The third session at Yarnton is now in full swing, and as everyone headed for their breakfast it was brilliant to see new friendship groups forming. Our students this year have settled so well into life at Yarnton, making the most out of the spacious manor to enjoy socialising and sports.

In the morning, it was time to begin the second day of lessons. Having completed all of the necessary introductions and icebreakers on Monday, the group are now beginning to immerse themselves fully in their subject areas, as they begin their challenging academic journeys with ORA. Some students got to take part in a Creative Writing class, where they were encouraged to create characters and think about the enemies they might have.

Following lunch in the Long Gallery, there was a chance for the students to enjoy some free time. Then it was onto an exciting Architecture workshop for a large group of our students. The leader of the session set the students up on the lawn outside the manor, as they were going to be needing lots of space to build their large structures.

Throughout the afternoon, the group worked together to build structures from long, thin sticks and elastic bands. Despite how makeshift these tools may sound, everyone was able to ensure their structures were robust with the helping hand of the workshop leader who taught them some key architectural skills to make their creations stronger. The main element to this workshop was the importance of working together as small teams, as well as the necessity of adapting to changes quickly in order to rethink the needs of the structure, based on the shape of the object they were creating.

The workshop was very well received and despite a few frustrations when things went a little awry, all of the students were able to build structures up to around fifteen metres high. Well done to everyone who learnt the value of team – building!