Welcome to Norfolk! Last half-term, the Principal asked me if I would like to join the year 5 & 6 classes heading to Norfolk for their residential (school camp as we know it back home). I was thrilled and excited and immediately said yes! I enjoy school camps (unless it is freezing rain, gale force winds and snow, like we had on 1 particular year 8 camp!) and I had heard the Norfolk area is beautiful, and that it was a great camp.
Due to covid restrictions, the camp can go ahead, with some changes. We took all year 5 (2 classes) and year 6 (2 classes), a total of 81 students, and 8 teachers, including myself. We had to have year bubbles, class bubbles and dorm bubbles. Year 5 and 6 are not to mix at any point so the activities are different each day. The teachers also do not mix between year levels so I, assigned to work with year 5, never interacted with the year 6 students.
On Monday we arrived at school, bright and early at 8am. Our buses were stuck in traffic so arrived quite late. When they finally arrived, we loaded up and headed off. London, and UK, traffic is terrible so it took quite a while to get out of London and onto the freeways. Plus the addition of roadworks does not help. The year 6 bus left before us so they were a good 20 mins ahead. We stopped at the Services (truck stop/service centre) for a toilet & coffee & mandatory driver break. Our bus unfortunately had a driver not accustomed to the bus and could not work the air conditioning system. This meant we had no cool air and it was a 28 degree day. The temp inside the bus got to 33oC and we were all dying, especially the kids at the back! It took longer to reach the camp than usual so we didn’t arrive until 1.45pm.
After a hurried packed lunch we split into groups and headed off to our first activity. I went with a group of 10 boys to archery. The setup was very good and they leader was very patient! After that we moved to the den building & teamwork challenge. This was more interesting for me to watch! The 10 boys had to make a frame from sticks about 1.5m long and rope, then tie a tarp over the top and it had to be waterproof so that when I chucked a bucket of water on them and sprayed them with a supersoaker they wouldn’t get well. Teamwork was not great and when I chucked water on the tarp it collapsed. Naturally we got the supersoakers and squirted the kids to add to it! They had a blast!
We got divided up and shown to our rooms. We are spread across 3 buildings. The camp is an old school, so it they are small buildings with super creaky floors. Beautiful from the outside though. I slept in the Leaders Lounge, which previously would have been the staff room for teachers. I have a portable bed, bar fridge, tea/coffee stuff, couches and I also have the CCTV setup including the TV screen so I can see what is happening outside the property. There are 2 rooms of year 6 girls in the same area and another teacher.
Next up was dinner. We had cheese & tomato pizza with potato wedges and a small salad, followed by jam sponge with custard. I also was designated dietary person so my job at the beginning of each meal is to deliver the dietary meals to the kids before the regular meals are served. Each of the 4 classes has their own dining room, each with 2 teachers. We have a nice little table and get table service from the kitchen staff. The students have a designated “table manager” who collects the food from the kitchen and serves it to their table. Very good setup really. Each night, we get given 2 pieces of paper with the following days meal options. We have to preorder our meals and submit them for the kitchen to prepare.
After dinner, we changed into long pants, sleeves and pants tucked into socks to head into the bush for an evening walk. There are ticks in the forest so the super attractive pants tucked into socks is an unfashionable but necessary measure. Groups staggered off and in different directions. We had beautiful weather so the evening was lovely. We stopped to talk at different points, all with the general heading of the church in the field and Felbrigg Hall. Felbrigg Hall just sort of appears out of nowhere and is a huge lovely old building. There is a long history and we heard the story of a previous own from the 1500’s, Sir John & Lady Florence. Tragic story of a couple who fell in love, then she died but was cataleptic and buried alive, who ended up being saved by a grave robber. The building also has some beautiful white wisteria (I think) on the walls which was gorgeous.
Once back it was bedtime. It took a long time for the kids to settle and we sat outside, socially distanced in our year bubbles, until they fell asleep.
Tuesday we all seemed to wake early, although the students were under strict orders that they were not to leave their rooms until 7.30am. Doesn’t stop the sound of talking and footsteps from waking others up though! Breakfast I chose an entrée of grapefruit and a main of bacon, baked beans and fried egg. We also got toast with it and I brought my Vegemite with me.
My first activity with my 10 boys was bush craft. Here Sonic taught us how to light a fire using flint stone, carbon steel and char cloth. Only 1 boy managed to create a fire with this method so we switched to using a striking rod instead of flint stone. This is far more satisfying as the sparks are significantly easier to produce and much bigger. We produced a spark onto the char cloth then loosely buried the char cloth in hay. We gently blew on the hay, adding more air to the fire and trying to catch the hay on fire. Once the hay was alight we chucked it into the fire pit. The boys all managed to do this so it was my turn and it was AWESOME. I haven’t made fire without matches or lighters so it was new to me and It was fun!
After this was ziplining time. The boys had to work out how to finish setting it up and then get everyone from one side to the other, across a very green, manky pool of water. My job was VERY important: squirt them with the supersoaker as they zipped across! Best job! Once they all crossed, I had a half full supersoaker and several of them were taunting me so I cut loose and soaked them all! Best. Job. Ever!
Next was back to the bush which meant long sleeves, long pants and pants tucked into socks. Here the kids had a challenge to build a hide from the fallen/cut trees. No man-made materials whatsoever. They had several guidelines: camouflage, waterproofing, big enough for their whole team and structural integrity. To judge, we teachers had to assess all these guidelines, finally assessing waterproofing with…..supersoakers!
