just another morning here

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Before anyone on facebook asks again, no I haven’t broken my Lenten fast, the blog automatically feeds posts to facebook!

I was away on a school residential last week, so Steve and the children were here alone. To be honest, I’m not surprised they didn’t miss me as this year Steve has done pretty much everything even when I am here, as I’ve been buried under work. I usually cook tea but apparently the children did that between them. They had a busy week, including two piano exams, four performances at the DPAF, a hockey match, various lessons as usual, and an additional trip to see Fantastic Mr Fox – the Opera with Grandma & Grandpa. By the time I got home the house was relatively tidy and hoovered, plus clean sheets on my bed, and Abbie had cooked dinner during her Home Economics lesson – result! Josiah does seem to be walking around in a pair of identical shoes to his own, two sizes too big – but that’s a minor detail! Some poor child at school will be wondering why their feet hurt …

My residential was at the Calvert Trust, an outdoor ed place specifically for people with disabilities. It was an amazing week yet totally exhausting, as residentials always are I know, but probably more so given that we were doing round the clock care for our kids as well. Accommodation was fab – I think my little group were quite lucky though, we had the biggest apartment including a tv in the lounge, so we had a few of the kids in most mornings to watch tv while waiting for breakfast!

The kids all got to abseil, climb, and canoe, as well as take part in other activities like crate stacking, horse riding and archery. There was a swimming/hydrotherapy pool onsite too – with jacuzzi, and as well as all that there were evening activities to choose from as well; arts and crafts, a visit from the local zoo with animals to interact with, then a disco on the final night. Staff joined in with all the activities too, and it was as challenging for some of them as it was for the children! For some kids it was a huge deal just to be away from home; one of my students was totally thrown and hardly ate all week, and was very quiet and reticent – but managed it and enjoyed the activities that weren’t height related. He did look VERY pleased to be back in the familiar surroundings of school on the last day though! Other students enjoyed the independence and freedom offered them in that setting, and had a ball taking part in activities that they don’t normally have the opportunity to do, and it was such a treat to see them enjoying themselves so much.

The staff at the centre were fantastic – I was lucky to be designated as official photographer (I took 756 shots in 5 days!) so I got to see all three of the activity groups at work, and see how the staff worked so well with our students – obviously that’s what they’re trained to do but I was still totally impressed! Sensory introductions to activities, photos/symbols to explain what we were going to do, games to help students who found things challenging, etc. etc. Endless patience. Just amazing. I can’t post many photos, of course, but here are a few that don’t show any more than the activities in the beautiful surroundings. We were incredibly lucky with the weather, which made it all the more enjoyable

One group did their Duke of Edinburgh expedition by walking around the whole reservoir; I had hoped to find the 4 geocaches that are hidden around it while I was with them but it was nigh on impossible to look properly and keep an eye on the kids at the same time, they didn’t really understand what on earth I was doing, so I gave up! I could have crept out at night with a torch but that would have been silly, really – plus I was still on duty in any case! Will have to go back another day