Year 7 UKSA Visit
Between 21 and 25 September, Year 7 visited the Isle of Wight to get to know each other and develop new friendships and skills. Many students at DCGS remember the visit to UKSA as one of the most memorable moments of their time at Challoner's, and we hoped that we would feel the same.
From Monday to Wednesday, Foxell, Holman, and Newman enjoyed the lovely weather on the south coast, followed by Pearson, Rayner and Thorne from Wednesday to Friday. During the trip, we enjoyed giant paddleboarding, kayaking, a walk to the beach, sailing and boating information, a quiz night, team-building activities and last but not least, dinghy sailing. Every activity was packed with fun and games.
Giant paddleboarding was great fun because we had to work as a team to paddle and try to board the other giant paddleboard as if it was a pirate ship. A hilarious moment was when one of the instructors sprayed Hudson with a hose.
We enjoyed kayaking, and especially enjoyed playing the 'bus stop game'. For this, one person had to kayak to the instructor and get on to the kayak with only one paddle until all of your team got on without capsizing. However, it turned into a free-for-all with half of each team trying to sabotage the other team, whilst the other team was purposely trying to capsize. In the evening, we walked through Cowes, followed by a brief trip to the beach to skim stones.
A common favourite was dinghy sailing, especially watching our friends helplessly capsize when they couldn’t figure out how to turn. We found it extremely satisfying when we caught a strong gust of wind, passing another group that had capsized or when we went over a big wave.
One night, we did a quiz involving dingbats and hidden images inside pictures. After that, we learnt a lot about sailing charts (not maps, or the instructors will cry) and buoys in our boat safety lessons. We also enjoyed VHF (Very High Frequency) walkie-talkie information.
Overall, we had a great experience in the Isle of Wight, getting to know our new classmates and teachers a bit better for our exciting future at Challoner's.
Writing: Sebastian (Year 7)
Editing: Benjamin (Year 13)
