Our sixteenth annual visit to the Pioneer Centre took place between the 17^th and 19^th September. This trip is designed to help our new Year 7 pupils to bond and forge lasting friendships, while working as a team and challenging themselves in unfamiliar situations.

Our first stop was West Midlands Safari Park. At times we felt as though we were on an African safari as we were literally surrounded by inquisitive animals, from the giraffe with the huge blue tongue that walked centimetres from our coach to the rhinoceros that didn’t want to move and caused a noisy traffic jam!

On arrival at the Pioneer Centre, which is situated in the pretty village of Cleobury Mortimer in the Wyre forest, girls played icebreaker games that loosened their inhibitions, and their tongues! Girls relaxed in their shared bedrooms before a welcome dinner and our much anticipated Night Walk. We walked in total darkness through natural and manufactured woodland, stopping along the way to play games; definitely an interesting experience!

Day 2 and, in teams of 10, girls began to experience, amongst other things, falconry, rock climbing, abseiling, endurance on the challenge course and caving deep underground…in a converted chalet! The caving simulation was excellent and a real hit with our eager explorers! As if that wasn’t enough excitement, girls then bounced their way to exhaustion on the Big Bounce, possibly the largest bouncy obstacle course ever seen, followed by dinner and just enough time to squeeze in a tidy room competition AND a disco to round off a fantastic day.

On day 3 girls enjoyed more activities designed to make them think through problems and work as a team. It was such a pleasure to observe girls’ newfound confidence in themselves and each other. Many new friendships had been established and, once again, the success of the trip was reinforced before our very eyes.