Trips

This trip provides a first opportunity for Infant pupils to experience a residential, one-night visit to a centre on the outskirts of Chester. The children are accompanied by their teachers and Teaching Assistants. The visit allows for extension of classroom work and bonding with peers.
Children have the opportunity to enjoy the Centre's large grounds often playing Kwik cricket and tennis. There are many other activities on offer which often include a treasure hunt, fabric painting and dancing.

This two day residential trip, with an overnight stay, is a history based excursion exploring the Minster and life during Viking times. One day is based in York itself visiting: The Jorvik Centre, taking a trip back in time including the sights and smells of York in the 9th Century; the ARC Centre where the children literally dig for clues to a past life with original archaeological finds; The Minster, discovering about its erection and the religious symbols hidden throughout the interior and walking the city walls.
Accommodation can vary from year to year and the children enjoy a fun-filled evening's entertainment including leather jewellery making, brass rubbing and playing Viking board games.
Day two is spent on a scaled down Viking village where the children discover everything they need to know about typical village life. Historical facts are presented through role play with village occupants including the lord, working villagers and Saxon slaves. Village activities include clay oil burner making, household duties, farming and gardening. If the villagers work hard enough they are rewarded by a banquet hosted by the lord and lady.

Year 6 Pupils experience a wide range of fast moving and challenging activities over this three and a half day adventure at Castle Head Field Centre near Grange-over-Sands. As well as enhancing their Geography and Science curricula, the trip also provides opportunities for personal development, problem solving and team building.

For more information visit Castlehead.

Overseas Sports tours have become a regular feature of School life with Senior teams travelling to all corners of the globe;South Africa and Namibia, Australia and New Zealand, Canada, Argentina, Sri Lanka, West Indies, as well as many European destinations have featured in recent years.

In April, Year 8 boys can travel to Portugal for a Football Development Tour. Biannually there usually are Boys' Hockey and Girls' Hockey and Netball tours to Valkenburg, Holland. In addition there is a traditional annual Year 7 Rugby and Hockey fixture against St Gerard's School, Ireland.

The Sports Department also welcome touring sides to the School and have hosted an Australian School and a Hockey squad form Buenos Aires in recent times.

Every two years a group of students from Year 11 and the Sixth Form undertake the World Challenge. The expedition follows an intense 18 month preparation of fundraising and training. Past expeditions have been to the Indian Himalayas, Argentina, Guatemala, Belize, Borneo and Zambia and the 2014 trip is to Peru.

World Challenge provides educational expeditions in the developing world which teach life skills and expand minds outside the classroom.

The Modern Foreign Language Departments (French, German and Spanish) believes very strongly in the value of educational visits and exchanges as a method of complementing the learning in the classroom and providing the pupils with a greater awareness of the life and culture of the people whose language they are studying.

The Departments have a number of exchange links with schools in France, Germany and Spain. All the Departments run regular trips for different year groups, in the past these have included visiting Berlin, Barcelona, Madrid and Cantabria and Valladolid as well as Pontivy, Dinard in Brittany, Eurodisney, Futuroscope, La Rochelle and Koblenz in the Rhine Valley. 

In November Year 11 Historians have the opportunity to spend 5 days visiting the Battlefields of World War One. The programme usually concentrates on the areas where the battle of the Somme (1916) and Passchendaele (1917) took place and will include visits to Notre Dame de Lorette, Vimy Ridge, Newfoundland Memorial Park, Thiepval, Ypres, Tyne Cot and Sanctuary Wood.

Students in Year 11 and the Lower Sixth can visit Hamburg on a German study trip in the Spring Term.

Pupils in Year 10 and Lower Sixth are participating in an exchange scheme with a school in Normandy, France for seven days in the Spring Term. Students who have participated in the past, have established valuable links with their penfriends and come back with greater confidence and fluency in the language.

German Students from Years 10 and 11 have the opportunity to practice their language skills by taking part in an exchange to Recklinghausen, Germany, during the Spring term. Highlights include spending  time in the exchange School, visiting the local football arena and visiting to Munster and Bonn.

Year 8 students have the opportunity to spend a week in Brittany, sightseeing, learning more about French culture and having the chance to practice their language skills during the Spring term.

Students in Years 10 and 11 visit the Bay of Naples during this Easter holiday excursion, run by the Classics Department.
The ruins of Herculaneum, Vesuvius, the ancient town of Pompeii and the Forum and Collosseum in Rome are among the highlights.

Serre Chevalier in France, is the destination of this Easter holiday school trip .

Participants in the Duke of Edinburgh Scheme are involved in a number of residential trips which include Expeditions for all three Levels (Bronze, Silver and Gold) in June and July . The Expeditions vary in length from 2 days for Bronze Level to 6 days for Gold.

