Oxted School goes large

For those of you who come to the Eagles Nest in the Spring and Autumn months, here's what you are missing this week: volleyball with Oxted School, temperatures in the mid-20's, about a million butterflies and glow worms, cuckoos and Tengmalms Owls calling to each other in the forests - it is a fabulous week here in the Cevennes!

High pollen count!

Oh boy, if you ever wondered what you are missing in May here at the Eagles Nest, here's the answer - POLLEN! The broom is in flower now and looks absolutely magnificent, but I am so glad I don't suffer from hay fever.

There is pollen everywhere you go, you can see it blowing in the air, it covers the cars and the dried up puddles look yellow, where it has been floating in the water... Don't forget your piriton (insert the hayfever medication of your choice here) if you are coming to the Nest any time soon!

Today the very brave students from Cite Scholaire (the Anglophone section of this cite Tycee in Lyon, France) set off on their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh overnight expedition. Here they are all loaded up with their rucsacks!

Cite Scholaire come every year for a 'British experience' of which the International Award is just a part. Others include eating Tunnocks wafers (Caramel bars) and marmite sandwiches whilst they are staying at the Eagles Nest!

They are due back to the centre tomorrow afternoon, having completed hikes of about 30 miles. Good luck guys!

Nestlins reunited

A crazy couple of weeks have passed, and time has flown! In addition to the students from Southbank International School (London), we have now welcomed the students of West Hatch (Essex), Rivington and Blackrod (Lancashire) and the International School of Dusseldorf (Germany, obviously...) to the Cevennes.

West Hatch and Rivington and Blackrod had the most amazing week of weather ever seen at the Nest, with the groups scaling 5m snow drifts at the Col de Finiels, marching across the icy wastes of Mont Lozere, and later in the week, basking in the Mediterranean heat on the sand dunes at La Grande Motte. There were a few red necks after a day on the beach, and a fabulous picnic at the Pont du Gard...

Last weekend, we saw the return of Kevin, Christine and Greg, our fabulous team of Nesters, who have all been over-wintering in Morzine, in the French Alps. Greg has amazed everyone (possibly even himself) by learning to ski like a demon, and has cooked alongside Sharif, one of the Masterchef quarter finalists, for the last 6 months, and we are expecting great things from him in the kitchen this year! Kevin and Christine didn't quite do the red run before they left, but Christine did break 2 bones in her hand learning to ski, so not surprising. Better than our excuse here at the Nest - we couldn't ski much because the road was always closed by snow drifts.

After a mammouth post-winter clean and tidy at the Eagles Nest, we were ready to meet and greet our first group here at the Nest. Dusseldorf have been a fabulous group, and despite a long coach journey, they arrived full of beans and ready to learn some new ecology skills - good, as by the end of the week they were expected to hand in a full investigation to be marked towards their final IB Biology grade! The first day was spent on aquatic ecology, followed by a day on terrestrial ecosystems, and then they put their new-learnt skills into action. All the students surprised themselves by going from ecology-new-comers to experts in 48 hours, not bad!

Projects ranged from comparing the invertebrates living in an ephemeral stream, to looking at how stonefly nymphs were affected by stream velocity, to investigating the distribution of plants in flooded hay meadows. All excellent work, and they were a real credit to themselves, their staff and to the school. Well done guys!