Trips, Visits and Events
The London Trip (October 13th-16th 2009)
by Paddy Salmon
Photos by Manon Gourlay, Diane Gable and Elvire Moreau.
The London Trip with Premières is a hallowed institution, quite rightly, and although we may from time to time propose other trips to vary the sequence, trips to London remain very special. We start with a philosophy that we have had from the beginning – we aim to see the London that tourists often ignore. We also aim to teach the pupils how to navigate safely around this teeming, throbbing capital and discover with us and for themselves what a wealth of treasures, many free, are on offer. We are very lucky indeed in having London right on our door-step, and although some pupils may feel somewhat blasé, if they have visited London before, they are much less so by the end.
This year we took 52 pupils and stayed as usual at Miss Flannery’s “Blue Daws Hotel” in Sussex Gardens, ideally placed for visiting, and by far the cheapest hotel of its kind. She is warm and friendly, likes teenagers (for some reason!) and is always very helpful. Ruairi McCann, Pat Short, Lisa Higgins and Vicki Salmon came with me and provided the 24/24h help that we
have to have on any such school journey as well as helping with booking arrangements. Pupils could choose some of the activities. As well as taking in three evening shows (The Government Inspector, an excellent “Endgame” by Samuel Beckett and “Chicago”), we retraced Mrs Dalloway’s footsteps in the novel we are studying for the OIB, toured the Docklands and the Docklands Museum with an experienced London Geography teacher, visited the Criminal Courts, the Churchill Cabinet Rooms, the Tate Gallery (discovering the Turners there), Freud’s House, Keats’ House (where they had been filming “Bright Star” recently, now out in Paris) and the Museums at South Kensington. We also all had an Indian meal together on one of the evenings.
Feeding hungry teenagers is always a problem. We solve it on the trip by giving them a daily allowance and letting them “forage” for food in small groups, at set hours of the day. This allows them to show us that they can be responsible and punctual, giving them the chance, also, to explore and to have a certain amount of independence. If we feel they can be trusted (and this year’s group was an exceptionally nice, trustworthy group), we let them go off in small groups on the final day to explore London more fully in their own fashion, with any money we have been able to save. We arm them with a leaflet giving suggestions of free (or nearly free) activities, though many want to shop as well.
With so much to do and see, the Photographic Competition tends to take a back seat, though we do encourage the students to interview and photograph a “London Face” – an activity which many secretly fear, though they often produce lovely photos and write-ups. Engagement with their environment is encouraged to the point where MP3s are forbidden on the trip and pupils are told to open their ears to the world all about them and to reflect on what they see and hear. As usual, it was a great success – we were lucky not to be held up by strikes this year! My thanks go out to the other teachers – trips like this are exhausting and a huge responsibility (something that is not always understood by those who have never taken a trip), but when the pupils are so helpful and appreciative it makes it all worthwhile. Other schools in France have begun to hear about the way we do this trip and it is flattering that many have written to ask me how we go about it!
The pupils write:
I really enjoyed the trip and here are some things I particularly liked:
 I am very grateful that you gave us entire freedom and trust throughout the trip and especially on the last day. But the only thing that I regret a little is not having the time to stop for one minute and gaze at Big Ben or other monuments when we passed near them. I really appreciated the trip and want to thank all the teachers for it! Diane Gabla |
| My favourite visit was the Dock museum, because it really retraced the whole story of colonisation and slavery during the last centuries. It was very clear and not too intellectual. I also thought that the system with the different little groups was very good, because it permitted us to choose and we only went to see the things that we were the most interested in. the teacher that was with us could really answer our questions because of the little number of people, so I learnt a lot of things. And it also made us be with different people in the different groups every day, and that way I talked to people I didn’t know, and I thought that was nice! I think all the pupils got on well... I personally met a lot of them (in the rooms, during the visits) and as a new student I really appreciated it! During school days we really are only with the people of our classes, or people we know. It’s very hard to meet new people. I also really loved the fact that we moved around London by underground, because it really made us realize where we were going, and that way we were able on the last day to organize a whole program without any problems. This was a lot of fun! During my other school trip we had a bus that took us everywhere, and it put us less in the "visiting" mood in my opinion. Manon BONNAL, Cambridge Group |
| What I liked about our trip to London was the fact that we did not visit the city like tourists. We looked into the British capital in depth and saw it like a real Londoner would. Indeed, we did not visit monuments and "tourist traps" like Buckingham Palace, Big Ben or rode the Eye. Instead, we went to the Art Gallery, the Docklands (and got a tour from a professional) and went to the Courthouse. Of course, we got to see shows at night like Endgame and Chicago. We also got to discover other places without the group on our lunch breaks and on the last day, which left us freedom to do or see what we wanted in the area. Throughout the journey some groups even passed by the working neighbourhood, where we could see all of the working people which was impressive seeing how fast the city moved when working! Altogether, this was inspiring because even though most of us had already visited London or even lived there, we got a whole new view of it which made us feel like real Londoners! Thank you to all of the teachers for this wonderful trip which was fulfilling and gave us another view on a different European capital. We knew Paris as Parisians and now we know London better as Londoners! Again, many thanks! Amelie de La Rochefoucauld |
Dernière modification le 25-03-10 par
