Hi, we are Anna, Hannah, Jack and Sam, 4 primary 7 pupils, here at Gavinburn Primary School in Old Kilpatrick. We are going to tell you all about our Primary 7 residential trip to Kingswood last week and there is a lot to tell! So you might want to put the kettle on.

Abseiling

Abseiling was amazing! It was scary when they tell you to just fall back and let yourself down, but it is awesome when you get started.

The Kingswood staff don’t force you to do it however, they do encourage you as best they can.

Not many other activities are as terrifyingly fabulous as this. It may not be the activity people talk about when they get back but if like me, and a lot of other people enjoyed it, I’m sure you would too!

Zip Wire

The zip wire is located on the same tower as abseiling it was very daunting when they are telling you to jump off.

Joe (our leader for the activity) gave us many different options on how we could get off the tower, he did encourage you to jump but he definitely didn’t force you.

The zip wire is amazing and if anyone wanted to go to Kingswood I would definitely recommend it. It was unbelievable!

Fencing

Fencing is a great sport, if you are going to try it in Kingswood (which you should) I would recommend wearing thick clothing as you may get hurt. You don’t have to be a sporty person to enjoy this sport.

I would definitely recommend this sport. There is not much running in fencing but it does keep you up on your toes and if I like this sport I’m sure you would too.

Construct

Construct is fun, but it can be quite nerve-racking going on obstacles that you and your friends made.

It is great fun making zip wires and rope obstacles, I would definitely recommend you do this in Kingswood, it could be your only chance to make your very own obstacle course!

Problem Solving

Problem Solving sounded really boring but it wasn’t, it was great fun and perfect for learning how to work as a team and think outside the box.

I would definitely recommend it, especially for schools, also brothers and sisters. It makes learning more fun.

Hotspots

Hot Spots was great fun and it wasn’t what I expected, Hotspots was like a giant game of twister. As we played twister the mat would get smaller it was a lot of fun, the perfect activity for before bed. If you ever get the chance to play this I definitely would it was a great class activity.

3G Swing

The 3G swing was hyped up. That’s all everyone was talking about when they came back from Kingswood last year. I couldn’t wait to have my turn. I was so excited.It was Wednesday afternoon and we just finished team tech. We went to the toilet, had a drink and then we lined up.

A few minutes later Gavin came to meet us at our line and we did our shoutout. It was… Dun,dun dun dun, dun dun, 3G swing, 3G swing, 3G swing! Everyone heard us! We were SO loud!

Once we got up there we got told all of the health and safety rules and then we got told how to correctly pull the rope to lift up the participants on the swing. My partner and I went first. We stood on the trolley and got harnessed onto the bar. We got told what rope to pull then we were ready. They started pulling us up. It was quite bumpy when they were pulling us. Eventually, we got to the top. It was so high. Everyone screamed 1…2…3…G… and we pulled the blue and yellow cord. We dropped all the way down and swung so many times. This was my favorite activity! I loved it!

Jacob’s Ladder

Jacob’s Ladder was another one of the bigger activities. It involved using teamwork, strength, and trust in your partner.

Once we finished fencing it was time to try the ladder. My partner and I got up the first three steps in a flash. I got up the next two and then I stopped because I had to wait and help my partner. After we got up to the fifth one, I did one more step before our time ran out. I wish I could have gotten to the top but I’m glad I stopped to help my partner.

Everyone encouraged us to go as high as possible. And that helped boost our confidence. Jacob’s ladder was amazing. One of my favourites.

Fire Lighting

I heard some stories about people setting things on fire when they did fire lighting so I wanted to be very careful when it was my turn.

When we got there we were desperate to make a fire because in the woods it was absolutely freezing. The instructors demonstrated what we had to do and then we were on the hunt for sticks. We collected a variety of stick, from tiny little ones to huge, long, thick ones. All of us used flint and steel and we made sparks then we got to start trying to actually light the fire and I did it! No one in my group thought that I would be the one to light it but I was! It was a surprise but a very good one. We added sticks to make it bigger but we had to keep blowing it for it to stay alive.

