Senior School Enrichment Day 

Formerly known as Trips Days, our newly structured Enrichment Days kicked off this term with a host of fun offsite skill-building activities: Year 7 worked on their resilience at PGL; Bushcraft and survival skills for Year 8; critical thinking and puzzle solving at ClueQuest  for Year 9; bravery (and fun!) at Thorpe Park for Years 10 & 11; and a Skills Building workshop for Sixth Form leadership teamwork. See some of the brilliant PGL and Bushcraft pics in our gallery below and visit ‘@bhsgeography’ on insta to see the teachers getting fully immersed in their first-aid challenges ‘in the bush’. 

Read below for an insight from Year 12 Lily about her day of team building and problem solving. 

Our year group came together into two large groups to put our communication, teamwork, and problem-solving skills to the test in a variety of fun, yet challenging ways. The first challenge was placing wooden cylinders into a box - however both the cylinders and the box were within an area we were not allowed to enter. It was quite a formidable task, making it extremely rewarding when we managed to complete it. We achieved this by coming together as a group to share ideas and solve the problem, in a wonderful display of teamwork.  

Another activity I particularly enjoyed was a game in which each team had to get across a distance without being able to touch the ground. We were given small tiles to stand on (one less than the number of people in the team), and had to come up with an efficient method of travelling. There were also multiple levels to the game, each one slightly harder than the last, so that we were always being challenged. This was my favourite activity of the day as my team and I were trying to improve our score each time by developing our method and working on our communication in order to successfully complete the challenge.  

For our last task, the whole year joined back together in a competition between small ‘sub-teams’, to see who was able to pass a baton across the largest distance. It was interesting to see the different ideas and techniques that the different teams came up with. This activity also required a lot of trust in one another, as we were holding each other up to achieve maximum reach, which definitely helped me to feel closer to my teammates. 

It was so rewarding to see our skills, such as problem solving, develop throughout the day. Overall, I believe everyone was able to deepen their bonds with their classmates and also enjoy a fun day with friends, as we completed brilliant activities that will benefit us in both the present and in the future.  

Written by Lily, Year 12