During the autumn term, both the Girls’ and Boys’ schools were given an amazing opportunity to spend time volunteering in a fun-filled day of activities for around 120 primary school students. By utilising our schools’ resources, we organised a day of sports, science experiments and swimming for Year 6 pupils. This gave us the chance to show the majority of these students, who would never usually receive the opportunity to use outside-the-box extracurricular facilities, such as our rock-climbing walls, a well-deserved day of fun. The activities included, water polo, tchoukball, hockey, forest school, rock climbing and a series of experimental STEM lessons. From the friendly yet competitive atmosphere during sports, to the palpable excitement and intrigue during chemistry experiments, all activities provided different opportunities for the students to find their interests.
The STEM lessons consisted a series of impressive experiments, including the creation of a red cabbage indicator, used to test whether common household items were acidic or alkaline. Whilst the students mustered all their strength trying to crush and blend small strips of cabbage into a solution, the volunteers desperately did their best to ensure that no one ended up with purple stains all over their face and clothes. Testing the acidity of commonplace solutions like washing up liquid and lemonade but ending up with a myriad of colours truly piqued the interest of students, and all were blown away by the level of intelligent and insightful questions they asked.
Many enjoyed the experiment so much that they took down the instructions in order to demonstrate their new experimental skills to their parents later. The confidence of the students was duly noted as they recounted their own hilarious experiences and mishaps in their favourite chemistry lessons to the volunteers. The highlight of the students was apparently the hilarious yet effective demonstration of the safety uses of goggles where the students were told to throw water at the chemistry teacher. Towards the end, the students also had fun bringing out their artistic side by trying to fill their palette dishes with as many colours as possible.
The sportier activities brought out a wonderfully competitive side as even the closest of friends found themselves racing to bring back hockey balls or to the top of the climbing wall. With simple lessons on the basics of the sports, each student found a way to add their own little spin, coming up with their own tactics and cunning strategies.
The teamwork and passion needed meant that every student threw themselves into the sports, even asking the volunteers for little tips to help them improve. A few students loved the miniature hockey matches so much, they were even inspired to pursue the sport outside of the Adventure Day in clubs. By the end, the Sixth F orm volunteers were definitely given a run for their money and their athletic abilities challenged.
The forest school allowed the students to take time so that they could be one with nature and gain many of the skills they’d need to survive in the wild. From naming and gathering plants to learning about the delicious treats they could put together, it was definitely a wilderness experience.
All participants in the Habs Adventure Day, including Sixth Form volunteers, teachers and students had an amazing time and most definitely tried some new skills. Despite the difference in year groups, the range of skillsets and experiences shared truly allowed new and unlikely friendships to flourish. It was definitely fair to say that all the volunteers as well as the students learnt a great deal from each other.
