On Monday 16 – Wednesday 18th August, the Farnley Academy and Bruntcliffe Academy Year 7 students took part in a 3 day learn to row camp. It was the first time Ciaran and I were able to get to know the students well and to spend time with them. This is something we really enjoyed and the opportunity to form bonds with these wonderful and charming young people was something that made our week hugely enjoyable. We were also extremely lucky to have support from former EHC students.
The camp consisted of rowing at Roundhay Park as well as swimming and indoor climbing. We provided lunches for students too, which we ate outside in the park. Swimming took place at Quarry House, and following swimming assessments, some students had a half hour swimming lesson, and some played in the pool. Again, this was something which was hugely valuable for us as rowing coaches and something we would like to continue with. Climbing took place at the The Climbing Lab in Kirkstall, and they were incredibly helpful and encouraging to all students. It was fantastic, not only to see students doing something completely different, but to be enjoying themselves and spending time with our former EHC students who are going on to do great things; we hope the whole week was inspiring to these lovely students. It was particularly special to see the students who had not known each other at the start of the week, getting on so well and genuinely enjoying each other’s company. We wanted to make these days the best few days of the students’ holidays and to offer them as many different opportunities to be active as we could. We hope that they will go back to swimming and climbing over the autumn and we are really looking forward to starting rowing in earnest with them in September.