Uppingham Skills Weekend
On Saturday 8th March, a group of 6th years went to Uppingham with Mr Spencer and Andrew Passmore. We met the hockey players from Ampleforth at a service station and had supper on the way. We arrived at Uppingham at 9.00 at night. Jess
Staying the night
As
soon as we arrived we were greeted by a member of the house we were staying in.
We were then guided to our house and introduced to the house mistress/master. Most
of us stayed in a house sick-bay but some of us stayed in a TV room. The next
morning we woke up, had a delicious breakfast and were taken to our
activities. Alexandra Howard
Photography
Honor, James and Katie chose to do photography. We
walked across to the Leonardo centre and met Mr Wilson who told us how to use
the camera he was giving us. We got into partners and started walking around
the town. We took photos of each other and of the buildings around us. We had
to make the photo absolutely perfect. After we had used all the film in our
cameras we went back to the Leonardo again and went into a really dark room to
develop our pictures. Katie
We
were shown how to develop the photos and then it was lunch. When we had came
back from lunch we all met at the Leo centre. Now we went into the dark room.
You had to put your negatives into a timed projector which would project the
light of the photo onto your piece of paper. Then we put them in developer
liquid which you then get to see your photo on the paper. You had to hold it in
for 2 minutes, then, in a tray of water, then in some more chemicals and then
in fresh water. We all put our photos through the dryer. Katie really wanted
one of the photos James Lancaster took so James gave it to her. We all then
went to the buttery. James Lancaster
Shooting and orienteering
Henry
and James went off to do orienteering and shooting. First we did orienteering.
We had to try and find posts in the woods with a map and compass. Then we went
to do shooting at a place called Red Gate. We had our faces painted in
camouflage colours. We shot at paper targets with soldiers on. After that we
went back to the school. We really, really enjoyed it. Henry
I
played rugby and football first we did rugby we started with a jog round the
pitch passing the ball then we played a bit of a game when we finished lunch
we had a long walk to the middle pitches to play football we did some stretches
then we did a warm up after that we took free kicks against the uppingham first
11 goal keeper then we played a mach I really enjoyed doing football and rugby.
Bertie Spence
The
people doing art and ceramics stayed overnight at New House. Our
guides arrived to take us to there and after a long walk, we arrived. The
house was really nice and so were all the girls. We had hot chocolate with lots
of extra chocolate and then went to bed and talked for a long time! The
next morning we had a delicious breakfast in our pjs of fruit, toast, cereals
and chocolate muffins. Then we were taken to the Leonardo Centre to do our
activity. Clemmie Stroyan
Motor Workshop
We
were picked up from the sports centre by an Upper 5th form boy
called Sam. We walked to the motor workshop and when we got there we were shown
around by our instructor, Andy. We were each given an old piston which we had
to clean with an anti-grease thingy. After that we had to wash off the
anti-grease stuff with a high pressure hose and then dry it off. Then we had to
sand wash our piston using a hose with a separate hose bit for the air and the
sand which joined up at the end. When it was all nice and clean we did some
engraving on the piston. Then Andy showed us how to weld and we made a steel
box. Over all we had an enjoyable time.
James O
Art and Ceramics
Clemmie,
Lilias and Verity chose to do Art and Ceramics for their activity. We walked to
the Leonardo centre and we put smocks on and sat down. Our instructor told
about what we could do. We could either do a face or an animal. We all decided
to do a turtle. We got our clay and started moulding.
When we had finished, we
met some girls and they took all of the girls to New House to have lunch. We
played a bit of charades then went back to find out we were doing print. They
handed out some polystyrene and we made a pattern with the nibs of our pens.
Then we designed a background on a piece of paper and put Black ink on our
design. Then we printed the design on the paper. It was great fun. We all
enjoyed it! Lilias
Product Design
Ione,
Alexandra and Barley went to the Leonardo centre to go to the DT workshop to do
product design. Mr Ellis said that we were going to make desk tidy's. We first
had to carve the wood into the shape we wanted and drill holes for the pencils
to go through and a little dip in the wood for paper clips to go in. Then we
melted some polystyrene plastic and put that over the wood. After that we stuck
stickers on to them. I made an ice-cream.
Barley
Buttery
Once
we had finished our activities we all met at the buttery (the Uppingham tuck
shop) where there was juice and biscuits waiting for us. We got given 2 pounds
from Mr Spencer to spend at the buttery for the bus journey back. Once we had
all brought something, the headmaster of Uppingham gave a quick speech, and
then we all went back to the bus for a team photo! Ione Petit
At
the end, we set off back to Mowden, stopping for supper on the way. We had a
shower when we returned. We would all like to thank Mr Spencer and Andrew
Passmore for accompanying us on this trip and for driving us all the way there
and back. James Gibbons