Written by Flora, 8H
On Monday the 6th of June, Year 8 set off to Portsmouth.
As I was on Coach A on our first day, we went to Old Sarum and Salisbury Cathedral. Old Sarum was very interesting, especially the different places around the ruins of the old church. Next, we went on a short trip to Salisbury Cathedral. We got to go on a tour around the cathedral and saw lots of amazing things. One of the best was when we saw one of the original copies of Magna Carta. Once we had finished the tour, we met up with Coach B and had fish and chips while a storyteller told us an ancient Greek story. Then both coaches went to our accommodation for the first time.
On Tuesday, the coaches swapped activities, with Coach A going to the Ancient Technology Centre and Coach B going to Old Sarum and Salisbury Cathedral. At the Ancient Technology Centre, we did 3 activities throughout the day. The first, tanning. Whilst some people loved it, others were not too keen on pulling hair out of a deer hide! Next, we did some archery which was super fun for everyone, and we all ended up hitting the target! Our last activity was some rope making. I found this very therapeutic and thought it was a lovely thing to do. Then we travelled back to Fort Purbrook.
On Wednesday, both the coaches were reunited, as both went to our next port of call, Brownsea Island. We took a short boat journey there, then started to take a walk to the beach. We then started our geography fieldwork. Once everyone had had enough of the beach, we took a stroll to where we had lunch with the scary peacocks who were trying to eat our lunch! After lunch we went on a walk along the marshland and tried to spot some animals there. Even though Brownsea Island is famous for its red squirrels, I didn’t manage to spot any, but others in different groups did! Our final activity on the island was some bird watching in 2 cabins overlooking the lagoon. We ended up seeing most of the birds on our checklist! After that we went on a boat journey back to the mainland. The final thing we did that day was the famous Tesco stop where everyone enjoyed topping up their snacks!
Thursday was my favourite day of the week. We first went to the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. Our first activity was seeing HMS Victory! We did a tour around the ship where we learnt about the ship’s history and the Captain of the ship, Nelson! After that we went on a boat around the harbour where we saw lots of naval and ex-naval ships including the HMS Queen Elizabeth! It was an incredible boat, and it was also very big! Then we had lunch and carried on our trip where we saw the remains of the Mary Rose and the other artefacts in the museum from the boat. Our final activity at the Dockyard was going on HMS Warrior! The boat was Queen Victoria’s favourite ship at the time. We looked on the upper and some of the lower decks of the ship before we set off and walked to where we did some bowling! It was super fun to play with your friends and see who the winner was!
On the ferry to Brownsea Island
Beachcombing
Peacocks and chickens on Brownsea Island
Trekking on Brownsea Island
On HMS Warrior
On Friday we went to Fishbourne Roman Palace where we looked at the amazing mosaics around the site. My favourite mosaic was of Eros on a dolphin. We then looked at a video of information about the palace and what it would’ve looked like and what its purpose was. Next, we went to Winchester Science Centre. We had lots of fun going around and on the interactive information stands. Once we had explored both layers, we went into the planetarium. It was an amazing experience to see all the different constellations and planets! My favourite part was seeing the stars and how they then made lots of different constellations. We then headed back to school to be greeted by our parents after an amazing week at Porstmouth!
