On Wednesday 13 March, we packed students, staff and luggage onto four coaches and headed off to the PGL activity centre in rural Lincolnshire. On arrival, we ate our packed lunches then headed off to complete our first two outdoor activities.

On Wednesday 13 March, we packed students, staff and luggage onto four coaches and headed off to the PGL activity centre in rural Lincolnshire. On arrival, we ate our packed lunches then headed off to complete our first two outdoor activities. Over the course of the next two days, we completed a further six outdoor activities, including trapeze, abseiling, Jacob's ladder and survivor skills. We also took part in two evening activities, one of which was preceded by a reflective activity facilitated by myself, the Chaplain, where we reflected on the year so far, read encouragement cards written by older students and then wrote encouragement cards for next year’s Year 7 students. Wren Academy Enfield also joined us on the adventure and we got to know each other better over conversations held during mealtimes.

I asked some students for their reflections on the trip of which you can read some of them below:

The residential trip was very fun, but the thing I enjoyed most was overcoming my fears. It helped me to do things I would normally be scared to do while making new friends. My favourite activity was the giant swing. We were attached to a large swing and then lifted high up and then dropped. I was terrified as we were lifted and dropped but as we were swinging it was so fun. This was also the activity that worried me the most, but with some encouragement from my friends, teachers and instructors I did it. My second favourite activity was rock climbing because we had multiple goes. I climbed up halfway on my first go, but when it was my third go, I climbed all the way to the top. This trip was lots of fun and all the different activities helped me to learn different things, like how I learnt to keep going in rock climbing. This was an amazing experience. Areli P, 7 Ludgate

On our Year 7 residential, we travelled to and from the centre by coach. We were then split into 14 small groups of around 10. We did 8 different activities with these groups, my favourites include; the giant swing, Jacob's ladder and the campfire.

We were kept busy all day, with breakfast, two morning activities, lunch, two afternoon activities, dinner and then an evening activity too. The first evening activity was a big group campfire and the second night was a disco (with a quiet reflective activity beforehand).

On the trip, we learnt key life skills, such as problem solving and lateral thinking, teamwork and most importantly, we had LOTS AND LOTS of fun! I highly recommend this trip, but I think it would be improved by simply having more time to discover, bond and explore! Torun P, 7 Piccadilly

My overall highlight of the residential was the trapeze because it involved a lot of movement with my arms and legs. Many students in my group were scared because it got very wobbly at the top. My least favourite activity was survivor because it was very hard to get a spark from the flint and steel. Samuel O, 7 Ludgate

The residential was quite enjoyable. My favourite part was the giant swing because there was screaming and laughter. My least favourite part was the problem solving because I knew all the answers. The instructors were very nice and amicable. Avani J, 7 Holborn

All the staff and students had a wonderful time. You can see some images of the trip below or more by visiting our photo gallery (link below).

Image Gallery - Welcome to Wren Secondary Academy (wrenacademy.org)

We also took part in two evening activities, one of which was preceded by a reflective activity facilitated by myself, the Chaplain, where we reflected on the year so far, read encouragement cards written by older students and then wrote encouragement cards for next year’s Year 7 students. Wren Academy Enfield also joined us on the adventure and we got to know each other better over conversations held during mealtimes.

I asked some students for their reflections on the trip of which you can read some of them below:

The residential trip was very fun, but the thing I enjoyed most was overcoming my fears. It helped me to do things I would normally be scared to do while making new friends. My favourite activity was the giant swing. We were attached to a large swing and then lifted high up and then dropped. I was terrified as we were lifted and dropped but as we were swinging it was so fun. This was also the activity that worried me the most, but with some encouragement from my friends, teachers and instructors I did it. My second favourite activity was rock climbing because we had multiple goes. I climbed up halfway on my first go, but when it was my third go, I climbed all the way to the top. This trip was lots of fun and all the different activities helped me to learn different things, like how I learnt to keep going in rock climbing. This was an amazing experience. Areli P, 7 Ludgate

On our Year 7 residential, we travelled to and from the centre by coach. We were then split into 14 small groups of around 10. We did 8 different activities with these groups, my favourites include; the giant swing, Jacob's ladder and the campfire.

We were kept busy all day, with breakfast, two morning activities, lunch, two afternoon activities, dinner and then an evening activity too. The first evening activity was a big group campfire and the second night was a disco (with a quiet reflective activity beforehand).

On the trip, we learnt key life skills, such as problem solving and lateral thinking, teamwork and most importantly, we had LOTS AND LOTS of fun! I highly recommend this trip, but I think it would be improved by simply having more time to discover, bond and explore! Torun P, 7 Piccadilly

My overall highlight of the residential was the trapeze because it involved a lot of movement with my arms and legs. Many students in my group were scared because it got very wobbly at the top. My least favourite activity was survivor because it was very hard to get a spark from the flint and steel. Samuel O, 7 Ludgate

The residential was quite enjoyable. My favourite part was the giant swing because there was screaming and laughter. My least favourite part was the problem solving because I knew all the answers. The instructors were very nice and amicable. Avani J, 7 Holborn

All the staff and students had a wonderful time. You can see some images of the trip below or more by visiting our photo gallery (link below).

Image Gallery - Welcome to Wren Secondary Academy (wrenacademy.org)