It was a gloriously sunny day when Year 6 set off for Wimbledon Park Watersports Centre to participate in a day of water-based Team Building activities such as kayaking, sailing & canoeing. The objective of the trip was to promote teamwork, encouraging the children to support each other as a group, ahead of the challenges they face in their 11+ year.

Once Year 6 had mastered the correct use of a paddle, their instructors made sure they had plenty of fun-filled challenges to complete, such as edging out to touch the bow of the canoe with their noses & leaping up and down in a Mexican wave!

Next, the children were put into new teams of four to sail fun boats around a course. Luckily, the wind improved so the paddles were not needed after all!

After a very welcome lunch, the pupils set off in Canadian canoes. Again there were a number of challenges to complete once they had formed a raft and, despite the chants of “Hold On, Don’t Let Go!”, several children ended up in the lake! Fun was had by all!

6C’s Outing to Wimbledon Park Watersports and Outdoor Centre - Friday 11th September by Amelia M

Everyone was jumping with excitement as we filed off the bus. When we arrived at the water sports centre, we couldn’t wait to get going! We had heard that there was a series of activities, including kayaking, sailing and canoeing. When the instructors greeted us, we were delighted to find that they were also full of enthusiasm and good humour. They described how to manoeuvre a kayak and then it was time to get into the water. We were pushed into the lake and immediately tried to master the skill of working together as a pair to power our vessel. It felt exhausting but satisfying when we managed successfully to reach the instructor.
We were then told that one of us should climb out of our seat and touch our nose to the nose of the kayak. That involved crawling nervously on our stomachs to the end of the kayak without capsizing. Our next instruction was to move our shaking arms outwards as if we were sky diving and lift our legs into the air. Unfortunately, one of my classmates, tilting to one side, slid gracefully into the water and got thoroughly soaked!

We then played a game called ‘Stuck in the mud’, in which two kayaks powered around trying to tap the others with their paddles – a form of kayaking ‘IT’. Some classmates, in a desperate attempt to escape the pursuing paddles, over-balanced and capsized their kayaks. We laughed, as we saw their horrified expressions as they hit the water.

Next up: SAILING! On boarding the sailing boat and pushing off from the jetty, we began to discover our Swallows and Amazon’s skill set. There was a constant shuffle around the boat as we tacked and ducked to avoid our helmeted heads being bludgeoned by the boom!

Lastly canoes! The challenge given was to stand up in our canoes without wobbling and falling in. Our class sat on the bus home, shattered, but very content as we reflected on our day. And what a day it was! Three soaked, but all happy!