High Ashurst

For this activity the IB class went on a trip to an outdoors activity centre called High Ashurst. On our arrival we all had to stand on a bench and do several team working activities making sure to not fall off in the process. We were then divided into two groups and we did a number of obstacle activities where we had to work in our team to absolve these. It involved a number of activities, for example, the one I liked the most was where we had to work in a team to cross between two platforms connected by tight ropes, with only our brains and one rope. After doing the activities we were given the task of making a fire solely from nature (well, nearly). I was shown which type of wood to collect to burn and were given a demonstration, then it was all down to us. I was in a group of three so after we had collected enough twigs to burn we made a fire! And were the first to get it going! After a few attempts we were finally able to create a fire and toast cheese bread over it. We had to make a cheese bread dough and then wrap it around a stick, which i personally didn't mind, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger! After our cheese bread break, we were taught how to saw wood properly. First with a partner and then by ourselves, we cut wood slices with which we later made small decorations, by drilling some holes into them and adding wool. The planned activity was to do two days and one night at this centre, however I was not able to stay for the night and the next day as I had to go on one of The Challenge weekends that Saturday. This was useful for CAS because by doing the activities I had increased my awareness of my own strengths such as my physical abilities like balance, speed and working in a team and areas for growth, one of which was sawing w

ood which I found difficult because I had never done it before. All of the non-physical activities that I had undertaken were new challenges for me. I was able to work collaboratively with others during all of the team working activities and I was able to take leadership when needed and enjoyed doing all of the activities which shows perseverance and commitment. I had developed new skills in fire making and sawing wood and found that throughout the whole day I became an inquirer, a thinker, a communicator, principled, caring, risk-taking, balanced.

Being at High Ashurst was challenging for me because a lot of the things which we did throughout the day were new to me. Although I am used to doing physical activities, they were all different to usual exercise in the sense that it was like an obstacle course which involved finding solutions and ways to overcome the obstacles. In addition, I had never made fire from scratch before and it took a few attempts and piles of sticks before I got the hang of exactly how to spark the fire and keep it going. Also, sawing the pieces of wood from the branch was a challenge because I had never done it before and hence I was completely new to it.
      
My main aim throughout the day was to get to know all of my IB cohorts better as I was only one week into school and only knew a few people who were internal to the school like me. I was also aiming to develop my precision, flexibility, and strength throughout the obstacle activities, learn how to make a fire from natural resources and  learn how to saw a branch and make a decoration from this.

This activity was creative because I had to work together with others to find ways to overcome the obstacles and had to use imagination and logic in order to do so quickly and efficiently. I also used my creativity by making the decoration from the sawn piece of the branch by using different coloured wool and weaving it around the piece. the activity was also action because the outdoors obstacle course required a lot of physical activity, swinging from ropes, balancing on a wire and with the whole group on different platforms, climbing a wall, and many other activities similar to these.

I feel that I really had a lot of fun working with my IB peers throughout the entirety of the course. I feel that I have progressed in getting to know all of my peers better and developing our friendships and trust through the day at High Ashurst. Although I was confident about doing the activities I think I didn't feel fully confident until we were further into the day having gotten to know my everybody better and doing the relationship-building activities. ultimately, I feel that I have achieved all of my aims throughout the activity and really loved the experience of getting to know my peers in this way. I would have loved to do the whole of the activity, sleeping in the teepees and doing high ropes, but unfortunately i couldn't. I would love to do this activity again and stay fr the whole weekend, i enjoyed all of the activities and everyone I was doing them with.