Trips and Visits
Jump to: day trips or residential visits.
A number of departments organise trips related to the topics students are studying. This page gives a flavour of the visits undertaken in a typical academic year.
Key Stage 3 Visits
Year 7 visit Mountfitchet Castle and Hedingham Castle as part of their work in history on castles.
The science department takes Year 7 pupils on a day trip to North Norfolk, visiting the Sea Life Centre at Hunstanton and going on a boat trip around Blakeney Point to look at the seals in their natural habitat. This trip is an integral (and fun) part of the Year 7 programme of study in Science.
Year 7 students visit Ely Cathedral where they learn about the history and religious significance of this important local landmark as part of their RE course. Year 7 also take part in a Christmas Carol Service at the local church.
Year 7 students will have an opportunity to visit and play an Indonesian Gamelan at Papworth early in the Spring Term as part of their music course.
Gifted and talented pupils in Year 7 participate in a Chinese day at Cambridge University together with pupils from Impington Village College and Comberton Village College. As well as learning to count in Chinese pupils studied the tones and found out about Chinese customs and traditions.
Year 8 study rivers in geography, and go to Yarwell Farm and Sacrewell Mill to study the River Nene close-up. They tend to get a little wet, but succeed in measuring the speed of flow and depth of the river!
Year 8 visit the Black Country Museum with the history department. They visit the mine, school village and canal boats, gaining an insight into life at the turn of the century.
Year 8 pupils of French spend a day in Boulogne visiting the ramparts, Nausicaa, a hypermarket and Wimereux market, where they interviewed the locals in French about their preferences in food and drink.
Year 9 students studying French spend a day in France studying what is typical of a French town. They look at the differing histories of Wimereux and Boulogne, interviewed market goers about holiday visits and purchased items typical of a French breakfast. They enjoy the 4D video at Nausicaa and then walk up the hill to the ramparts.
Year 9 visit Wicken Fen for a pond dipping exercise as part of their science course.
Year 9 geography students take part in a Japan Day which involves working with a range of outside visitors to learn about social, cultural and geographical aspects of life in Japan.
As part of their study of the First World War in history, about 200 pupils from Year 9 visit the Somme battlefields in France during November. The day is a long one, but pupils find it a deeply moving experience.
Key Stage 4 and Sixth Form
Year 10 geographers visit Dunwich, where cliff erosion has reduced the second largest east coast port to a tiny village. They do some practical work and looked at different methods of coastal protection.
Year 10 have a "Holocaust Day" which gives them the opportunity to meet a survivor of this horrific event in history, and consider our responsibility in the world in the light of this event.
Year 10 students of French attend a national conference in Cambridge where they enjoy sketches, role plays and presentations on GCSE topics. Their feedback was very positive..
In Music, Year 10 students attend a world music workshop as part of a project on Indonesian Gamelan music.
Year 11 MFL students are offered a range of booster classes, masterclasses and Saturday revision sessions as well as oral practice at lunchtimes and after school.
Year 11 to 13 art students visit the National Gallery, Tate Gallery and Saatchi Gallery.
Music students in Years 10 - 13 will go to Cambridge and/or London to attend concerts given by professional musicians.
Year 12 students of French and/or German participate in a conference in London on topics such as media and region.
Ethics examination groups visit Cambridge and Walsingham in Norfolk to study a variety of religious denominations within Christianity. This is an important part of their coursework.
Sixth Formers take part in over twenty trips related to their studies, including lectures, conferences and fieldwork visits. They can attend a higher education conference and have the opportunity to go to university open days either individually or as part of a group.
Year 12 geographers visit the North Norfolk coast to study coastline formations as well as sand dunes and salt marsh plant succession at Holkham Bay, as well as visiting Snowdonia, North Wales as part of their study of glaciation.
Year 12 travel and tourism students go to Hunstanton each September to study the impact that tourists have on a traditional seaside town. They also visit the Marriott Hotel, Huntingdon and spend a day at Stansted Airport.
