On Wednesday 7th July, the J4 classes went on a trip to Rock and River Outdoor Pursuits.
 
The first task we had was to participate on the balance beams.  Miss Oxley accompanied our group all day because she said she wanted to join whichever group was doing the balance beams first.  I was the last in my group because I am acrophobic, heights really frighten me.  On the verge of the penultimate rung of the ladder, I froze and I couldn't go on. 
 
The second task (my personal favourite), was kayaking on a small lake.  We got to play some of our favourite school games like tag.  There were a couple of times when I put too much force into the paddle on one side and almost capsized!!!  After we had finished, we changed into our spare set of clothes and then had a break for lunch.
 
Our penultimate task was archery.  In the first round, my opponent was Miss Oxley.  This was very unfortunate for me because she beat me by a country mile!  Afterwards, we had a championship game with boys versus girls.  The boys were winning by far until Olivia joined the girls team.  She managed to increase the final score to 1 point ahead of the boys team, so the girls won!  I couldn't believe the girls had beat us.
 
Finally, we tried our hand at rock climbing.  This time I was positive that I wanted to go first but it proved a bit problematic because I had three attempts to reach a rock which was significantly higher than the other rocks.  Most people thought it was easy but it was hard for me, so after everyone else had finished, I asked if I could have another try.  After three more attempts, I sllipped off the rocks and almost fell to the ground - it was lucky that I was close to the ground!
 
After an adventure filled day, we were given birthday invitations and leaflets which encouraged us to revisit at a later date, there were still other trials that we could have done. 
 
I certainly won't forget this day, as it is was the best school trip I have ever been on.
 
Best regards
 
Troy-Francis Beaumont
J4X Mr Bryning's class

Rock and River was GREAT!!!   I had lots of fun. After the long journey we arrvied. Our Group went off to do to archery. I wasn`t that bad. We were put into to teams and the team who scored the highest won but it always ended up as a draw. As we left we saw Dylan, a cute little dog but he soon ran off. After that we walked over to the climbing wall which was quite high but I managed to get to the top. After a delicious lunch we went to the balance beam. There were two beams: a high one and a low one. I did both. Just as I had got half way across the lower beam, it started raining but I manged. After all of us had had a go, we changed into some shorts because we were going Kayaking next. We all sat in a kayak. Mr Bryning pushed us in. After a while we played games including tag in the water. Emily fell in. Kayaking was my favourite but all of it was really fun.  Overall I thought Rock and River was AMAZING! I really would like to go again!

By Saloni Parikh

Rock and River was by far the best trip I have ever been on. It is an exciting day full of lots of different activities. They were very fun and some were scary. My favourite event was the kayaking because you are in a boat on the lake and I was the first to fall in. I thought the scariest event was probably the balance beams. You have to walk across a thin piece of wood from about 30 feet off the floor, but you were attached to a harness and kept feeling you were going to fall off. I also very much enjoyed the archery and I was pretty good at that as well and our team got five shots in the middle . The last event was the rock climbing and when the instructor was lowering me down from the top I slipped and fell; it was a good job I had a harness on! 

By Charlie Barrand