Fifteen Saltash.net Year 7 students were chosen to take part in an adventurous residential trip aimed at improving their analytical English reading skills.

The group, with Miss Halliday and Mr Hodson, travelled to Bideford to spend three days at Skern Lodge.

On the first day the pupils split into two groups and were faced with the challenge of a group assault course.

Students then took part in archery, which helped them when thinking about the analysis of ‘The Hunger Games’, completed before leaving school.

The second day started with a rafting trip that led into Bideford. The first lesson at Skern Lodge saw the pupils use the experience of rafting to help analyse the message of the poem ‘A River’s Story’.

Students faced the biggest challenge of the trip in the afternoon: tunnels. This involved crawling through extremely tight spaces in the pitch dark, with many confronting fears of darkness and claustrophobia, but still giving it a go.

With support from each other, all managed to successfully complete the task.

The experience helped in the lesson, when looking at the tone created by JK Rowling in describing ‘The Chamber of Secrets.’

The final day saw students take part in a coastal traverse round Westward Ho, facing some extreme weather and tricky scrambles across the rock.

This experience helped with analysis of Joe Simpson’s ‘Touching the Void’ back in the classroom.