Over the weekend of the 24^th/25^th September, Years 5, 6 and 7 (all one hundred or so of them!) ventured into the beautiful Oxfordshire countryside for a two-day camp with The Bushcraft Company. When we arrived, we met our camp instructors and headed to three separate, large copses in year groups. Here we discovered our new homes – a mixture of bell tents, meeting tee-pees, open fires crackling away and other exciting things, all hidden away in the woodland.

Over the weekend the emphasis was on bonding, team building – or rather, tribe building! – and leadership. The Bushcraft staff introduced ways and means of starting a fire and at all times kept the outdoor learning in the context of survival needs. Wire wool glowed, chemicals reacted, flint and steels sparked and soon all were cooking their own trout and sweet potato lunch. On Saturday afternoon, different teams of children built shelters from the natural materials in the wood, following the principles they’d been taught, and in due course, all had their overnight accommodation sorted out… Tribe flags were made, forts built and camouflage and concealment discussed ready for camp raids the next day.

After a night in shelters, we all enjoyed a fantastic breakfast and soon the camp raids were underway and flags targeted. In amongst all the excitement, there was time to learn about and build animal traps and to hear some important principles of Arctic survival. Fortunately, the weather was great all weekend and didn’t need any of that to be put into practice!

The whole weekend was fantastic fun and enormous thanks to The Bushcraft Company and school staff for helping make it so