To help our pupils build relationships and develop team work, we took them to the Swattenden Centre in Cranbrook.

Each form spent a day at the centre, with pupils starting their day on an adventure course competing in two teams where team work was essential. This was also the part where they got the muddiest! Class clown Mr Ashmore slid through the mud ‘superman style’, then made the pupils cringe as he did his impression of a slug moving.

Next up, the pupils would have to use their initiative to build a raft with only limited help from the instructors, again making team work essential. After the rafts were built, it was race time! The instructors at Swattenden Centre said the record for the most amount of people on one raft was five, The Rowans accepted this challenge! Six squeezed onto one raft, temporarily, until it quickly sunk! Five then lasted a bit longer, before they all abandoned ship into the freezing water!

After lunch, staff and pupils took on the zip wire. With encouragement from their peers, many overcame a fear of heights to jump off a high platform and glide down the zip wire. Mr Nolan even managed to do a selfie whilst going down!

Special mention goes to our pupils, whose behaviour at the Swattenden Centre was impeccable every day.

What our pupils thought of the trip:

“It was really good, I really enjoyed the rafting!” - Tom Beard

“Mr Ashmore doing the slug was really funny!” - Hugo Miller

“I really enjoyed it, the Zip Wire was a lot of fun!” Charlie Dunford

“Fun, but muddy!” Jordan Fazzani

“The assault course was really funny, with everyone getting their head stuck in the cargo net!” - Edward Hawkins

“Jumping into the river was really funny. It was freezing! Like jumping in a bath of ice!” Maria Keen

To view more pictures from our time at Swattenden visit our gallery by clicking HERE