Year 13 geographers visit the London Docklands as part of their urban studies, as well as carrying out at urban study in Cambridge.
Year 12 students attend a Masterclass at Cambridge University on particle physics. Year 13 students visit Paris and attended a talk in the Planetarium at the French Science Museum. Year 13 students also spent a day at the Astronomy department of Cambridge University where they attended talks on various aspects of star formation and the origin of the Universe.
Year 13 biology students go on a field trip to Grafham Water to obtain field results for their ecology project.
Year 12 and 13 art students visit Curwen Print Studio. Year 13 have an art bursary to the print studio.
Drama and Theatre Studies students have the opportunity of numerous theatre trips, including to West End musicals.
Year 8 main language pupils are offered the opportunity to spend four or five days in France or Germany. On both trips, pupils use their language skills in the residential centre and in the local towns to make purchases, to ask for information and to do surveys in the target language. In France in 2008, pupils will be exploring Bayeux (where they will see the tapestry), Arromanches (with its 360 degree cinema), Honfleur (with its unusual cathedral) and the Normandy coast. In Germany in 2009, pupils will be visiting a castle along the Rhine, travelling by boat along the Moselle, through the lock at Beilstein, exploring the Roman ruins in Trier and staying in a former Prussian fortress.
Year 9 and 10 pupils of German are invited to participate in a short exchange visit to Germany and an equivalent opportunity is currently being researched for Year 9 and 10 pupils of French. We are also planning a day trips for pupils in Years 9 and 10.
Students in Years 12 and 13 are offered the chance to do work experience in their target language country be it France or Germany. In the case of Germany, students spend a week of their Easter holidays in Germany totally immersed in German life and living with a German family but taking part in work experience. Students in French are invited to participate in a joint ICT and French trip to Paris. The students of French work on AS Level topics related to the world of work and on grammar as well as visiting Paris where they gather materials and Disneyland where they interview unsuspecting tourists about matters relating to their oral topics.
In March Year 12 historians have the opportunity to visit Berlin as part of their As studies of Germany 1933-63. Every December, Year 13 students visit Dublin as part of their studies of British and Irish History. These visits are generally three or four nights in length.
In October 2008 history students in Years 11 to 13 will visit China for a week, taking in sights including Beijing, the Great Wall and future Olympic stadium.
Geography
Since October 2000 groups of students from
Year 10 to Year 12 have bi-annually travelled to Kenya during October half term establishing a link with a Kenyan school, visiting national parks, local tribes and the Rift Valley. The next visit in October 2008, however, is to South Africa - which again includes opportunities to go on safari and learn about the social/cultural geography of the country.GCSE Geographers also now have the opportunity of a visit to Iceland to study plate tectonics.
A Level geographers visit the Snowdonia National Park to undertake practical geography fieldwork.
Travel and Tourism
Students now have an opportunity to take part in a five day visit to New York - to study aspects of their course which include health, safety and security as well as customer service. The department also works with the faculty of Travel and Tourism at New York University where students participate in a number of seminars. Travel and Tourism students also visit the Marriott Hotel at Huntingdon and Cadbury World during the first year of the course.
RE and Ethics
Year 10 to 13 students have the opportunity to visit Auschwitz in Poland to learn about the events of the Holocaust. Years 11 to 13 can visit Rome to develop an understanding through visiting the historical sights of the importance of Rome in Christian history. Students also have a Papal audience. Sixth Form students attend a conference in New York to complement their studies on Philosophy and Black Theology.
ICT
Year 12 AGCE students visit Disneyland, Paris to see how the organisation uses ICT to support its commercial operations.
Ski Trip to Switzerland
Two ski trips are organised annually for students, which take place in February half term and at Easter. Students opt for skiing or snowboarding, and there is an instructor for beginners, intermediate and advanced groups. The chalet accommodation is excellent and the evening entertainment programme is extensive.