Year 5 trip to Burwell House
In Year 5, children all take part in a short residential visit to Burwell House. They enjoy a variety of activities whilst there, including making their own short films in a professional film studio as well as a host of team building exercises. Everyone thoroughly enjoys this great trip and the children all talk enthusiastically about the new skills they learn whilst away.
Burwell September 2025
01/10/25 - 8:45 - The children arrived with enthusiasm and excitement for the trip ahead! Suitcases wheeled up the drive and safely stored under the canopy... now just for the coach!
01/10/25 - 9:00 - A final briefing before going... an opportunity to focus on the amazing opportunities that await.
01/10/25 - 9:35 - We've been loading the coach and are now on our way!
01/10/25 - 10:30 - We have all safely arrived at Burwell... our bags are safely stored in one room, whilst we acclimatise to the site!
01/10/25 - 10:45 - time to listen to Sharon's briefing for our visit ahead... objectives, aims and expectations!
01/10/25 - 11:00 - We are off to enjoy the snail game. This is where there are a range of questions hidden around the grounds. After finding these, we had to answer them and get them checked by the adults. After this, we rolled a dice to discover what our next question would be.
01/10/25 - 11:45 - Snail Game Over! This was brilliant. All the children got fully involved - we have never had such a brilliant group who have attained to it for so long. Well done Year 5!
01/10/25 - 11:55 - Time to get ready for lunch! We heard about the expectations of how mealtimes at Burwell work - along with the fabled Golden Candelabra!
01/10/25 - 12:45 - We have enjoyed a wonderful lunch of lasagne, garlic bread and salad, followed by chocolate cake and custard! There were not many helpings of lasagne left over... but just enough to keep the adults' rumbling stomachs content! Mrs. Smith's table won the first golden candelabra, which was celebrated with a refined round of applause. There were some eager and determined faces ready to pull out their best table manners for dinner!
01/10/25 - 1:00 - A little bit of free time is now being enjoyed before our next activity!
01/10/25 - 1:30pm - The horn has just sounded to muster everyone for our next activity... Orienteering! The children are using their maps to locate physical and human features around them to orientate their maps.
01/10/25 - 1:45pm - We are undertaking our orienteering activity, using the maps to navigate different parts of the Burwell site. We've also been finding a range of control points with Burwell-themed words on them. This helped us learn about the geography and history of the Burwell area... from fen to peat; from tigers to lode!
01/10/25 - 3:00pm - free time and a snack of a homemade oat biscuit!
01/10/25 - 3:30pm - Time for a tour of the TV Studios! We've seen the HD cameras, green screen and control deck, ahead of tomorrow's filming.
01/10/25 - 4:00pm - time for rooms! Children headed up with enthusiasm to make their beds to varying degrees of success! However, it was great to see such great teamwork.
01/10/25 - 4:45pm - a fire drill briefing, before our fire drill at 5pm. The second practice was wonderful and the children were wonderfully silent and walked beautifully to the muster point.
01/10/25 - 5:30pm - A brilliant dinner of chicken goujons, wedges and beans was followed by chocolate brownie.
01/10/25 - 6::10pm - Free time- indoors and outdoors!
01/10/25 - 7:30pm - time for pyjamas and the soft toy competition! We enjoyed hearing a great variety of names, experiences and stories behind the special cuddly visitors that have accompanied us to Burwell.
01/10/25 - 9:00pm - time for bed! Settling in and getting ready, ahead of a (hopefully) peaceful night... watch this space!
02/10/25 - 07:00am - everyone is well after a reasonably peaceful night. We are looking forwards to breakfast and the day ahead!
02/10/25 - 8:00am - a brilliant breakfast of cereal, fruit, yoghurt, followed by hash browns, beans and toast.
02/10/25 - 9:00am - time for low ropes! These are a great mixture of team building games - including a giant seesaw, pole challenge and rope grabber challenge. The children worked exceptionally well and we saw some wonderful teamwork, communication and leadership skills.
02/10/25 - 10:30am - time for a short break and a practice of our scripts, accompanied by a snack of fresh fruit.
