School Trips

Even though it’s a while away yet, the conversation in my French class has turned to our upcoming school trip. After grappling with verbs and vocabulary, we usually end up squealing with excitement at the thought of our continental adventure. Paris, the city of lights, croissants, Limoges, city of, er, porcelain, romantic train journeys, cafe au lait, I cannot wait!

This made me think of the many school trips I have been on over the years. Some are more memorable than others. A bird pooing on my painstakingly-drawn field sketch was a definite low point, as was enduring the worst  48 hours of  my life in  torrential rain on the Dorset coast.

I have, however, had better experiences. I’ve been extremely fortunate to have taken part in a choir tour to Prague, seen Shakespeare performed in Stratford-upon-Avon, worked in Barcelona and in a French primary school, all at a subsidised cost.

School trips are great for several reasons. They enable students to learn in a different way outside the normal classroom environment. Visiting new places broadens our horizons and brings that boring bit in the textbook to life.  Despite the copious red-tape involved, I have particularly enjoyed foreign exchanges because as well as meeting new people abroad, it also a great bonding experience for the English-speaking group to travel together.

In the current climate, some may question the value of school trips. Do we really need to visit Bluewater for Geography, or Thorpe Park for Science? But education is about more than just classroom book-learning and sometimes you have to  actually experience something to understand it. I think that school trips are genuinely valuable, and frankly, I can’t wait for my next one.