The week everyone had been waiting for and what the past four weeks have been working towards, Level 1 exams.
The weather was fantastic Monday and stayed consistently sunny all through the week. Today was the day the skiers were to begin their level 1 exam as their level 1 exam is one day longer. They all arrived on time at 8.30am in the morning and were greeted by their examiner for the next four days. They all began by hitting the slopes and day 1 consisted of skiing and talking through what they will be assessed on. There were some nervous faces as they clipped in to their skis but by the end of the day they were all smiles as it became evident to them the examiners are not monsters and want them to succeed.
Tuesday is day one for the snowboarders. This followed exactly the same pattern as Monday with the boarders arriving to the village at 8.30am to register for the exam. After this they headed to the classroom to watch a video on what they will be covering and to look at the level they will need to be at to pass. The skiers also hit the classroom for the first part of the morning to cover exactly the same thing.
After this both the skiers and snowboarders were out on the hill demonstrating what they had learnt over the previous weeks. This was in the form of practice teaches, where they were giving a scenario and had to show they had a thorough understanding of the material and also to show their examiner their level of skiing and riding.
Wednesday and Thursday followed the same schedule as the previous days (without the classroom bit) except Thursday was a little different. Today everyone was going to find out how they got on. The end of the day came round very quick and there was a silence amongst the groups as they sat there eagerly awaiting their results. The skiers all sat together in a room and had a debrief from their examiner before the good news came that they had all passed. For the snowboarders the set up was a little different. After they had finished they were called one by one to sit with their examiner to talk over the past three days and before we knew it they had all emerged and we were looking at a bunch of qualified snowboard instructors. CONGRATULATIONS to everyone.
Thursday night was all about celebrating and we did so by firstly heading to ‘The Bullwheel’ a nice bar to have our first celebratory drink. It was a great night and all the students were relieved that the level 1 was over.
Friday was a free day for everyone and it was taken advantage of. Most of the students used it to go skiing and snowboarding and hit the terrain park for some fun, whilst others used it to sleep in and have some well deserved rest by lounging at home watching TV. As per usual we all headed out for our group meal on the Friday night which for once saw most people venturing home and not wanting to go out due to being out Thursday night.
The weekend seemed longer than usual partly due to the fact everyone had the Friday off! The first mid-week day off since lessons began some 4 weeks ago! With worries and nerves non existent the weekend was a massive high. Level 2 training kicks off on Monday and everyone is as excited as a kid in a candy store!