What is a residential really like?

Hear directly from the winner of our Year 7 blog competition about her experience

Stepping outside your comfort zone, trying something new, and building bonds – our Year 7 residential is designed to strengthen the friendships established during the first year of senior school. Full of exciting activities and teambuilding opportunities, the trip celebrates the hard work of our Year 7 pupils following their first year at Loughborough High School.

This year, our Year 7s were given the opportunity to enter a blog competition. The brief encouraged them to write a short piece about their experience and we were delighted to receive some wonderfully creative entries. You can read the winning blog from Year 7 pupil, Lucy, below.

My Hilltop adventures

Wow! Hilltop was an amazing, incredible experience and opportunity for me and my whole form! Full of hard work, laughs and A LOT of sweeties and sugar to keep us going: facing fears, challenging myself and my form, and trying to sleep when full of adrenaline. I had suitcase full of pride to take back home with me and many stories of all the activities to share with friends and family.

There were many amazing activities and experiences to do, trusting staff and reassurance when you needed it. The positive, welcoming environment that Hilltop created made it perfect for you to push yourself that little bit further and still be extremely proud of yourself even if you didn’t go as far as some people. Teamwork was encouraged and ran throughout all the activities like super swing (most definitely recommend), treetop trails, crate stacking, air jump and the assault course – lots of activities to tire us out by the end of the day.

The activities were extremely fun and helped me step out of my comfort zone. They were amazing experiences and everyone enjoyed them. First was the walk to Sheringham where we got to go round the shops to look for little trinkets and souvenirs to bring home and a sneaky ice cream, so you won’t walk on an empty stomach! (Don’t worry, we still did some geography). Then was crate stacking, fun, teambuilding activity which involved building a massive tower through communication and a few laughs. Big swing was next and it was my favourite – it felt like you were going on an amazing rollercoaster! Definitely recommend. Then air jump and the assault course where you jump onto a big marshmallow! Sooooooooo fun ! And the assualt course was a very muddy, hilarious adventure. And finally, treetop trails! Full of obstacles to climb and a lot of support from the members of staff.

Overall, I really enjoyed my residential and would recommend it to anyone! (And remember “ challenge by choice “ – Hilltop)

Read more blog entries below.

Amy, Year 7

Hilltop was the Year 7 trip we all waited for: we waited to see the sea after being stuck in exams, we waited to do things we had never dreamt of doing before, we waited to spend time with our friends outside of the School campus. It was great!

The activities kept us awake (after practically no sleep) by thrilling us and challenging our comfort zones. My personal favourites were the air jump and treetop trail (a tongue twister: tree trop tail!) as they were unique activities that pushed me to do things I hadn’t done before. Air jump was a jump onto a 4-metre-tall air bag marshmallow, requiring skills in jumping on your back with your arms crossed like a vampire! There were different levels that you could do, letting people choose how much to challenge themselves. Tree top trail was very similar to GO APE, but arguably harder. There were two options, lower and higher. Me being very fearless I went with… the lower one!

We went on a walk to Sheringham, and bought LOTS of things, after doing intense research. Sheringham is a beautiful, cobbled seaside town, with scenic coasts and pretty houses. (The ice cream is good too!).

All the activities were unique, but all worked on one thing: team building. They were all things you could not do on your own. For example, you couldn’t do crates by yourself as you need builders, block layers and climbers! It helped us all work on our teamwork and communication skills. In the evenings we did various activities like bingo, a quiz, enchanted forest, and famous faces. Enchanted forest was my personal favourite as it involved a massive game of hide and seek in a hilly forest!

The rooms were also really nice; they were cozy and welcoming. I was with all my friends, and we had so much fun screaming because of a spider. Overall, Hilltop was an unforgettable trip I really enjoyed. I would definitely recommend it to the next Year 7s!

