Being a Patrol Leader in one easy weekend (3rd Romsey)

A few weeks ago all the patrol leaders and assistant patrol leaders are away to brush up on their leadership skills. The whole camp had to be planed by them, which took weeks of meetings and work (who know camps were so much work to organise?!) They've got a menu, activities, somewhere to stay.  Now let's get going and have some fun!  Here's their reports of the weekend!

We arrived at the hut in Lyndhurst and we put all our bags in one corner. Then tried top make the tallest tower out of jelly babies and spaghetti. It was really tricky and the spaghetti kept breaking. However we managed to make a tower 44cm high. Then we split into groups and one group went with Tom, the other with Darren. With Tom we talked about first aid and what we would do if someone was really hot and really cold and if they had a bad cut. With Darren we did about herding sheep and one person had a whistle and the others were blindfolded and the person with the whistle had to give them commands to get them into the right place.  Now we are making armpit fudge and calzone for lunch. We had to go and buy the food ourselves. - Adam

At first we went to the shop and got everything ready for our lunch. It was using quite a lot of team work in the shop as we were allocated different tasks and we all managed to do so accurately. Then we did first aid and got ready for lunch. We started by making calzone which was good and we had to be extra cautious for Polly who is gluten free. So we had to separate everything but we managed well after a bit of confusion.Then after that we made armpit fudge with hot chocolate powder,cream cheese ,m&ms, margarine and more. After we had lunch with salad and drinks whilst Tom was saying how much he hated salad cream. Overall it was nice and I loved the armpit fudge. - James

The next activity Darren did with us was verbal communication.  We stood back to back and spoke to each other about the task we did earlier, sheep herding.  It was harder than I thought because with everyone talking you couldn't hear your partner.  Tom did CPR with us and he taught us what to do when we come across someone who wasn't breathing and was unconscious.  I think it was a really good activity and a good life lesson. - Imogen

We learnt lots of fencing techniques and how to move with one foot on the floor at all times and you have to shuffle not gallop.  We also learnt how to do a parry and how to start by putting the foil to your nose and then going on guard, you can't wear your helmet when doing that.  At the end you also take your helmet off to shake hands with your opponent. - Lara

Yum - next was dinner!  We had fajitas with salad, rice, chicken and cheese.    For pudding we had Cherry Crunch which was delicious!  We all helped to cook dinner and helped to wash up - but the eating was better than the washing up! - Kathleen

It was really nice to sit down and relax last night after the long day we had. It was time to chat, relax and enjoy our hot chocolate made by Sarah. We all went to bed at 10 after being told that we were to get up at 7.30. The next day we were all up with bed hair and sleepy eyes packing our sleeping bags and pajamas ready for our next activities.We each had cereal and then cooked eggy bread with beans. We then took turns to wash up and clean the kitchen. - Marcus

After breakfast, we cleaned up and then learnt about challenging behavior. This included low-level disruption and not agreeing to the success criteria. After this, we had a quick break and learnt about choking and asthma attacks. Now we can save people who are dying, yay!!! Soon we will be going to the park to have fun! - Jack

At 11:30 we went to the park! We went to the skateboard park and we ran up and down the ramps. There was a zip wire that we went on but it wasn't very fast! Next we went in the children's play park and James got stuck in some tires! Its was really funny! - Polly

After the park we came back to the lodge to get ready to eat our lunch. We had bacon sandwiches, and apple and a Brunch bar after that we had a Patrol Forum where we talked about how we could make the camp better next time. At the end we gathered round the flag and had Flag down, then we left. - Joe

Thanks to Joe for starting the plan, Jack, Kathleen, Polly, Imogen, Lara & James for organising the camp - and also a huge thank you to Darren, Tom, Tris & Sarah for coming along to train!