On Thursday 12th September, Year 10 embarked on a four-day/three-night residential to Edale for an adventure-based and team bonding residential.   

Based at one of the highest residences in the Peak District, the YHA Edale, the students participated in various risk-taking activities such as rock climbing, abseiling and caving, which involved elements of teamwork and building self-confidence. 

Ella Bowis, summarised the adventure based residential:

“Edale has been one of the best experiences I have had, all the students learnt so many skills like caving and abseiling. As soon as we got off the bus, we started activities straight away. My group's first activity was caving and it was incredible. We went caving into “Giant's mouth”, it’s the darkest place I’ve ever been in when you turned the head torches off and it was beautiful.

“I loved the challenges like climbing through narrow gaps in the rocks and once we got through a very tight path for about 20 minutes, we found what can only be described as a moon pool which had little fish in it. It was like something from a fairy-tale. I know my group and I lost time in that cave, because it was just so breathtaking in that cave. The next activity we had was orienteering. It was really hard walking up steep hills but it was fun all the same. After that we had free time, me and my friends went to the tuck shop and then we went to the games room and had a game of our version of ping pong!

“In the morning, we had a nutritious breakfast which really gave us energy for the activities for the day. My first activity was abseiling. We abseiled off a bridge and it was so fun. You could do it with a friend or by yourself. I was the first to abseil and it was amazing, I also had the opportunity to do it twice! Our instructor was really nice and helped us when we were nervous and gave us confidence. After that we had lunch and then went canoeing. We drove down to a lake and it was beautiful. We played fun games such as Simon says, races where we had to stand up or row with the oar’s upside down, world domination which is when you had to throw a ball into a boat and then they become your country and piano keys, which is when you line up all the canoes and you have to walk from one canoe to the other canoe at the other end. Then we jumped in the lake and after we put the canoes away we swam in the lake and just had fun.

“We had dinner then set off again for the last activity. Then we went on a night hike and it was really tiring but when we got to the top of a hill/mountain it was really worth it to see the view. It was breath-taking. Edale was amazing and I would definitely recommend the years below to go on it. It’s a great experience, you learn new skills, you can cross things off your bucket list and you make new friends.”

View team bonding photos here.