As part of MUN, students go as delegates to other Schools throughout the year. These include Belfast, Bath, Croydon and occasionally abroad. For more information, please see the Clubs and Activities pages.

Students from Year 11  will spend a week in Valladolid as part of the Spanish Exchange Scheme during October Half Term holiday. The exchange is usually a huge success with students improving their Spanish and forming new friendships. The group hope to visit the beautiful city of Salamanca among other places.

Every two years a group of students from Year 11 and the Sixth Form undertake the World Challenge. The expedition follows an intense 18 month preparation of fundraising and training. Past expeditions have been to the Indian Himalayas, Argentina, Guatemala, Belize, Borneo and Zambia and the 2014 trip is to Peru.

World Challenge provides educational expeditions in the developing world which teach life skills and expand minds outside the classroom.

The purpose of this 12 day tour to China in 2010 was to increase students' knowledge of this fascinating country. Traditional rural life in Chinese villages and medieval towns as well as the latest developments in rapidby growing urban centres such as Shanghai were encountered. The group visited homes and schools as well as factories and major infrastructure projects, including the Three Gorges Dam.

The History and Politics encourages educational visits overseas to complement learning in the classroom and regularly organises overseas trips. Usually on a biannual basis is a trip to Washington DC. The most recent visits have included a trip to Congress, including the office of Republican Senator John Ensign, the Supreme Court and the Pentagon. The group also went to the White House, the Lincoln Memorial, the Holocaust Museum, Georgetown and the International Spy Museum. This year's students were lucky enough to see Obama himself landing by helicopter in the White House and witness first hand the Presidential Elections.

The Departments usually also runs biannual trip to Moscow and St Petersburg. 

In addition to regular fieldwork as part of each year group’s curriculum the Department has run a Sixth Form fieldtrip to The Gambia every other year. This is one of the greatest opportunities available to Sixth Form Geographers. Here the pupils visit the Gambia High School and other schools further inland. The trip is more than geographical, it allows students to gain a valuable insight into life in an LEDC and is often a life-changing experience for some of our students.

The Upper Sixth Paris trip gives the students the opportunity is to immerse themselves in French culture, whilst raising their awareness of different fields (art/literature, architecture), to speak mainly French, including to staff and to enjoy Parisian life. The group visit the Musee d'Orsay and Orangerie in particular.

Lower Sixth Spanish students have the opportunity to spend five days on a study trip to Madrid. The students pair up and stay with families. In the mornings they have Spanish lessons and in the afternoons they have a full itinerary of cultural activity.

Students in Year 11 and the Lower Sixth can visit Hamburg on a German study trip in the Spring Term.

Pupils in Year 10 and Lower Sixth are participating in an exchange scheme with a school in Normandy, France for seven days in the Spring Term. Students who have participated in the past, have established valuable links with their penfriends and come back with greater confidence and fluency in the language.

Serre Chevalier in France, is the destination of this Easter holiday school trip .

Overseas Sports tours have become a regular feature of School life with Senior teams travelling to all corners of the globe;South Africa and Namibia, Australia and New Zealand, Canada, Argentina, Sri Lanka, West Indies, as well as many European destinations have featured in recent years.

In April, Year 8 boys can travel to Portugal for a Football Development Tour. Biannually there usually are Boys' Hockey and Girls' Hockey and Netball tours to Valkenburg, Holland. In addition there is a traditional annual Year 7 Rugby and Hockey fixture against St Gerard's School, Ireland.

The Sports Department also welcome touring sides to the School and have hosted an Australian School and a Hockey squad form Buenos Aires in recent times.

The Modern Foreign Language Departments (French, German and Spanish) believes very strongly in the value of educational visits and exchanges as a method of complementing the learning in the classroom and providing the pupils with a greater awareness of the life and culture of the people whose language they are studying.

The Departments have a number of exchange links with schools in France, Germany and Spain. All the Departments run regular trips for different year groups, in the past these have included visiting Berlin, Barcelona, Madrid and Cantabria and Valladolid as well as Pontivy, Dinard in Brittany, Eurodisney, Futuroscope, La Rochelle and Koblenz in the Rhine Valley. 

Participants in the Duke of Edinburgh Scheme are involved in a number of residential trips which include Expeditions for all three Levels (Bronze, Silver and Gold) in June and July . The Expeditions vary in length from 2 days for Bronze Level to 6 days for Gold.

As part of MUN, students go as delegates to other Schools throughout the year. These include Belfast, Bath, Croydon and occasionally abroad. For more information, please see the Clubs and Activities pages.