Year 7 Residential to Blenheim Woods

Our Year 7 boys have just returned from a 2-day team building residential trip to Blenheim Woods in Oxfordshire.

The first activity was learning all about bushcraft fires, the many ways of lighting them and how to build them up successfully. A big mission followed, tasking the boys with finding enough dry wood so they could cook their lunch on a grill! The burgers (and vegetarian options) were delicious!

Then, in their groups, they learnt how to build rudimentary shelters – little did they know that they would be following suit and some boys even slept in their creations. Our boys played lots of games in daylight, twilight and darkness where they loved trying to capture the flag or lantern past the instructors or teachers.

Each boy made himself a paracord bracelet (some graduated to necklaces and even bigger loops) with the help of the Beacon staff whilst the instructors had small groups for the traditional bushcraft skills of whittling. All the key knife skills were demonstrated and our boys successfully made their own tent pegs.

It was a wonderful trip, enjoyed by everyone with plenty of new skills learnt!