On Friday 25th April the whole of Year 7 travelled to Chateau du Broutel in Rue, northern France, for a weekend of outward bound, french language and cultural activities.

On Friday 25th April, we had to wake up really early to catch the ferry to France.  When we arrived in Calais we took a half hour coach trip to the Norsica Aquarium.  First we went into a room which had jelly fish, spider crabs and lots of different kinds of fish; then we went through a glass hallway and saw seals swimming under our feet.  When we came out of the hall we stepped up onto a stage, which had a big crowd looking at some seals performing tricks like dancing and diving.  Then we went to see some sharks and unusual fish swimming in a big tank.  Afterwards we stroked the stingrays and saw what the Future House would look like (environmentally friendly).  We watched a 3D film about saving our environment and how to protect it and what would happen if we don't.  We then returned to the coach and headed for the Chateau.  When we got to the Chateau we went on a guided tour and headed up to our dorms to unpack; after supper we were split into groups and went on a scavenger hunt.

When we woke up on Saturday we went down to breakfast to have croissants and pains au chocolat.  We were told that we were going to a french market and then we were coming back to make mayonnaise in teams.  The instructors handed out questionnaires for us to fill in at the market; there were questions in french like: "Ask a french lady or man stallholder to sign your piece of paper" or "How much are the watches?" and "How much is 500g cheese?"  The market was totally unique with stalls ranging from LIVE cats, dogs, chickens and guinea pigs to crystal engraving and cheese stalls - there was nothing that compared to english markets.  After we had been to the market, we came back for the mayonnaise making competition.

After lunch Group 1 did Assault Course, which was fun, but challenging in places; Group 2 did Raft Building and Group 3 did Zip Wire, which was brilliant and at the end you had to go over the lake.

 Rafting: When we were told that we were doing rafting we couldn't wait; we ran to our dorms, put on our swimming stuff and went to our meeting points before getting helmets and life jackets on.  When we arrived at the lake, we found our instructor and saw the water shimmering in the sun.  We put our raft together (we had 6 barrels, 6 ropes and 2 logs to use), using team work, before setting out on the lake to have a rafting war with the other group.  We had to go round 2 obstacles as well.  Our raft started to drift apart, then it got too far apart, became unbalanced, so it collapsed and we all fell in.

After supper that day, we did the Chateau Olympics in our groups, which involved crazy games and races.

On Sunday we went to the Somme 1916 Museum, where we went underground and experienced what it would have been like in the trenches and saw lots of old things that had been found left from the war.  We went all the way to the shop, where our guide showed us old bayonets and other weapons and talked to us about life in the First World War; Anna tried on a uniform.  We had our picnic in the bandstand in a lovely park.  After lunch we visited Lochnagar crater, where there was a british memorial, then we visited the Thiepval Memorial, where we all looked for our family names; after that we went to Beaumont-Hamel, which is the Newfoundland memorial and where we were able to go round the trenches.  After a long day, we returned to the Chateau, to have supper, when we could try frogs legs and snails - some people actually liked them!  After supper the other school staying at the Chateau challenged our boys to a football match; we then got changed for a really fun disco.

On our last day we split into our groups and did abseiling, assault course and zip wire - the abseiling was really scary at the top, but fun when you came down - I would recommend it to anyone!  Once we had finished our activities, we had lunch, packed up our stuff and got on the coach to return home.

We all had a brilliant time and would like to thank Mr & Mrs Hoyland, Helen and Tom for taking us!

By River, Matty, Harry, Harry, Chessie & Cameron