Thursday 12th April

Well what an amazing residential we have had at YHA Youlgreave! We started our journey to The Heights of Abraham from school at 9:30am. All the children were so excited for this amazing residential to start.

Up on arriving to The Heights of Abraham we had to concur our fears and get on the first every Swiss style cable cars built in England to the top. This was a big achievement for all the children to do and they did it with such courage and laughter! We even managed to distract ourselves with a quick game of ‘I spy’.

Once we had reached the summit, we entered our first cavern – in here, we learnt about how the miners would destroy the rocks using fire and picks. We learnt that this would be a family job and everyone would help. Even children as young as seven would be down the mines searching for Iron. We heard a story from ‘John the miner’ about his life and how he survived and worked down in the mines.

We then had a pit stop for some lunch!

After our lunch we entered the Masson Cavern, this is the largest cavern of the two. In here, we looked at how the candles scorched the top of the caves when the miners were digging out the cave looking for more Iron. We also saw how the caves entrance was made from a natural fault line in the earth. We were able to learn about the different crystals that could be found in this cavern and we found some fool’s gold in there too.

Once again we had to then leave The Heights of Abraham by the cable cars (this time we weren’t as scared).

From the Heights of Abraham we went to YHA Youlgreave where we stayed for the night. Once we were all settled in and unpacked, we completed our task and then had our dinner before getting ready and going to bed.

Friday 13th April

The next morning Miss Woodward woke us up at 7:30am. We had breakfast and then packed up and got ready for our second days adventure.

Today we went to Cromford to go on the Birdswood Canal Boat. On the boat we carried out a arts and craft activity and were able to see how people lived on the canal boat and how small the living space was. We also managed to brave the rain and get off the canal boat to have a walk over the Aqueduct and saw the water mill and the old canal houses all before getting back on the boat to go back to the coach.

It has been a brilliant first residential for Class 5 and the children all did so well. Miss Woodward is extremely proud of every single child for their behavior and attitude towards the experience! We had many different people tell us just how lovely the children had been.

Well done Class 5!