And so, the second session of kids has come to an end. To be honest, I was far better than the first. A combination of better behaviour, more councillors, and the experience of the first session, made it a success for me. I may have said I'd miss kids from session one, but this time, I really will...
My bunk of kids this session was a real pleasure. With the exception of the one kid who was sent home, the campers were usually well behaved. To a councillor, this is a huge benefit. If the kids are doing as asked, your mood is vastly improved. There is nothing worse than persistently dealing with that one child who will not behave, and not being able to spend time with the 5 others who do.
It is the waterfront where I really upped my game. I personally feel my lessons on the waterfront this time were a vast improvement of the previous session. Again, it comes back to practice and experience: the things that worked well, I kept doing, those that didn't, I changed.
Getting 4 of 6 in one of my groups to 'blue band' was a particular highlight. Being able to say you were the person that taught them to swim is a great achievement - but not as large as the achievement the swimmers have made. It means a lot to them to be able to pass the test, and I'm glad I could be a part of that.
Some of the lower ability groups also are great to teach. My lower boys group were brilliant. One of them really wanted to show me and my co-teacher a trick in the water. To be fair to the others, we lets the other boys show tricks in the water too. What happened next was brilliant, as the creativity of a 7 year old knows no limit. When you see boys performing the sleeping man (back float), angry bird (bobbing up and down in the water) and my personal favourite, the rotiserie pig (rolling round and round vertically in the water); it is simply hilarious. When a boy shouts "look at me, I'm a roasting pig" before rolling repeatedly, you can't help but laugh!
One of my group was quite high ability. Not quite swim club standard, but getting there. The lesson where we were working on treading water, I joked with them if they could tread water for 10 minutes (a rather long time to do that) I'd buy them all chocolate. Needless to say, they did (much to everyone's surprise), which was annoying, yet impressive at the same time.
I did say though I'd miss the kids, but the person I'd really miss is a councillor. At the end of the session we lost a few staff members, including a Sherwood councillor - Dave Balie. The reaction to him leaving was emotional, as he really was a fantastic councillor. Dave, if you are reading this, Sherwood Forest misses you!
But, perhaps the biggest news of the session is that, yes, I am growing a beard. The amount of people that have commented of photos of me is a tad unbelievable. The main reason I'm growing it is the lack of hot water on camp makes it hard to shave - plus I kind of want to see if it suits. Who knows, if enough people like it, it make be here to stay. If anyone has any feedback, please tweet #YESbeard or #NObeard to @
cutleree...
I really hope the 3rd session is as good as this, and using the same rationale as before, things can only get better. But for now, I'm on a quick break, and am heading to the big apple! But, I'll leave you with this photo. Just appreciate how beautiful the place I work is...
