Pinkery 2009

During the Summer Term the children in year 4 go on a three day residential trip to the Pinkery Outdoor Education Centre on Exmoor. The children are accompanied by school staff and governors on this trip. The children are away from home for three days and two nights and take part in a wide range of outdoor educational and adventrous activities.
In 2009 this trip cost £60 per head.

In the months leading up to the trip a lot of planning is done. All of the activities have to be booked and permissions obtained from the Local Education Authority. An information meeting is held for parents and the children plan the menus for the three days that we are away.
On the morning of the first day the children meet at school and say goodbye to their families. We then walk down to Spears Cross where our coach is waiting to pick us up. In this picture you can see everyone boarding the coach. Mr Daly always comes down to help carry all of the luggage.

When we leave school on the first morning we head straight to the Blackbrook Pavilion in Taunton. As soon as we get there we spend two hours doing a range of sporting activities. One of the favourite activities is the indoor rock climbing. If you are really good at this you can climb up and touch the ceiling. If you are not so good you climb up a little way and then fall off onto the blue crash mat! Rumour has it that Mrs Shambrook once managed to climb all the way across the ceiling.

Apart from the rock climbing we also have a go in the gym and go trampolining. The trampolining is excellent and just like the rock climbing we have a specialist coach who shows us what to do and makes sure that we don't do anything dangerous.

After we leave the Blackbrook Pavilion we get back on the coach and head to Pinkery. On the way we find somewhere nice to stop off for a picnic lunch. When we arrive at Pinkery a mini bus meets us and picks up all of our luggage. we have to walk all the way up to the Pinkery Centre. The centre is managed by Mr Huxtable. As soon as we arrive we get unpacked and Mr Huxtable tells us all about how to use the centre properly

As soon as we have unpacked Mr Huxtable or one of the Rangers take us for a walk up to Pinkery Pond. It is a great walk and someone always falls into the bog or loses their wellingtons. When we get to the pond we listen to some amazing true stories about the pond. We then get a chance to walk through Pinkery Tunnel.

 

 

 

After our visit to Pinkery Pond we walk back to the Pinkery Centre. On the way we stop off to look at the windmill. The windmill and some solar panels on the roof of the centre provide all of the electricity for tne Pinkery Centre.

 

Sometimes when there is no wind we have to help get the windmill going by blowing as hard as we can!

This is a picture of the dining room at Pinkery. The food at Pinkery is cooked by the adults. This year Mrs Shambrook was in charge and on the first night she cooked an amazing lasagne.

 

"The food at Pinkery is brilliant. There is always so much to eat and it tastes delicious." (Jacob)

The Pinkery Centre is in the middle of nowhere. There are no streetlights or roads just lots of fields and moorland. The Pinkery Centre does have a telephone but it doesn't have a television. There are lots of sheep and at night they come in close to the buildings.

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