Safe and Sound

Well, Kingswood is over for another year, and judging from the comments left on the blog, and those that we received from the girls, it was a huge success.
Just to complete the blog as a record of events I need to add a few lines about our last day.
We awoke (some of the girls needing to be roused forcibly) and needed to pack up before breakfast as well as strip the beds, putting all the linen from each dorm into 1 duvet cover - notice the word linen - NOT all the duvets and pillows as well!! Breakfast was continental style, much to the relief of staff who had found the cooked options too difficult to resist. Final tidying up and moving bags out of the dormitories, through the rain to a loading bay and then into the last 2 activities. All four groups finished off the programme, catching up on the activities they had not previously tried, archery, low ropes, team tech, aeroball or outdoor initiatives. Even the teachers managed to have a game of aeroball - it was a little worrying to see how competitive this became!
After lunch we had an awards ceremony, each girl receiving a certificate and a small momento of their time at Kingswood.
The coach arrived with a rather cross driver, mumbling things about driving hours and the M1, it transpired that he needed to have a 45 minute break, which he intended to take on the M1 in a service station; we managed to persuade him to take the break at the centre, food and drink was supplied for him while phone calls were made to warn of our late arrival back in Sheffield. As it happened we made very good time on our return journey and were back only about 15 minutes later than planned.
The tired girls came off the coach, full of stories to tell and dragged their bags as far as welcoming parents, who carried them (the bags, not the girls) to the ice cream van and off home. Over the coming days and weeks stories will be told, events relayed and songs will be sung, like a game of Chinese whispers, do not necessarily believe everything that is said, if you want to check any details, please do get in touch i.e. they did all have two ropes holding them on the abseil or no-one actually hit the pole at the end of the zip wire!!
You, as parents, should be very proud of your daughters, as staff we certainly are. I thanked them for their approach to the trip and the activities, it would have been very dull without them. Thanks also go to Miss Atkins, Miss Russell and Mrs Groombridge for giving up their time so willingly and throwing themselves, literally, into everything - it could not happen without them so go easy on your teachers for the next couple of days!!