Captains Log: Stardate 2012.10.25

Location: Somewhere in Somerset

Last full day today with so much to try to fit in.

This morning’s early morning walk was the best attended yet with ten – boys and girls this time! This time the children announced that it was a beautiful place and the scenery was much better than home – perhaps because it was the first clear morning we had had. It didn’t stay clear for long. Light drizzle was with us by the time we were ready to go to see SS Great Britain moored in Bristol Docks.

It was just as spectacular as we had hoped for. We had a lovely guide who was great with the children. They asked lots of challenging questions and listened really well to the answers.

Once again we received lots of compliments from staff members and the public.

 There was so much to see that we could have stayed there for double the time, but lunch was calling. Everything eaten in the standard 8 minutes and we were off to the gift shop.

Wookey Hole next, but a little later than planned. Spectacular caves and caverns had the children wide-eyed once we had crept through some really low passages – with me almost on my knees. The children enjoyed the caves, of course, but the extra attractions were of great interest, too. In the end we were the last group there!

Back to the centre for dinner and then the Talent Show, story and the end of the film, that we had started yesterday. Milk shakes and biscuits drew the day to a close.

Up early tomorrow to get packed in good time for breakfast, and then on to the coach heading for Wells, and then home.

See you there – target time still 7.00pm!

Captain H

Thursday

Today we went back in time to the SS Great Britain ship. It was massive. It had awesome gold horses on the stern and bow. We walked on to the deck and walked into First Class and found ourselves in a humongous room packed with food for the daily feast with full heads of pigs and massive fruit pies

Then we walked to steerage class. It was horrible. It would have been infested with fleas and rats

The beds where rock hard and really cramped. They had ropes to hang their washing and shelves to hold bottles and ships biscuits that were rock hard, including weevils. We went under water to look    at the bottom of the ship. It was awesome!

Daniel

Today we went to Wooky Hole. We had a tour guide who showed us around all nine chambers. The rock is limestone. It lets water pass through it. The tour guide told us of the legend of the witch, who destroyed the villages outside of the cave.

 A brave monk chased her into the cave. He threw holy water over her and she was changed into stone! The Wooky Hole was fun!

 In the museum there was the witch’s skeleton.

We also learnt about divers exploring the underwater caves. Only a mile has been explored and there is still a mile and a half left to discover.

Bradley

Permission to take Photographs at the Bishops Palace

We have been asked by the Bishops Palace in Wells if they could dress the children in costume and take photographs of the children's visit for their publicity material. If you have any objection to this could you please contact the school office to let us know.
Obviously, pictures of our lovely children would make anywhere more attractive to visit.

Bath 2012

Hi mums and dads I’m Stanley we are having a great time we have been on badger hunts to find them the same with owls we have dissected owl pellets yuck . We have found bones flesh and lots yuckier stuff I am sharing a room with my friend James   we have a bathroom a kitchen and loads more. Oh and we have built shelters to survive in we made a fire and cooked our own bread (well when I say we made a fire, only one actually worked Abbi Hanna lily Hudson and Carrie decided to call it jimmy) . My bread tasted good…ish long story short I burnt it by accident. We also played a game we had to make a wedding dress out of a bin bag toilet paper and masking tape

Oh yeah last night me and James were going to sleep then we sore this thing moving across the ground we had it for a day but then we decided to let it go we called it Jeffery. He was awesome but now he is back in his natural habitat. He was a newt he had a really squishy tummy with spots on. Hannah and Lilly Hudson loved it, Lilly now really wants a newt ( just to warn his mum and dad!) It’s about 9:20 now we go to bed about 10:30 the beds are really comfy.  Bottom line it’s been great  and we will be back before you can say antidisestablishmentarianism J

Stanley

Hi everyone today was really fun we were doing bush craft. We tested out our survival skills by building our own shelters and made our own fires with fire starters to make sparks to set fire to hay and cotton wool. We were with Lilly H and Hannah we called our fire JIMMY! Ours was the longest lasting fire so we made hot chocolate on him and roasted marshmallows we also made bread.  Jo our guide put Jimmy out with water we were VERY sad, we made a gravestone a song and a funeral and paid our respects.

We looked for owls this evening but we could not find any we also dissected owl pellets to see what the owl had eaten after that we watched half a movie .But now we have to go to bed goodnight.

Carrie and Abbi

Captains Log Star Date 2012.10.24

Location: Somewhere in Somerset

Early morning walk with five boys this time. We watched a shepherd with his sheep dog herd together nearly 200 sheep in the morning mist. A very special and unexpected scene.

