Friday 4.4.25

SB Update 1: We have arrived - We have made it safely to Standon Bowers. The traffic was rather bad on the M6 and we've had to go a different way for a road closure. All are in good spirits and the sun is shining. Now we need to get unpacked and into the dorms.

SB Update 2: Off for a tour... - The children have settled into the dorms and got their beds made. We are now having a welcome briefing before a site tour. The leader here is stressing the importance of independence and team building during the weekend. We're also looking for children to ensure they are listening to instructions and trying their best with the activities.

SB Update 3: Ready for the evening - We've enjoyed a lovely dinner of mac and cheese, sausages or jacket potatoes. The children have been praised for their manners. One child judged the cake for pudding to be "amazing", which was passed onto the chef. The children are now just getting themselves organised before we head outside for some free time in the evening sunshine.

SB Update 4: A lovely evening - We're making the most of the lovely, warm evening on the field. The children are enjoying their free time by playing football, cricket, building structures with branches and just chilling. Rolling down the small hill is proving popular with children and staff. There are a few pictures from this evening on the website here: https://www.greswold.solihull.sch.uk/standon-bowers-2025/ Please note that only a small selection of pictures will be posted while we are away due to the upload speed. There will be more pictures available once we return and have time to sort them out.

SB Update 5: Time for bed - This evening the children completed a photo trail which involved looking for little details around the site and recording where they were on the map. It was made a bit more challenging as there had been a couple of changes since the photos were taken last year, so expert observation was needed. We then got our torches ready for an evening stroll. We didn't spot any rabbits tonight but there were some lambs in the field next to the site. It was also nice for the children to enjoy the sunset and listen to the birdsong. After the hot chocolate, the children have settled down to sleep and most are now snoozing. Let's hope they all sleep well now. Good night from Standon Bowers.

Saturday 5.4.25

SB Update 6: Good morning. It's a glorious morning here at Standon Bowers. The children were very excited last night to be away, so we had a few that took a bit of persuasion that they actually needed to go to sleep. All are now up, dressed and ready for the day ahead. After tidying the dorms and making beds, the children have spent some time in the games room. They are now being served breakfast to fill up on to give them plenty of energy for today's activities. We'll be kicking off with bouldering, bridge building, low ropes and blindfold trail. We realise that there have been a few technical problems with the messages for some families. We've tried our best to work round these as there is not technical support on the weekend. Hopefully everyone will receive this message and we will be back on track.

SB Update 7: Almost ready for activities. The children ate well this morning and are currently enjoying some free time in the games room or in the outdoor quad. Table tennis, pool and table football are all proving very popular. It looks like we're in for a lovely day weather wise. Activities start at 9:30 so the children will soon be getting ready to meet their instructors.

SB Update 8: A busy morning - We’ve had a busy morning of activities. The newts welcomed a couple of children who ended up dipping their wellies in the moat while bridge building. It was great to see Year 4 embracing the challenges offered here, and the cargo net has been climbed by every pupil so far (and several staff). The blindfold trail was interesting to watch: the importance of clear instructions was definitely established and the children realised that saying “walk there” or “go that way” when their partner is blindfolded is not very effective. The children have enjoyed their sandwich lunch and some free time. We’re now getting ready to start the afternoon activities. We can’t do caving this year as the system is awaiting repairs so the children will be making shelters instead – a useful skill. There still seems to be some technical problems with the messages getting through, which we cannot resolve, so we’ll try posting updates here on the Standon Bowers gallery page on the website as well.

SB Update 9: A successful afternoon - It’s been a lovely afternoon here, full of success. Our last group to try bridge building managed to complete the task without anyone getting their wellies wet and the children were praised for their problem solving skills. Two of the group managed to work out the secret to a cantilevered bridge design, so also got to try out a bridge designed by Leonardo Di Vinci as an extension challenge. Super work! Elsewhere, we have some top archers over on the field and other children have been showing off their skills of design when building shelters. This is a new activity for Greswold and the children have done a brilliant job of working together and not getting phased by set-backs, such as when one of the shelters proved not quite as stable as they thought and the group had to start again. There has also been some fantastic bouldering and, again, the children have stepped up to the different challenges they have been set. We won’t have much chance now to get any more pictures on until the children have gone to sleep – the last upload took nearly an hour and a half to update. So it might be the morning before any more photographs appear. However, please be reassured that everything is going well and we are looking forward to the camp fire later. The children are currently tucking into their dinner (nuggets, a burger or a baked potato were the choices tonight) and the chocolate mousse seems to be the most popular choice for pudding.

SB Update 10: A good night and goodnight - So after some free time on the field, the children got ready for the camp fire. Staff from Standon Bowers and Greswold led the songs, while Year 4 did a great job with joining in with the singing and actions. As the sun set, we belted out classic camp fire songs such as Apples and Bananas, Singing in the Rain (although it was dry), The Penguin Song and Have You Ever… Then, with the Sun disappearing behind the horizon, we sang a couple of quieter songs to calm the children before hot chocolate time. It was far easier to get the children to settle down tonight – we must have done a good job of wearing them out with all of the activities. So it's goodnight from Standon Bowers. More updates tomorrow.

SB Update 11: Our last morning at Standon Bowers - Good morning. The children slept really well and we’ve had the exciting task of packing backs ready for our return. We had pretty much cleared the dormitories before breakfast, though getting everything back into the cases proved a bit of a challenge. Hopefully everything has made it into the correct case, but if you discover anything in your child’s case they have packed in error, please send it back into school so we can reunite it with its owner. After a final tidy up, we’re going to give the children a little bit of free time before activities start at 9:30. They will be doing the final two activities that they haven’t completed yet so everyone will have completed all six. It’s another glorious morning here and the children are looking ready to go.

SB Update 13: Goodbye Standon Bowers - The coach is all loaded and we’re heading for home after a lovely weekend away. We left pretty much on time and the driver reports that there were no hold-ups on the way here, so hopefully we’ll be back on time. We will update you if there are any delays.

SB Update 14: ETA is 3:30pm - We're on the M42 and about 15 mins away from Greswold so we should see you on time at around 3:30pm.