School ‘sleepover’ included film and learning bushcraft skills!

Sleepover at St Nicholas Priory School (Image: St Nicholas Priory School)

The exciting adventure was arranged by staff to provide a focus for the children’s story writing; Year 5 are currently writing stories linked to their project Could We Survive Another Ice Age?

The evening started off with the young ones and staff enjoying a carousel of games and activities including one-line story-telling, wink murder, charades and hide and seek followed by “bushcraft” activities. Children learned about fire lighting and basic survival skills in freezing weather. They had a go at building dens and carried out an experiment to find the best way to filter dirty water. They were also challenged to see how many children they could get in one shelter - they managed 30!

Jonathan, from Back to Basics Bushcrafters, showed the children different rocks and materials and how tools could be made from natural materials. He even showed the children a flint arrow head which is what the current Talk 4 Writing story is about (a boy finding an arrowhead and going through a portal to return it to the cavemen who made it).

At 10.30pm, an exhausted group of staff and children set up camp in the school hall, collected their “rations”, got into sleeping bags and settled down to watch the film Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe before going to sleep.

Charlie P said he couldn’t wait to tell his mum about the night because he’d done so much fun stuff, he thought it would take him a very long time to tell her all about it.

Colby’s mum said he had enjoyed it so much he had gone home and spent time searching the internet for more information about survival skills.