Residential Trip 2026
Day 1
We left Halton Holegate roughly on time and had a smooth journey up to Eden Camp which is just past York. The children are studying World War 2 this term in Class 3 so it fits in well with their learning, even though they had not learnt much so far. The camp is not massive but has lots crammed into its small area covering all the aspects of World War 2 you would expect, e.g. evacuees, rationing, the Home Front. In addition, a couple of the huts cover World War 1 and conflicts since 1945. We had purchased a workbook for the children which really enabled them to focus throughout the visit, even though it would take a number of visits to complete every page! We left around 3.15pm and arrived at Stableside around 45 mins later. The children are in rooms of between 2 and 4 children. The evening meal consisted of Southern Fried Chicken Strips in tortillas with chips followed by a chocolate brownie. After dinner, a few children went for a walk onto the racecourse to work off the meal!
Day 2
One of the downsides of our accommodation in York was that it is a fairly lengthy walk into the centre. However, we were not due at Jorvik until midday so we had a late breakfast at 9am and took our time before setting off into the centre of the city. We arrived at Jorvik a little early but the children visited the souvenir shop before we were allowed inside. We were given a welcome brief from a very friendly Viking before going on the trip around Viking York. This is a very very slow, level rollercoaster but the children were 6 in a cart but it gave them a really good idea of life in the city. We then looked at some artefacts (including the world's oldest poo!) before being shown how a coin was made. We then left Jorvik and made our way through modern day York to Dig. Here we had lunch, had another talk around how historians use artefacts to discover about the past. The children then had their own opportunity to have a dig around to see what they could find. The afternoon was rounded off with a really interesting talk about Viking medicine (ask the children about badger fat and camomile tea!) We then had the long walk back to Stableside but the children coped really well (it was very hot by now) and were treated to an excellent dinner of pizza.
Day 3
On Wednesday, it was an early wake up and then everything needed to be packed in order that we could set off for Yorkshire Wildlife Park at 9am. As we arrived at our destination, it was raining quite a bit and sadly some of the animals were keeping well inside in the dry. However, we did see many animals and as the weather improved, more and more were visible. The highlight was our Aren't Animals Amazing session in the education centre. The children impressed the teacher with their knowledge about animals, habitats and climate change; all of which are subjects they have touched on in their learning over previous years. Then, the children were able to handle some live creatures. We were able to hold an African giant snail (providing hands were sprayed with water first), a Madagascar hissing cockroach and finally stroke a blue-tongued lizard. After our session, we tried to see the cheetah cubs at the park but they were keeping well out of the way sadly. The children spent some money in the souvenir shop and then we headed back to school, full of happy memories.