Lunch was a packed lunch of ham & salad or cheese & salad rolls then it was off for a bus trip. Our first stop was Sheringham, a local seaside town. We went for a walk along the seawalls with our leader Sonic giving the kids information. The year 6 and half the year 5 kids were lucky and saw an amazing & sad sight. A montjuc (tiny deer) came bolting out of nowhere and jumped off the end of the seawall into the ocean and began swimming out to sea. A lifeguard grabbed his board and went after it, eventually managing to guide it back to shore and rescued it. Unfortunately my group didn’t see any of this but one of the teachers got a great photo of the montjuc wrapped in a towel.
Next we took the bus to West Runton to the beach to explore the rock pools. We found some anemones and ended up finding some belemnites (fossilized squid backbones, same as my necklace except mine is opal). We also saw a few crabs and lots of seaweed. We also had some free time on the beach before heading back for dinner.
Dinner tonight was good, pasta bolognaise with chocolate cake & chocolate custard. Then we took the year 5’s out for a game of ten pin bowling. They had a blast, and we had our ears blasted from their screaming and cheering. It was nice to see them all supporting each other and cheering them on. With a bit of competition thrown in!
Wednesday was the day I was most looking forward to. We were going seal watching! We woke up a bit earlier and had an earlier breakfast as all the kids needed to have life jackets fitted. It was a gorgeous day, blue skies, little cloud and so much sunshine. After brekky, we boarded the coaches and drove 45mins to Morston. We boarded some bright orange boats and headed out. We drove through the bay and to the point where a huge amount of birds were nesting. Oyster catchers, terns and gulls. Around the point we encountered a group of 4 dozing on the sand. Three big ones and a young one. They were not bothered by the boats and just watched us as we passed. A bit further along the beach was another group, all big ones this time. They were grey seals and common seals.
As we made a turn we also saw a lot in the water swimming around.
After this, we headed back to land, and after a toilet stop, boarded the coach and drove to the town on Cley-next-the-Sea. Here we got off the bus at a pebble covered beach (shingles they call it here, not pebbles). This beach has a lot of semi-precious stones in the pebbles. We walked along for a while then stopped and had lunch in the sun. It was a lovely place to sit for a bit.
Then our world was turned upside down. We got a call from the school to advise a student on camp had received a positive test result from a PCR test taken on the weekend. All year 5 students and teachers had to return home and self-isolate for 10 days. The parents of the student came and picked the student up later that afternoon (we were a 3.5hr drive from London) and the rest of us would stay at camp one more night as they could not get a bus to collect us. Major restrictions on students moving throughout the camp had to be put in place to prevent ANY contact between year 5 and year 6, students to remain in their rooms unless we came to collect them and we ate our dinner outside. The rest of the afternoon was spent with calls and messages between the teachers, camp staff, school and bus lines.
After it was decided we could not get back to camp any earlier due to buses we continued with our day, with the student remaining separate from the rest of the group. We continued walking for a bit along the beach and then we crossed up and over the pebble dunes to the mud flats. This part was the fun part. We took off our shoes and started walking across the mud flats. It was squelchy, sinky, sloppy, wet mud as it was low tide. It was very hot on the mud flats with little breeze and it was slow going as kids kept getting their feet stuck in the mud. We stopped a few times to talk about things and to look at some critters. There were lots of cockles in the mud, which also made things slightly painful when you stepped on them.
After the mud flats it was time to board the coaches and return to camp. We had a few sleepy kids on the bus as it was a long day in the sun with lots of walking. Once back at camp, we gathered the students on the field and informed them of the situation. We ended up with lots of tears and questions. Then we had a lovely alfresco dinner and gave the kids an hour for showers to wash the mud off. The showers are push button ones like taps in public toilets where the water runs for 5-10 seconds then turns off. It is very difficult to shower when you have to keep turning the water on every 5 seconds! It also gave the teachers a chance to clean up and take a lateral flow test.
At 7.30pm we took them to the field for an
hours play. Then we sent them all to bed and us teachers sat outside for a
socially distanced chat/chillout. After the day we had it was nice to just talk
about crap and laugh and relax for a couple of hours. I ended up teaching the British teachers a new saying, which I didn't realise was an Aussie saying. I Took my covid test and carried the test trip downstairs with me to wait the 30mins for the result. I said "this test better be negative or I'm going to crack the shits". They had never heard they saying "crack the shits" before and it was certainly well received! Fortunately it was negative.
This morning we got up and had breakfast at the normal time. The bus was due to arrive at 9.30am so we had plenty of time. The kids packed and we were on the coach, boarded and departed by 9.45am. Wow! Now we are sitting on the coach heading home with no toilet stops as we are not allowed. When we get to school, we have to let the kids off one at a time when we see their parent and they are not allowed on school property, they have to go straight home. Here the rules are that if you are a contact, you have to isolate but the rest of your household does not have to isolate unless you test positive. We teachers are permitted to enter the junior school only to collect what we need for next week and then we have to go home. We will all be teaching remotely next week, which is a new experience for me. I have had a crash course in Google Classroom/Google Meet and have the weekend to prepare. We get a day off tomorrow as our lessons are already covered tomorrow. I am definitely looking forward to a sleep in tomorrow!
I have spent my time so far on the coach planning a menu and shopping list for groceries that I need to get delivered. Hopefully the next time I update you all, I will be free of isolation and allowed to leave the house!
Update: today is self-isolation day 2, my groceries are being delivered tonight and I am still testing covid negative. Bring on Sunday 27th June!
