Year 6 Trip
to Uppingham Skills Day
On Saturday afternoon (15th March),
a small group from Year 6 set off for Uppingham, via Ampleforth in the minibus
with Mrs Knight and Mr Spencer. We watched the end of the hockey and rugby
tournaments and met up with the other Year 6 group.
On the journey we had a packed
supper and arrived at Uppingham at 8.30pm and went off to different houses in
Uppingham.
In the morning, we met up at the
sports centre. We met our activity leaders, who took us away to start our
activities of the day.
Our group went to the Leonardo Art
Centre, where we sketched some of our designs of animals. Then we made a clay
model of them. Our models were of a lizard, a turtle, a frog and a fish. We
also made Mother’s Day prints to take home, and had the write the message in
mirror writing so it printed the right way round.
In the motor workshop, we were shown
how to use the welder. We welded some sheets of steel carefully together and
made a box each. We were also taught how to sand blast and I sand-blasted a
piston, which I brought back with me.
In the morning we went to an
orienteering course in a wood called Wakerley Woods. There were 21 green and
white posts to find with a letter on. When we found it we had to get a stick
and wet mud to write. We found seven posts.
After lunch we went to do some
target shooting in the .22 rifle range. We used .22 rifles with bolt action. We
did some practice then a competition. I came 2nd in the shooting.
We went with the cycling group. We
hired bikes and went on a ride round Rutland Water, the largest artificial lake
in Europe. The ride was 17 miles long. First we had a five mile leg, which led by
the lake. After the 2nd leg, by the main road, we had lunch. We had two more
legs to go and really enjoyed the downhill part at the end. It was fun crossing
the dam and cycling ion the straight parts.
I went to the smaller gym to learn
about archery. We were shown the correct technique of holding the bow and given
the protective guards for fingers and arms. After lunch we tried jugging and
the teacher taught us some conjuring tricks, making a coin vanish, predicting
heads or tails and a trick with a rubber band.
My group went to do cooking. First
we went to the kitchen of the old pre-prep building called Windmill School. We
made chocolate chip cookies. To make these, we used butter, flour, sugar, egg,
vanilla and chocolate. In the afternoon we made fairy cakes and putting icing
on the top. It was great fun.
James was driven to Wakerley Woods
and was given dark make-up for camouflage. We also put camouflage on our
clothes. We dug in and built our bashas, and put a canvas cover over the top.
We cooked some mutton stew from army ration packets. Afterwards we cleaned off
all the dark make-up.
When the activities were all over,
we met up at the Buttery and had tea. We set off northward again and stopped
for supper at Wetherby Services, before finally returning to Mowden at 9,00pm.
We
would all like to thank Mrs Knight and Mr Spencer and all the Uppingham staff
and pupils who looked after us this weekend, for giving us such a brilliant
weekend.
Skip to navigation