weary campers climbing into bed with smiles on their faces, full of excitement for the events tomorrow will bring!

For more photos from Tuesday click here

Happy Camper

Happy Camper

WEDNESDAY, 12th July

This morning we were treated to a clear blue sky, which the kids were happy to see after two rainy days! We took advantage of the weather and after a filling breakfast half the group set of to Canoe in some of Yorkshires’ most spectacular lakes and rivers. The other half of camp stayed for camp dodgeball before splitting up into different activities. This included a chance to research some English recipes, which the kids then cooked in English. Everyone enjoyed the lovely cookies and English Muffins they made! Elsewhere the kids were creating hot air balloons in their creative session with some wonderful designs, whilst the other children enjoyed a game of water polo in the pool.

Fun in the lake

Fun in the lake

That took us up to lunch which was enjoyed by all and gave everyone the fuel needed to enjoy the afternoon. Another group of kids went off to Kayak in the afternoon sun whilst those who stayed at camp were given a great selection of activities. This included football, where the boys continued to make progress in L&E’s football school, rapping, which was taken by our resident French tutor Baptiste who showed the kids some french free-flow rapping. Elsewhere the children enjoyed a treasure hunt on the school grounds in which everyone searched for the hidden clues around the camp.

After a quick watertight and swim, which allowed everyone to cool off from the afternoon heat, we gathered for dinner. After dinner was our famous campfire night. After a quick camp of giants, wizards, dwarfs, a game that’s are still a mystery to all involved, we headed down to a great fire which had been prepared by our camp tutors. It was a great evening in which everyone was involved, singing songs together and playing campfire games. The children were given the chance to perform songs from their different countries and it was lovely to see the diversity of languages and cultures on show, which is a unique feature of the camp and one that everyone embraces ad L&E.

After singing their hearts out through the evening the kids were ready to head back in for hot chocolate. They then headed up stairs and had a little time to chat with their tutors and each other before getting ready for lights out. It was a wonderful day and were hoping for more of the same through the rest of the week.

For more photos from Wednesday click here

The famous L&E Campfire!

The famous L&E Campfire!

THURSDAY, 13th July

We were once again blessed with splendid weather – which was fantastic given that we had an adventure line up of rock climbing which could thus proceed as planned (to the delight of our happy campers!). Our first group of climbers headed to Downholm, situated on the edge of the Yorkshire Dale National Park after a hearty breakfast, while the rest of the group headed to the gym for a therapeutic yoga session followed by (of course) L&E’s famous dodgeball warmup.

Morning Yoga!

Morning Yoga!

Morning activities based at Aysgarth consisted of rounders and ultimate frisbee sessions running parallel to cookie baking which didn’t seem to make too great a dent in the kids’ appetites at lunch! The kitchen always provides a spectacular salad bar alongside their lunchtime meals, which we are impressed to relay that the kids love – well done parents for instilling such healthy habits in your kids. We are very impressed!

Climbing

Climbing

The afternoon saw a second group of campers heading out to Downholm, as well as our horse riders off to the stables. Soccer camp got under way and the remaining campers chose between fire making skills – I believe that many kids can now start a campfire with nothing but a flint, and creative. Our creative session was quite diverse, including chalk art in the carpark, marble art prints, an expressive creative walk around the school grounds and, Star Wars themed “Galaxy in a Bottle” creations in preparation for our theme evening which kicked off after supper.

Fun in the lake

During the course of the day, our tutors displayed unprecedented theatrical skills creating an introductory video presenting a riddle; Darth Vader (a character from Star Wars) is on the run and a number of peace keeping characters are on the hunt for him (the tutors). This video was presented to the campers in the drama theatre, where the tutors invoked the help of the children to track down the much sought after Vader. The campers had to complete a number of task facilitated by various tutors/Star Wars characters which ultimately led them back to the drama theatre for a Skype Call with Darth Vader… It appears he has fled the country to Canada and is having a wonderful time sipping cocktails on a beach in Canada. (If you hadn’t guessed, Sam Ridgway played this role which was great fun for our repeat campers.)

Jumping for Joy!

Jumping for Joy!

The day ended with hot chocolate and marshmallows. Our tuckered out campers are now tightly tucked up in bed getting some much needed rest before another jam packed day tomorrow.

For more photos from Thursday click here

FRIDAY, 14th July

The weather looked promising heading out for warm up dodgeball and we added a side of cheerleading and dance to get everyone ready for another busy day at camp. With such nice weather, all tutors took their activities outside spreading across the fantastic Aysgarth campus and beyond.

The English class ventured into nearby town, Bedale to test out their vocabulary learn about some important British staples and experience Yorkshire life outside camp. The creative session took inspiration from Native American tradition, foraging for natural resources and taking them back to our outdoor workshop to make dream catchers while listening to traditional stories and music. The adventure session were also exploring the forest for bushcrafts round the campfire and in sport, the kids got a taste of touch rugby Nerf ball, American football and Waterpolo before we all came together for a delicious lunch of fish and chips.

Waterpolo

Waterpolo

After some free time with new camp friends everyone came back together for the L&E triathlon: swim, obstacle course and run (including dress up, of course). With great team work, and a few individuals taking on the full course, we celebrated with lots of fun on the waterslide and everyone getting thoroughly soaked.

For the evening we got into our finest for the Oscars, to announce all this week’s winners including the ‘Be Kind, Be Kind, Be Kind’ and Star Camper awards. The kids were tucked up after some hot chocolate and chats, ready to start tomorrow with some goodbyes and a trip to York.

Star Camper!

Star Camper!

For more photos from Friday click here