After a coach journey to Penzance Quay, a boat ride on board The Scillonian to St Mary’s in the Isles of Scilly, and then a short boat trip on board The Firethorn to the small island of Bryher, we finally arrived at our destination. We dropped our belongings off at camp and had dinner at The Fraggle Rock. And then we enjoyed our first evening at the beach; we searched for wildlife in rock pools, gathered shells and sea glass and swam in the sea. After a long journey and an amazing first day, we went back to our tents to get some rest.

Unfortunately, we had some bad weather over the next 2 days but that didn’t stop us going to the beach – not many people can say that they were putting on sun cream and then sheltering from a thunderstorm in the same day! Because of the bad weather, we sheltered in the local community centre on the island. We had to come together and work as a team to get through the storm but this was a brilliant opportunity to build resilience and develop teamwork skills. Fortunately, after the bad weather on the first 2 days, the sun appeared for the rest of our trip.

Over the next few days, we participated in some amazing activities: visiting Tresco gardens, which is famous for its collection of rare and beautiful plants (we saw a golden pheasant); exploring the island of Tresco, including castle ruins and stunning beaches; spending a couple of days on Bryher, which has a collection of stunning beaches and beautiful walks; hunting for shells and sea glass on a variety of beaches; quay jumping from the Bryher quay; and going on a wildlife trip on a boat, where we were fortunate enough to see puffins, seals and a variety of seabirds. However, all good things must unfortunately come to an end. After such an amazing an incredible week in Bryher, Year 6 packed up camp and set off on their journey back to Bedford.

We are incredibly proud of how well our pupils represented the school during their residential trip; some regular visitors even gave anonymous donations to support with the cost of the trip and to help us return in following years. We hope that their trip to Bryher will leave the pupils with even more special and fond memories of their time spent at primary school. Here is what some of our pupils said about the trip:

“I loved the quay jumping and I had such a good time!” – Year 6 pupil

“It was great fun and a good experience. I loved the quay jumping and visiting all of the beaches.” – Year 6 pupil

“Swimming on the different beaches was really fun and the wildlife boat trip was amazing!” – Year 6 pupil

“I really hope that I can go back and visit Bryher again some day.” – Year 6 pupil

“It was one of my favourite trips that I have ever been on. I had such a good time.” – Year 6 pupil

Click on the numbers to see the photo albums 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Thank you to all of the wonderful people of the Scilly Isles for sharing their islands with us and always stopping for a chat when we were out and about and also to The Firethorn staff, The Scillonian staff, Tom, Jo and the campsite staff for letting us stay again, Chris, Sue and the staff at the Fraggle Rock for cooking for us, The Bryher shop for providing us with our shopping, the honesty box filler uppers and everyone else who helped to make our stay so enjoyable :)