On Monday the 6th of November the Year 11 team took 150 Year 11 pupils on a reward trip to Nuclear Wild Forest in Brentwood…

The coaches parked up at 10 am with Bastille’s ‘Pompeii’ playing loudly across coach 2, while students enjoyed a final burst of inspiration as they sang, “How am I gonna be an optimist about this?”

And optimism is what they would need…

Whilst staff and students were told to wear old clothes, no one was quite prepared for the volume of mud they encountered today.
Heavy rain and a recent Tough Mudder event meant the ground was churned into a muddy soup and the streams and ponds were overflowing with sludge.

Nevertheless, the students courageously threw themselves into every activity, quite literally.

They crawled through tunnels, heaved themselves along monkey bars, sidled under mud-drenched nets, jumped into dirty ditches, scaled slippery walls, and often found themselves landing head-first into deep and deliciously gloopy pits of mud. Two students proclaimed they had ‘trench foot’…despite the misunderstanding, it was pleasing to note they’d paid attention in history.

One student lost both of her shoes in the river and had to continue the course in her socks, and another student exerted himself so much that he felt rather queasy; still, he powered on through. Students braved the freezing water and marched on with gusto, tackling obstacle after obstacle deep in the rain-soaked Essex countryside.

After using some interesting washroom facilities, students warmed themselves by a large and somewhat smoky fire as they ate their packed lunches. The entertainment was provided by the boys’ loudspeaker which belted out none other than Bastille’s ‘Pompeii’. I feel a year group song coming on…

Students embraced every opportunity and laughed and encouraged each other throughout the day. Teachers enjoyed the opportunity to catch up with students outside the classroom and the students were polite and friendly to all adults. The Nuclear Forest staff were hugely complimentary about our students and were delighted to have such resilient and compassionate young people visit their centre. The students truly were a credit to our school.

This lovely bunch of students will be completing their GCSEs in May 2024. We hope they remain at Leventhorpe for sixth form because they truly are a remarkable group of young people.

Well done, Year 11!