Stubbington 2019

Hurrah! We’ve made it! We have landed at Stubbington with nothing but smiles from ear to ear. The sun is shining and Foxes and Hedgehogs have taken Stubbington life in their stride as if they have been here for weeks! They have unpacked their bags FOLDED their clothes HUNG their clothes on coat hangers! The girls have even started… cleaning! The boys… have not… J

After we unpacked we were off for our first of many many many meal times Lunch! After a full tummy we were off to the beach for the afternoon as one big family!

At the beach we made our very own rockpools by collecting sea creatures such as Peri Winkle’s, Limpets, muscles and Anemones. We left our rock pools to settle while we went off to build our very own SANDCASTLES! It was EPIC! We had to have at least four turrets, a moat and a fifth turret in the middle if we had time. We then had to vote which sandcastle was the best.

After this we had some time to go fossil hunting and boy were we in luck! We found lots of fossils on our first expedition such as shark’s teeth, turritella and eagle ridges. THANK GOODNESS that Mrs Gowans found her first ever sharks tooth so she isn’t going to be in a grump about not finding one for the rest of the week… phew! It’s only taken three years!

Once we had completed our fossil hunting we went back to see what creatures had come out to explore our rockpools and we were in luck! Lots of them came out to play!

After the beach we had a massive dinner! Full tummy’s once again and then headed to our classroom for some diary time where we wrote to you all ready to share with you when we get home. Now we are in our evening activity and Miss Perkins has actually found ten minutes to update the blog before midnight! Yay!! Miss Perkins will update you all on how well we settle for bedtime in tomorrow’s blog. We are off for our showers and bedtime story now, Night night family.

Day Two… We are having the time of our lives!!

GOOD NEWS!! Foxes and Hedgehogs were tucked up in bed last night after their showers and milk and Stubby biscuits and of course their bedtime stories! The teachers are VERY VERY VERY pleased to announce that by 10:30pm they were snoring away and didn’t rise until 6am. Same again this evening please! Keep all your fingers and toes crossed please parents!

First thing this morning Owen was woken with the lovely sound of Miss Oliver and Miss Perkins singing happy birthday at the top of our voices. I’m fairly sure he loved every second… Yes today we had a birthday boy to celebrate and boy did we celebrate!

At the rising bell Foxes and Hedgehogs raced to breakfast and enjoyed a full English and cereal AND toast! With full tummys they were sent back to their bedrooms to… wait for it… TIDY! They had to make their beds, fold their clothes, clean their carpets and bathrooms and drying rooms already for… morning inspection! Mr Scarbrough came round and rated each room on the tidiness and cleanliness of each room and I’m pleased to announce that both the boys and the girls scored very well… there’s still room for improvement (we need to learn how to make our beds to Stubby standard) however Foxes and Hedgehogs feel confident to be able to do it tomorrow morning. When your Foxes and Hedgehogs return they will be professional bed makers, clothes folders and bathroom cleaners… you can thank us later J

After morning inspection Foxes and Hedgehogs headed off for their first activity where we played team building games. We learnt that each task required good team work, communication and respect. We had to transport an important medicine across an obstacle course without spilling a single drop! It was tough but we worked together as team and every group was successful.

Next we travelled to Hawaii on an aeroplane but unfortunately crash landed on a desert island where we had to build shelters to withstand sun, rain, wind and predators. To test our shelters, our teachers squirted us with water! Those of us with more sturdy shelters stayed the driest. Our teachers got their own back by squirting us with water pistols… some might say they enjoyed it too much! Especially Mrs Gowans..!

At lunchtime the lovely cooks of Stubbington had made Owen a homemade birthday cake. All three schools sang Happy Birthday to Owen and he was then allowed to choose who he wanted to share his cake with… teachers didn’t get any L

After another lovely lunch we headed back off to the beach for an afternoon of sculpture making. We based our sculptures on our previous topics (Titanic and Greek Mythology) and these ranged from Medusa the mythical beast to the iceberg that Titanic hit. We gathered materials from around the beach such as shingle, seaweed and shells and had a lot of fun putting these materials together to produce our 3D structures.

All in all another fantastic day here at Stubby! We all miss you a little bit… but mostly we just cant wait for our next adventure tomorrow.

