Students rise to challenge to conqueror hills of Shropshire

The pupils and staff from Thomas Adams School in Lowe Hill Road, Wem, conquered Hawkstone Park, Grinshill, Haughmond Hill, Clee Hill, The Lawley, Caer Caradoc and Corndon Hill.

They had hoped to complete the feat within ten hours but travelling over 100 miles by road to get to each of them took longer than expected.

Headteacher Liz Dakin said she was very proud of those who took on the challenge.

She said: “This is the first year we have done a challenge of this kind and many pupils were excited to be involved.

“Before they attempted it myself and deputy head Julie McGurrin did it to check the route and see how hard it was - and so we could challenge them to beat our time.

“It took us 11 hours so we set them the challenge of completing it in ten hours, seeing as they are much younger and fitter than us.

“Although they didn’t quite make it in that time we are so pleased they were so close and manage to complete it all.

“It involves a lot of logistics to get that many people up and down hills across the county so we are very pleased for them all for all their hard work and dedication.”

The Hills of the Houses challenge, which took place on Wednesday (June 17), involved the beauty spots which some of the school house groups are named after.

The group raised £500 for charity, which will be divided equally between the school’s nominated Cancer Relief charity and the Hardship Fund to support less financially well off families.

The expedition challenge was a celebration of students’ willingness to participate in school life. At least two representatives from each house took part from year 10 and year 12.

Sam Forsyth, 15, of Ellesmere, was one of those who completed the challenge.

He said: “It was quite hard.

“Some of the hills are small but some of them were much larger and it was tiring travelling between them all as well, I don’t think any of us realised just how much effort it would take.

“But having said that, it was really fun and we all really enjoyed it.

“It is a great way to get involved in school life and spend some time as a group taking on this type of house group challenge, we all said we’d love to do it again.”

Tom Cuthbert, a physics teacher at the school, was one of the staff members leading the students and supervising them on the trip.

He said: “We had all our walking equipment with us, we needed plenty of water as the weather was warm, but we had a little rain on Corndon and plenty of wind on Caradoc. The students really got to experience a variety of weather.

“Both students and staff enjoyed themselves and it was great to have a challenge like this to dig our heels into.”

The school hope to make the challenge an annual event with each group hoping to beat the time of those who took part the year before.