Aria, Year 7

After three stressful exam days, we finally made it to the end. Congratulations, Year 7! Our reward was a fantastic residential trip to Sheringham, Norfolk. It was the perfect distraction to take my mind off the exams, and the most exciting part was definitely getting to miss school!

Hilltop provided an array of unforgettable memories. My absolute highlight was conquering my fear of heights. This included tackling the High/Low Ropes, Air Jump, and the Super Swing. The adrenaline rushing through me was a strange but exhilarating feeling. Accomplishing these challenges filled me with a deep sense of joy, confidence and happiness. Sharing those screams and laughs with the people around me made all the difference, while helping me develop agility and vital coping skills.

The residential also helped me build deeper friendships across the year group. Supporting each other through terrifying activities and sharing rooms brought us closer together. I learned a lot about my classmates, including some very interesting hobbies! Ultimately, this trip taught me that while I might fear heights, I have incredibly supportive friends and teachers by my side and that I am never truly alone.

Sheringham was an unforgettable experience. To future Year 7s thinking about signing up, you’ll regret not going. It is a brilliant three days packed with laughter, excitement and team-building activities. The trip also gives you independence, allowing you to make your own choices and build decision-making skills for future events. Finally, a huge thank you to our amazing teachers for giving up their time to provide us with this spectacular opportunity from start to finish.

Thea, Year 7

Day 1:

It was finally 7:30am in the morning – everyone had a tired look on their face as if they all woke up at 3am! When we arrived, all of us were allocated our rooms and the wooden cabins were nice and cosy. We had around 20 minutes to unpack then ate lunch and headed out to air jump. 

Air jump was, in simple words, a platform you jump off and free fall onto a massive (I mean huge!) air bag – hence the name. I got up to level 5. Next was the assault course and it was very sandy, so you got sand in your shoes, and it was quite uncomfortable. As well as this you had to crawl through a dark tunnel and crawl underneath low nets. At the end, there were these wooden platforms that you had to crawl across, over water – thankfully I don’t think anyone fell in it.

After we finished these two activities, we went back to our cabins and went to the games room. It had pool, table tennis and table football. Since I was in group one, we had the first dinner sitting so we went for dinner at 5:15. After dinner, it was the evening activities. We did enchanted forest and hide and seek in the woods. Enchanted forest is where you have to find symbols put up on posters dotted around the forest and the first team back got the most points. After this, we went back to the main lodge and played bingo. Then, it was lights out at 10pm.

Day 2:

The next morning, we were up nice and early to eat breakfast at 7:30. When breakfast was done, we had around 1 hour and a half of free time and then it was time for the tree top trails. This was very high up and you had to keep unclipping and clipping yourself back onto wires to keep you safe in the air. I got tangled a few times in the wires, but I sorted it out. The best part was dangling in the air when you fall off (not that I fell off). You can purposely walk off the platform just for fun and hang in the air. I did the low level but the people doing the high one must have been very cold up there and to make it worse, it was so windy so staying balanced was hard. When this was over, we had lunch – which was pizza – and then went to Sheringham. Everyone was really excited about this, mainly because the other classes told us that there were NeeDohs there, but they sold out. 

When we got back from Sheringham, we got to chill for a bit before dinner, which was fish and chips as it was Friday. After dinner, was famous faces – the evening activity. You had to search around the bike track for posters with well-known characters on to fill out your sheet. When this was over, everyone was really tired that the teachers and Hilltop staff said that we can just go back to our rooms. 

Day 3:

Soon enough, it was the final day. This was where our form split in two and did the super swing and crates. My group did crates first and you had to stack them really high so the people could ring the bell at the top. Then, the super swing was our final activity, and I got lifted into the air on the most uncomfortable swing seat ever. It didn’t even have a back to it! Once you were up to whatever level you wanted to go to, someone on the swing with you could pull the tennis ball and you would drop. At first, the drop was scary but after that, the swinging was quite fun. Then, we had lunch and all piled our bags onto the coach, got on, and went home.