Lots of Love

Your Foxes and Hedgehogs xx

WOW WOW WOW I just first want to say… Your Foxes and Hedgehogs are making you so incredibly proud here at Stubby. They are using ALL of their secrets of success every single day. I honestly can say without a shadow of doubt that we are the proudest teachers here at Stubby and probably on the entire universe.

Both boys and girls went to bed beautifully without even a whisper. They were asleep within minutes and didn’t rise until 7, some even slept right until the waking bell! SUCCESS!! We had a lie in!

I am pleased to announce that morning inspection went soooooo much better than yesterday morning. We had beds made, clothes folded, clothes hung even… hair brushed! Some Foxes and Hedgehogs even decided to try and sneakily get up before the morning bell… wait for it… to TIDY!!!! The Foxes and Hedgehogs we are bringing home to you Friday may be rather different to the ones you sent away. Don’t be worried if they randomly start hoovering and ironing..!

After morning inspection we all set off as one big emotional family for a 4 mile beach walk. We got to walk all along the coast line and enjoy the glorious sunshine. Along our walk Mr Nash told us lots of interesting facts about the history around the Solent and the shells we discovered along the way.

After a tummy bursting lunch we were refuelled and ready for our next adventure. Hedgehogs learnt orienteering skills using a compass. We were tasked with finding signs along a course in the conservation area and attempting to do this within 20 minutes. The Successful winning team can be found in the eager end photo.  

This afternoon Foxes took part on Earthquake! They were informed of a level 8 richter scale earthquake that had shaken the Stubbington site and left the place in an awful state! Using teamwork and communication skills Foxes had to work as a team to complete an obstacle course moving various objects with them such as a ladder, a first aid kit, an emergency box, a blanket and rope. On their way round the course they also had to rescue a baby and take it to safety! Some Foxes became rather attached to their new little one and showed very caring and kind natured qualities. The babies were name: Rosie, John and Adam.

At the end of the obstacle course all Foxes had to make the tremendous leap over the lava lake by way of a rope swing! Despite their eager faces and wishing until their heart was content Miss Perkins did successfully make the leap without falling in the lava (water) below.

Another fantastic day at Stubby. We are all staying up late tonight to get to visit the hide! Very very exciting! We will tell you all about it tomorrow.

Lots of Love Your Foxes and Hedgehogs xxx

Day Four

First things first the hide last night was… AWESOME!!!!!! It was sooooo cool that the teachers pretended to put us to bed this evening… but instead they surprised us and told us we could go to the hide AGAIN! We were sooooo excited and have just been and come back. We saw 8 badgers and even a Fox! Pictures to follow later (they are on the teachers phones).

Now onto today! We’ve had another glorious day of sunshine here at Stubby. We truly have been incredibly lucky with the weather!

This morning we had our usual morning inspection where once again our scores increased as we are fully trained in all aspects of stubby life now. We hope you will be impressed with our new levels of tidiness and have already promised all our teachers that our bedrooms at home will remain clean and tidy from here on out… watch this space!

Today Foxes did the orienteering that Hedgehogs talked about yesterday and Hedgehogs did the Earthquake challenge that Foxes did yesterday… once again we had some budding young parents taking on the role of looking after the babies very well!

Foxes and Hedgehogs both spent the afternoon competing in the eggstreme challenge where we had to earn tokens in order to buy materials to protect our egg from being launched across a field. We earnt tokens by completing puzzles in small groups; it was essential that we worked well as a team in order to complete the tasks successfully.

Using our tokens, we bought materials to protect our egg which was projected across the field on a catapult! Most eggs survived however we learnt that the most important achievement was learning how to work well as a team. We had an eggstremely eggsellent time and couldn’t wait to write all about it during our evening diary time slot.

This evening in addition to our Hide visit we have also competed in Stubbington’s very world-wide famous and appropriately named… ‘S Factor’.

All week we have been working in our house groups to come up with a song and dance routine to showcase our houses. Although some of us were shy to begin with we ALL performed on stage with amazing stage presence and enjoyed an evening of laughter and team spirit. Mr Scarbrough aka Simon Cowell along with all our teachers gave us marks out of ten for our performances. Mr Scarbrough also had the help of Foxy (a fox puppet) who was rather naughty and kept disrupting the judging but had us all belly laughing until we cried. All in all another fantastic day here at Stubby. Although we all miss you very much… we are sad to be leaving tomorrow and wish we could stay another week, or two… or three…! Memories made for life.

Lots of Love Your Foxes and Hedgehogs xxx