Naturesbase + Hazlegrove = Hazlebase!

The Year 5s spent two nights under canvas this week and enjoyed three days of fun outdoors as Naturesbase was moved from Wales to Somerset this year. The Year 5 parents came to our rescue, providing numerous large tents in which we were able to accommodate 39 very excited children in the space near the Go-Kart track and woods.

Gyles Morris and his two assistants, Beth and Emma, did a wonderful job of providing the usual Naturesbase combination of fun and outdoor learning in our own Hazlegrove setting. A huge thank-you to the resident staff who helped me to put up some of the larger tents on Sunday afternoon. When the Year 5s arrived with all of their kit on Monday morning, the Go-Kart track already had the feel of a camp-site. After meeting the Naturesbase team, we got straight down to putting the rest of the tents up. The Year 5s managed this extremely well and were very excited to move their things into their new accommodation!

The children were split into six groups named after British animals. Each group had a half day of kitchen related duties such as making packed lunches or serving a meal to the others. It was lovely to see how quickly a community spirit grew as they learned to work together to serve the rest of the group.

Monday afternoon was spent in a range of exciting team-building activities where the children took it in turns to lead their group in solving various challenges such as rescuing the egg of a rare Mago bird from an island in the middle of an acid lake! The focus was very much on encouraging everyone to consider the opinions of their whole team before coming to a consensus on the best way forward.

Later that afternoon each group was taught how to light fires using flint and steel. They collected kindling and wood and we used fire pits cut into the ground to make fires which then were used to cook pancakes!

Supper was wood fired pizza and this was followed by an orienteering activity where the groups used maps of our grounds to locate stamps put in specially by Gyles and his team for this trip. Everyone trooped off to their tents to bed after this and I was tremendously impressed by how everyone settled down quickly and quietly to sleep.

We woke early on Tuesday morning, and enjoyed a breakfast of eggs and beans on toast cooked over the fire. While two duty teams made packed lunches everyone else tidied up prior to a tent inspection. Then we set off in three mini-buses for a four mile walk along the Dorset coast from Seatown to Charmouth. This included a good climb up the Golden Cap from where we enjoyed some fantastic views! As we trudged into Charmouth it started raining, but this did not stop us from enjoying some ice-cream while the mini-buses were collected. That evening we had a lovely BBQ meal, before hot chocolate and songs around the campfire. After this everyone had a quick shower before a few additional duvets were issued and everyone headed for bed!

Our final day dawned beautifully, and we used the good weather to pack up our campsite after a hearty breakfast. Once again, I was very impressed by how hard everyone worked to get everything put away neatly. Then we tackled a range of bushcraft and art challenges set by Gyles, which included soap making using wild-flowers found on site, art using pigments from natural materials around us, organic sculpture, stick whittling and also making dream catchers and medallions with Viking runes. Finally we said a big thank-you to Gyles and his team before getting our kit and heading off to be reunited with our families. Hopefully the Hazlebase experience leaves us all reflecting on new experiences and perhaps even new friendships made. A big thank-you to everyone who helped make this run smoothly; our marvellous kitchen staff for their catering, the grounds and estates team for setting up our site and to Gyles and his team as well as our two gaps Miss Arnold and Mr Crossfield, Mrs Spilsbury, Mr Head and Mrs Cran. This wouldn’t have happened without a huge team effort!

Mr Jenkins

Click here to see all the photographs on Flickr