Whilst camping at the 1610 base close to Hestercombe House, the students from The Grange (Taunton School International Middle School) enjoyed a weekend full of adventure, challenges and fun. Eagerly, the students headed up to the house, met the staff and took part in some warm up activities.
The students were divided into four groups and chose their own names: “The Eagles”, “The Marshmallows Bears”, “The Hurricanes” and “The Survivors”. The teams were then ready to compete against each other for points and prizes.
The students headed for the campsite set in the middle of the woods, pitched their tents and prepared themselves for the team building activities ahead. All the students took part in a communicative exercise using a standard deck of cards; a team building task using various pieces of wood and rope; a challenging puzzle in which they had to work together to fill up a funnel to raise a ball by first solving the issue of transporting the water and, finally, they embarked on a search to find words hidden in the woods.
As the challenges were completed, the students sat around the camp fire under the stars, watching the daylight slowly fade away whilst they were told a ghost story by Andrew the group leader of 1610. The story highlighted the dark history of Hestercombe House. Students and staff were then treated to a ghost walk through the dark woods towards the haunted, creepy and terrifying Hestercombe House.
After a very early wake up, the pupils enjoyed completing an obstacle course, rock climbing and paintball target shooting. The teams worked tirelessly through the activities. Over the weekend they made many new international friends whilst developing a wealth of team building skills. Congratulations to the Survivors, who just made it into first place.
