14:55 YEAR 4 RETURN
14:05 At this moment, we are just seeing the house disappearing behind us so we should be back comfortably in time for pickup at 3:30. See you soon!
14:00 And so we come to the final update. I'll do my best to keep it concise...
After the raid, we tucked into a truly mouthwatering lunch of bakery-fresh sausage rolls (both regular and vegetarian) before having a recap and summary of our trip with the Ufton Court staff.
The children had great difficulty deciding their favourite moment with the raid, the banquet and the crime and punishment emerging as front runners alongside the bow-making.
Following this, it was finally time to say farewell. I think we were in universal agreement that Ufton was the highlight of our year so far and I would just like to add how proud we as a staff are of every single member of Year 4. They have been absolutely brilliant!
11:10 During our 'raid', the children learned about how the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings would have interacted as the vicious norsemen / women ventured into the occupied land of England.
The children were enormously sensible throughout. Even though there was much insult exchanging, a lot of fighting and many 'fatalities' on either side, the children have miraculously managed to come out unscathed and all the adults have been very impressed with their conduct. We are now having a break before lunchtime and our thoughts are finally turning to home.
10:30 We have just embarked on our final activity of the trip 😢. 4C have transformed into the most fearsome and bloodthirsty Vikings raiders I have ever seen and 4D have become a glorious Saxon army the likes of which Ufton Court has never before witnessed. The war between them will be fierce and it will be brutal. Will any of us come out of it alive!? Hopefully, the answer will be yes!
08:00 Good morning! Everyone is up and raring to go. We've begun the day with a bit of housework. The children have had to pack their bags, strip their beds and get themselves ready. This has been remarkably painless and I think parents would be very surprised at the capability on display. Now, we're heading down for our final meal in the Ufton canteen. Let's hope it's a good one!
22:30 Suffice it to say, the banquet was a triumph. The children had an incredible time feasting on an abundance of chicken, potatoes and corn on the cob. This was followed by an enormous cake that was brought out to both cheers and applause before we settled into an evening of riddles, dancing and drama.
By the end of the night, the children were completely exhausted which was obvious when some of them drifted off during a bedtime story in the Great Hall. Obviously, we very quickly headed up to bed for a remarkably straightforward bedtime and everyone was asleep by 10.
16:00 Now that I've got the parents on tenterhooks, it's time for another update. Our lunch was very nice as predicted and we followed it up with an interactive story about a magnificent Anglo-Saxon hero known as Beowulf. The acting on display was superb and more than once had the children in stitches. After that, we had a very well-deserved break and we are now embarking on the main event of the day - the feast!
12:20 Just finishing up with the two aforementioned activities. It turns out that we have some very knowledgeable historians (not a surprise) as well as some exceptional archers in Year 4.
Now, we're heading in for a delicious and nutritious lunch. Yum!
09:30 Right, we've finished breakfast and what a lovely meal it was! We ended up having two separate courses - the cereal course and the toast course. Everyone ate extremely well which meant that we were ready for room inspections. On the whole, the rooms were very impressive, but there was a clear winner amongst both groups and lots of improvements to make for tomorrow morning. Now, we are into our first activities of the day which see the children learning about some extraordinary Anglo-Saxon artefacts and having the chance to make their very own bows out of the strongest and most flexible Ufton willow. I hope parents have room in their cars!
07:15 Morning. We’re all awake now after a good night’s sleep. We’re heading downstairs for a bit of downtime before breakfast at 8.
22:20 I think we are all down. Not bad at all for a first night!
21:00 Sorry for the late message. We've finished our
final activity and it was superb. The children acted out an Anglo-Saxon court room and there were many twists and turns before the Thane was able to reach a conclusion. They even had to deal with the betrayal of a trusted advisor, which sent shockwaves through the jury.
Now, we are just getting the children into bed. It is a little later than we might have hoped but hopefully that just means they'll get to sleep quickly...
18:45 Sorry for the radio silence but we have had a lot to get through.
18:44 During our room exploration, we actually had a fire drill which the children passed with flying colours. After that, the children had to finish making their beds before showing their newfound knowledge of the house during some photomapping (it was amazing how quickly they knew where everything was).
Next, we were introduced to some Anglo-Saxon games which we compared with the kind of games that we play in 2023. 'Kubb' was especially popular!
At the moment, we are having a moment of quiet following a delicious meal of sausage and mash which was completed by an "outstanding, homemade apple crumble" (the children's words).
However, our race is not yet run and we have one more activity to take part in before bed.
More to follow...
14:55 The children have just found out the rooms that they are staying in and they are now getting an opportunity to explore the house. Everyone is feeling much more at home now that they've searched every nook and cranny.
14:00 The first activities have been completed! Some of us began by embarking on a 'Rune Trail', which involved exploring the grounds of Ufton whilst learning about both the Anglo-Saxons and being safe. The other group learned about and practised some Saxon skills such as lighting a fire, creating wool and building a wall. After that, we were in need of sustenance so we headed into the house to enjoy a lunch of jacket potato and baked beans. Yum! Just to add that we rotated activities so everyone got to experience both.
11.10 Well, we've arrived. We're safe and sound. After the adventure of getting all of our luggage off the coach, we were greeted by some strange looking figures who claimed that they were Anglo-Saxons. We are now heading off to begin our first activities. Wish us luck!
09:36 40 very excited children and equally as excited adults leave for UFTON 2023