Famous Fives in the Isle of Wight

2019-06-07

We arrived in the UKSA centre in Cowes at about noon on Monday and we were met with a warm welcome from the instructors. We then got sorted into our dorms and into our activity groups. Later, we completed some problem-solving tasks in groups to encourage us to work together: one game required us to lift a metal block using only ropes. We also played ‘longest line’ – a game where we had to use all our items to see which team could make the longest line on the floor. Our first evening activity was crabbing where we caught crabs using bacon and put them in a bucket of water. We had to fight off the seagulls! We let the crabs out at the end for a
crab race.

The next day we got up early for breakfast – all the food was delicious, but the breakfast was especially good! We got into our wetsuits and started the first activity. Some groups were going on dinghy boats and others were going on a large keel boat. Unfortunately, it was very windy so we couldn’t bring out both sails, but we still got to bring out the front sail on the dinghy boats. On the keel boats we were also taught some sailing knots. Our evening activity was orienteering where we went into a nearby forest and found riddles and tried to solve them.

The next day we did stand up paddle boarding and kayaking. We were in groups of 2 for these activities. We all got to jump in the water – we created a line of the paddle boards and got to jump off them. Our evening activity was water polo and a scavenger hunt where we had to do some orienteering around the site.

On Thursday we went on a different kind of dinghy boat with only one sail. We went very fast and the boat was the kind that tips in the water – it was challenging, but great fun! We also had windsurfing in the afternoon which was many people’s favourite activity – the weather was glorious. We all tried on our own and we got to try in pairs as well. We even saw Sammy the Seal pop his head up a few times! For our evening activity we got to go down to the centre of Cowes where we shopped a bit and then we had a beach clean. We found lots of little bits of plastic and Mira found a
jellyfish!

On Friday we were supposed to build our own rafts and go on them, but unfortunately it was too rainy to do so. Instead, we played team games and we danced to Just Dance before heading home on the ferry.
It was an extremely fun week and we learnt lots of new skills. We learnt the importance of working together, listening to each other and giving everything a go, even if it seems new or challenging. We were all very sad to leave.

Many thanks to Miss Humble, Mr van Rooyen, Miss Russell and Mrs Cadenhead for taking the time to come along with us and for all their help and support.
Agathe, Amélie, Amalia and Gabby