Everyone taught us some cool tricks and they encouraged us to keep going when we were stuck. I really liked Fire Lighting.

Mini Olympics

I didn’t know what to expect from Mini Olympics but anyway I was excited.

When we got to the venue we got into teams and named them as a country. The boys on my team named it Syria. Then the instructors made us run around singing our made up on the spot national anthem. After we had to do the chicken race. You had to run like a chicken and then at the end you had to pretend to lay the biggest egg in the world. It was hilarious. After we did some races then we played rounders and all sorts. It was a great night. And we had lots of fun.

Nature Walk

To be honest I really didn’t want to do a nature walk. It sounded really boring and no one wanted to go but once we got there it was way better than what I was expecting.

After we got there we were talking about deforestation, how to be able to tell how old a tree is and the wildlife. We were talking about why we could never see any animals or wildlife when we were there so because of that we started to play a game. It was kind of like hide and seek but the seeker couldn’t move from their spot. We played two rounds and then we moved on and kept walking.

They showed us two different end types of trees. The first one was a silver birch tree. That tree is special because it is tougher at the bottom than it is at the top. The second one was a Canadian Redwood tree. It sucked up so much water that it felt like a sponge to the touch. We tried to punch it but it didn’t hurt. I liked that walk because I learned a lot!

Bottle Rockets

I was quite confused when I heard that we were doing bottle rockets but I was looking forward to finding out. It turned out to be just like the name. When we got there we got into groups and named them. Afterwards, we got a bottle rocket demonstration.

We got to chose our bottles then we decorated them. My groups looked like an aeroplane. After we decorated them, it was time to test them. We filled them up with water and then they were launched. My group’s lost because we chose a smaller bottle but we still won overall because of our teamwork, effort, and sportsmanship. I had a great time at Bottle rockets!

Leap of Faith

Leap of Faith is where you climb up a huge wooden pole and when you get to the top which most people did you would jump on to a metal bar in front of you it was nerve-wracking but fun.

Laser Tag

Laser tag was really fun I enjoyed hiding and running away I was in the red team and we always won I think when when hid our most important player was the hardest because he would always come out of the base to shoot people so we had to be careful.

Environmental Art#

Environmental Art sounded boring to everyone but when we started we liked it we had to make our favourite activity leader my team made Gavin our group leader then we had to split up and make our own I made my favourite football team with leaves, other people made animals and lots more.

Team Tech

When you go to Team Tech you get told to build something we had to build a giant tower then I made a house and the other group made a scooter it really worked. The house was hard but quick to make. The scooter looked easy but was hard to make it work.

Campfire

Campfire was a good experience for people who didn’t go to scouts or anything like that.

At Campfire you had to sit down on a log around the campfire and try to get yourself warm. When everybody was cozy we all started to say jokes, riddles, sing songs and tell stories it was funny and amazing!

Nightline

Nightline is a blindfolded obstacle course which is really hard to do. You need to do a lot of teamwork by holding onto the person in front of you right shoulder while blindfolded.

We also had to get down on prone to get through tires that are stuck on the ground

Nightline is a really fun activity!

Shelter Building

Shelter building is just like fire lighting but your making a shelter.

We had to get a bunch of tall straight thick sticks and lay them on a huge stick which was in between two trees and some Y sticks to help hold it up.

Then we got some leaves to pile up the gaps in between the sticks.

Archery

I had a lot of fun at the archery We had to get as close as we could to the bullseye I got to the red and blue sam got the closest. Then we had to hit the thing the person had around his neck.

Disco

Disco happened on our last night it was really funny seeing people doing weird dance moves.

I managed to learn a new dance move which is apparently hard so I feel proud of myself.

That’s all folks!

Thank you for reading all about P7’s residential trip to Kingswood and we hope you enjoyed it and if you ever get the chance to go to Kingswood you enjoy yourself just as much as we did.