Another exciting day - out in the woods today learning new skills – ‘Bushcraft’ – building shelters from small logs and sticks in the woods, followed by fire-lighting around the campfire and then cooking marshmallows, cinnamon bread and hot chocolate heated on the fires we had made and lit using fire-steels.

After an early dinner we were out again looking for owls, but I think that they saw us coming. It was a lovely clear evening and the children were wonderfully quiet for a while at least.

Folly Farm is a very special place and I think that we have been very fortunate to find it. It’s a great base with lots of things to do both here and nearby. This is definitely one to return to in the future.

Once again, everywhere is now wonderfully quiet, and so it’s off to bed. Sadly, only one more day to go.

Goodnight.

Captain H

Question - What do you think of the website?
We have worked hard to improve the school's website, what do you think?
How could we make it better for you?
What else would you like to see?
Is it useful at providing information?
Let us know.....

Captains Log

Star Date: Sometime in October

Planet Earth: Somewhere in Somerset

We’re doing fine here at Folly Farm, except for our recent inability to e-mail out. The wi-fi system was stolen last week by a guest(!) and the cables for wired connections are now kept under lock and key – hence the late arrival of this update. This year our postcards may even arrive earlier than our electronic version!

Everyone is settled comfortably in their rooms and all slept very well on the first night. There were only three takers for my early morning walk at 7.30am, but those that did make it saw a wild deer out in the open as their reward.

The weather has been fairly gloomy with mist or low cloud throughout the day, but it certainly hasn't stopped us from enjoying ourselves. (It did, however, make spotting white horses carved in the local hillsides rather difficult, but I’m sure that we will see one before two before we return.)

The children have been brilliant on our visits out earning lots of praise from passers-by. Our meals have been great and the children have been thrilled to make their own packed lunches. Maybe that’s a job they will want to carry on with once they get back home. Bedrooms have been unbelievably tidy and in many cases have been impossible to fault – perhaps another ‘job’ for when back at home!

But for now it’s time to close and off to bed for me and the other adults. There is silence everywhere and we just know that it won’t last!

Goodnight.

Captain H

Hello everyone back in Suffolk,

On Tuesday we went to Bath. First we went to the Abbey and saw the wonderful statues and stain glass windows, when we came out there was a lady painted metallic silver to look like a human statue. When you paid her she moved. Later we went to find a big tree that we could have lunch under and found a beautiful big tree in the middle of a square. Then we went to the Roman Baths and saw them bubbling hot steamy gas. We also saw some skeletons from the Romans. There were lots of things to see in the underground part of the baths, like the old drain channels that are still being used to take the hot water away from the main pool.

We had a lesson on bathing as the Romans did. We dressed in tunics then the boys had togas to put on. We also made mosaic patterns as the Romans did for their floors.

Tomorrow we are staying on the site to learn bushcrafts.

By Jess and Emma.

Hello Everybody,

We had a safe journey to Folly Farm. After 2 hours of the journey, we stopped at Avebury Henge. We had lunch in a room which people used for learning about the circle of stones, (Avebury Henge ). After about 40 mins we had all eaten our lunch. After we had put away our lunch, we were split into 2 groups. We started to walk along a path which leaded to the start of our group tour. Each group was told about different information. Mr Hesketh’s group was told about the marmalade millionaire, Alexander Keiller.

We had a lovely time. By Isabell and Bethan.

Message from Jo Grainger

Blinkin great! Book me in for next year. It's very tiring but well worth it. Louise is a great cook. This place is fantastic, the kids are loving it.

Residential Visit - Monday

Having a fantastic time, the place is beautiful and we all slept well. We all helped make our packed lunches and didn't get to bed until late! The Abbey and Roman Baths have been really good, we were able to dress as Romans. We are all heading back to Folly Farm for a roast dinner.

Residential Trip

Children all arrived safely. They have had a good night and are well settled at Folly Farm

17.09.12

Hello internet this week in school the CIRCUS is here and this morning we met a cicus person called grandma and we're only 2 weeks into the new year. We also had the head of year 7 into the new year. We also had the head of year 7 in to talk about the High School. Year 5 and 6 have the best topic ever(for boys) Heros and Villains and relating the topic to everything possible. This year the residential trip to Bristol and Bath and not a lot of boys are going which is good for the boys who are staying.

That is it for this week's internet till next time see ya.

17.09.12

This week is just going to be really fun. The circus is here. Already, fun has come to Stonham and it's only our 2nd week back.

Also I'm really looking forward to the residential trip in 5 weeks time to Bath and Bristol! I've even started to think about going up to High Shool already.