02/10/25 - This morning and afternoon are a carousel of activities based around the TV Studio and batik bags. Children enjoyed creating designs for their batik bags, before realising these with wax and dyes. When in the TV studios, pupils enjoyed bringing their scripts to life by performing in front of the cameras. Pupils also had the opportunity to operate the technical aspects for another group's performance. We look forward to seeing the finished videos! We had a lovely lunch of sandwiches, sausage rolls, salad and crisps.
02/10/25 - 5:30pm - after a busy day, we enjoyed pasta, tomato sauce and garlic bread.
02/10/25 - 7:30pm - time for the souvenir shop to open! Pupils are visiting the "bank" before selecting some lovely items to bring back!
02/10/25 - 8:00pm - the Premiere! All three groups' productions from the TV Studios were shared for the first time... these were all wonderful! From stories of a phoenix in France to a gentleman who can never finish his sentences... they covered a great range!
02/10/25 - 8:30pm - a few snacks and a short something to watch before bed!
02/10/25 - 9:00pm - up to bed, with lights out at 9:30pm.
02/10/25 - 10:00pm - it's very quiet... in most places of Burwell House! We are hoping that the Tooth Fairy will visit one room tonight.
03/10/25 - 7:00am - time to wake up and make the finishing touches to packing, along with stripping beds. It was a relatively peaceful night and the children are looking a little more refreshed than yesterday. We are all looking forward to the day ahead.
03/10/25 - 7:30am - many rooms have all their sheets stripped and in the correct laundry bins. Most people are also packed up too... it is very organised and civilised so far!
03/10/25 - 8:00am - off to breakfast and we hear that the Tooth Fairy managed to visit Caleb's pillow and perform a fair exchange for a shiny molar!
03/10/25 - 9:30am - Team challenges - a great variety of challenges to test communication and team work. Well done to all!
03/10/25 - 11:00 - a quick break before the legendary Burwell Fox... apparently there are some vicious farmers in these parts!
Year 6 Grafham Blog - 2024
23/10/24 - 10:45am - The Grafham squad have arrived safely. We have had a tour of the site and are excited for our activities to start after lunch. We will be settling into our rooms shortly. The sun is shining and the lake looks beautiful. More updates to come!
23/10/24 - 3:00pm - We have had our packed lunches and settled well into our rooms. Lots of excited children! We are heading off on our first activities. Mrs Fewell’s group are enjoying mountain biking! We will be back ready for dinner at 17:00 before we head out for the Grafham Challenge.
All the children are happy and well. More updates to come!
23/10/24 - 6:30pm - The children really enjoyed their activities this afternoon. The groups will rotate tomorrow and the children are giving each other top tips! Dinner was delicious and the children are now getting prepared for the Grafham challenge. Once again, everyone is well and there have been no tears at all!
23/10/24 - 8:15pm - We've just returned to our rooms after all completing the very muddy Grafham Challenge! Everyone demonstrated great resilience and team work. After hitting the showers everyone is now settling down to play games or watch a film. Fingers crossed for some good sleep tonight!
24/10/24 - 8:30am - Good morning! The children had a reasonable night and have woken up bright and breezy this morning. We have had breakfast and will soon be heading off for our morning activities. Room inspection happening this morning!
24/10/24 - 12:30pm - Wow, your children are amazing! Mrs Haigh and Mrs Fewell have their hearts in their mouths but the children are smashing it on the high ropes! Miss Thompson's group set off for a bike ride round the lake which looks stunning in the sunshine.
All groups will be out on the water and we can't wait!
24/10/24 - 1:40pm - We have just refuelled after a fun-filled morning of activities, including two groups on the high ropes conquering their fears. The third group was mountain biking around the reservoir and discovered a giant jumping pillow along the way.
24/10/24 - 6:50pm - We had a sunny and warm afternoon on the water. Once we’d all wriggled into wetsuits one group did kayaking, canoeing and fossil hunting whilst the other two groups did fun boating (sailing). We have just had another delicious tea of vegetable meatballs followed by chocolate brownie and are now playing some games before we watch a movie with a hot chocolate. Hoping for a bit more sleep than last night before we get up tomorrow to pack, have breakfast and then do our last activity! It’s gone so fast!
25/10/24 - 9:10am - After a much better night's sleep and a good breakfast we are now finishing packing and are looking forward to the last group activities - mountain biking, canoeing/kayaking and high ropes.