On Saturday the students had the opportunity to pay a visit to the beautiful West Country. While the older students (16-18) visited Bristol to see the Clifton Suspension Bridge and admire Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s architecture, the younger students (13-15) had the chance to experience a much older structure – Stonehenge! It was wonderful to see how engaged the younger group became with the history of this Neolithic landmark, especially given some rainy spells.

On Sunday, most of the students took some free time to relax and enjoy the long-awaited sunshine. A few older students headed into Oxford to do some shopping, whilst the younger students enjoyed group games led by the counsellors in the grounds at Yarnton Manor. Throughout the rest of the day, there were a range of sporting activities taking place, including: cricket, table tennis, football and badminton.

Drawing inspiration from India’s win against Pakistan this weekend, a large cohort of students was particularly keen to play a serious cricket match, which became increasingly competitive towards the end of the afternoon. The less competitive of the bunch chose to spectate, providing some commentary on the movements of the game as it went on, whilst catching the last few rays of sunshine – a perfect Sunday afternoon!

The team were impressed to see that despite the buzz on campus, all of the students took a few hours out of the fun to complete their homework for the coming week. After a busy weekend, all the students seemed enthusiastic to get back to their second week of classes.