Spinnaker Tower Trip 2013

Early one morning, in the midst of a heatwave, 28 children and a gang of adults woke to a gloomy sky. Tingling with excitement they sprung out of bed, ready to conquer any fears they may have. Heights, the heat, 28 children, coach journeys, packed lunches.....walking!!?

Arriving at school in good time, they were registered, toileted and briefed ready for a days adventure...Followed by the children's briefing.

0915 aboard the coach to ABBA (or the soundtrack to Mama Mia) all the way to Portsmouth with Mr Cownie filling them with little gems of precious knowledge "if you look to your left you will see the Eastbound carriage of the M27 and if you look to the right...the Westbound"

And then, they arrived. 

Burger King staff had never been so afraid

Or so they thought. No, we headed into the Tower and the children waited extremely patiently to travel up to the viewing deck, only to be met by a clear blue sky and a truly amazing, panoramic view of Old Portsmouth and the numerous docks & marina's.

The view amazing, the excitement palpable, the smell...cheesy! Feet and socks galore as the children (and some adults) set about conquering their fear of heights. The bravery and courage shown by some was truly inspiring and it was a real pleasure for all to see these individuals tackle them.

Don't look down!

Mr Cownie very kindly took all of the children up to the second viewing deck where he filled our heads with further knowledge of what was what and how it came to be. The bit about Spice Island was a bit er....eye opening.

We were incredibly lucky to have had a special visiter while up the tower. Nadir's mum dropped by and gave us a all a fly by in her bright yellow microlight. (photo's of all our faces stuck up against the windows to follow)

By this time, the grumbly tummies started rumble and we set off following the Millennium trail round to the Round Tower for a spot of lunch and well earned coffee for the grown ups.

Then, it was a further walk past the square tower, past the beach, past the funfair at Clarence Pier, past the ice cream shop and onto the coach for the trip back to school.

Once back we all had a well earned ice lolly (saving one for Mr Hayman who has a particular weakness for Fabs) and the announcement of the pairs challenge of the day.  The children were sent to find out different pieces of information relating to the tower and Portsmouth. The hard working winners were Harry & Nick who both won a fully rigged Pirate ship (although Mr Keenan thinks he was the one pirated when getting them).

All in all a truly fantastic day. The children did themselves and the school proud with their behaviour in the face of such adverse weather, walking and dizzying heights.

It does of course go with out saying that the parent helpers were of great help on the day. Both Mr Keenan and year 4 would like to offer our thanks to Sian, Robyn, Evie, Jacob and Rebecca's mums and dads for giving up their days to help us have such a great day.

We have been swamped with photo graphs, all of which could possibly have been used to show off our great day. Here's a couple more.

EDITED TO ADD

Photo's taken by Nadirs' mum from the outside of the tower!!