December 1, 2022

Year 5 and 6 visit to London

Last week, 30 boys from Years 5 and 6 travelled for a three-day, two-night trip to London. After what felt like a very long trip down on the coach, we arrived at The British Museum and spent the afternoon studying their ancient Egyptian and Greek artefacts, including the divisive Elgin marbles and Parthenon frieze exhibition. The Year 6 boys, having spend the term learning about ancient Greece and debating the potential return of the marbles to Athens, became tour guides and were paired up with Year 5 boys, who will be learning about this next year in Humanities themselves. After the visit, we checked into our hotel before a short, welcome walk to a nearby Pizza Express for a delicious dinner of pizza, pasta and ice cream for dessert.

Day 2 started with an excellent continental breakfast before the short coach journey to Hampton Court Palace. The boys, having studied the life and times of Henry VIII and the Tudor family in Year 5 humanities, were fascinated to see the world of the book Treason, their set text in English, brought to life during an interesting tour of Henry VIII’s apartments within the palace. Also, thanks to the contacts of Year 5 tennis superstar Lucas’ contacts, we were treated to an excellent instructional tour of the real tennis courts on site at the palace by resident professional and former world number 4 (IV) Nick Wood.

After a picturesque lunch, we travelled into central London and were treated to a fantastic, whistle-stop tour of central London by former resident Mrs Elliot. At breakneck pace we were force-marched between sights, visiting 10 Downing Street, Horse Guards, the Mall, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben and back to the Thames to board the bus and head to many boys’ competitive highlight of the trip, bowling! After a long and competitive game, Gabriel and Will won in Year 5&6 respectively, with Mr Gray winning the staff match comfortably. After a meal of burger and chips, the boys returned to the hotel for some downtime before a well-earned sleep.

The last day started with an early breakfast before travelling to Warner Bros. Studios for their Harry Potter experience – something every Potter fan should experience once in their lives. After being given an oral history of the films filmed on site, the boys had a fascinating workshop learning all about maths and how it is used in the production of films, particularly within the world of building scale models for filming and the burning of sets. After that, we had a wonderful three-hour tour of all of the sets, props and costumes used in the filming of the eight Harry Potter films – from Great Hall, to Gryffindor bedrooms to Death Eaters’ mansions and the Chamber of Secrets itself. We then spent far too long in the gift shop before beginning our journey home, stopping off for dinner and to watch most of the England USA match on the way home.

The trip was a fantastic opportunity for the boys to bring aspects of their humanities learning to life, particularly with topics such as the Tudors that we lack opportunities to see in the flesh in the North East. The boys were a credit to themselves and the school and developed their independence greatly as the trip went on. We look forward to returning in the future.