Yr5 Pupils

Year 5

This is the page on which all the Year 5 2008-9 work will be recorded for your use - not just the teachers' ! We will during the Autumn term be spending almost all the time on Survival Skills - and your ability to solve problems, usually with a survival theme.

It would be useful to look at the part of the Menu that is 'Survival' to get some ideas about the technical side of what we as Instructors do. Also it's good to do some background reading, so USE YOUR SCHOOL LIBRARY; have a chat to Mrs. Marshall as she knows a lot about the survival books there.

Real Survival

Mr. Howard's company 'HUNTER Outdoor Training' keeps a log of all survival experiences that people are fortunate enough to live through - and tell the tale.

Here are some of these that have been recorded on Hunter's database over the past couple of years. Can you work out ways in which peole would have survived these?

DIVERS SURVIVE 20hrs DRIFTING AT SEA May 2008

Two scuba divers, a British man and an American woman, have been rescued after drifting for twenty hours in shark-infested waters off Australia's Great Barrier Reef. After an 18 hr search, a rescue helicopter spotted the divers, who had drifted away from their other dive-partners, some 8 nautical miles NW of Bait Reef. The helicopter winched them aboard and flew them to safety. Local police said the drifting divers had made all the right decisions to enable them to survive once they realised they were in trouble. © ITN

RUSSIANS SAVED AFTER SURVIVING FOR 3 MONTHS

Rescuers have today saved 11 people who were shipwrecked in a storm three months ago in the remote Russian Far East. They had survived by eating fish they had caught, and flour found in an old abandoned hut. They used the wreckage of their boat to make a shelter, and dried out the rest of the un-useable wreckage to use for fuel for their fire - lit with their cigarette lighter. With supplies running low five of the eleven decided to try to walk to safety. They walked for four days before finding a Russian Army patrol. The soldiers called in a helicopter to search for and eventually rescue the other seven people. © BBC  January 2008

FAMILY OF SIX FOUND ALIVE AFTER 17 DAYS IN WILDERNESS

Instead of a two-hour drive through Oregon USA a family of six survived 17 days in their vehicle after being trapped by snowdrifts in the south west of the state. Two rescue teams - from California and Oregon spent over two weeks scouring the route they were thought to have taken. However the family 'took a lot of shortcuts' and then in the most remote of all areas skidded off an icy road onto a steep slope from which they could not dig themselves out of. Two of the six walked to find help and were eventually found by park rangers after 'walking' for 24 hrs. Dec 07.

US WOMAN SURVIVES CANYON ORDEAL

A 76 year old woman was given up for dead after being lost in the Eagle-Cap Wilderness Area of the Oregon Mountains in the USA. She was found alive though with a fractured hip. After their truck broke down on an elk-hunting trip the husband and wife decided to try to walk to get help. They became separated in the forest. Having fallen she had crawled to a stream at the bottom of a deep valley ('canyon') and there she lay for two weeks surviving off just water. She survived night temperatures of 0șC, though only dressed in lightweight clothes. The searchers were alerted by the sound of ravens in the canyon, and found the aged but alert Doris Anderson. BBC Sept 07

KENYAN PILOT SURVIVED ON LEAVES

A helicopter pilot in Kenya, crahed his aircraft in a forest near Mt. Kenya and survived for eight days by living off leaves and water. The man, who was once a Major in the Kenyan Army, broke seven ribs in the crash and stayed near  the wrecked helicopter, as his injuries were bad. He saw planes searching for him but could not signal to them; in fact there were 13 aircraft, and 200 searchers from seven organisations looking for him. He did have a mobile phone which worked for a short time after he found the battery, lost in the crash. Solomon Nyanjui was eventually found after the one text message he sent was received by his friends at work. He suffered blood loss and dehydration. 'The East African Standard'. Dec 07.

MAN STUCK ON CLIFF FOR 36 HRS.

A photographer stuck on a cliff for a day-and-a-half was rescued by Coastguard Search & Rescue staff after a dog-walker spotted him early one morning. The cliff near Binnel Bay west of Ventnor on the Isle of Wight was the place where the 54 yr. old man tripped and slid down a steep slope into dense gorse and brambles. The man had a mobile phone but at this point on the cliff there is no signal. Despite calling he was forced to stay tangled in the undergrowth throughout the whole of the day - shouting for help. Few people walk this remote stretch of the coast. He was eventually rescued at 11am the following day and taken to hospital suffering from severe dehydration. BBC Aug 07