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On Thursday 14th February, the Year 7 students in Class 3H went on an educational visit to London. The students had helped to plan our route in advance, using a combination of train and tube travel, and our first destination was The Natural History Museum. One group went to  explore the dinosaurs exhibition, while another group went to find out about creepy-crawlies like scorpions and leaf-cutter ants. Matthew H. and Miss Smith were very brave, and Steven and Michael made sure nobody got attacked
by the huge robot scorpion.
The two groups then met up to enter Ice Station Antarctica, an exhibition all about what life is like in the extreme cold at the South Pole. This linked in with some of the work we have been doing in English lessons about life at the North Pole. To begin with, we entered the freezer room, which was like a giant freezer! The temperature in there was -15 degrees centigrade, and while Mike said he would be quite happy to stay in there all day, the rest of us were more interested in getting out and warming up! This was easy, because the next activity was trying on some of the special clothing worn in the arctic to help keep you warm. When everyone was bundled up in the huge coats, you could hardly tell who was who! Have a look at the photos and you will see.
Will and Matthew H. then played a large computer game where you had to control a diver who was looking for rare animals in the icy water. One of the students got to smell penguin vomit, and she was not a big fan of it! We saw a real skidoo (it is like a motorcycle on skis) and everyone got to play a game where you have to drive a skidoo around a camp and collect  meteorites, which are small rocks that have fallen from space. We finished off by exploring a scientists cabin from the Antarctica, and Angus decided to test how comfy the bed was.
 
After we had finished at the Natural History Museum, we bought lunches from some local shops and then took another tube train to London Bridge, changing tube lines at Westminster. We went on board HMS Belfast, a real warship that was used in World War II, and ate our lunch on the back part of the ship (this part is called the stern).
It was a bit cold and windy outside, so afterwards we were glad to get inside where w e had an education session from a teacher called Emma. We found out about what life would have been like on the HMS Belfast, and got to examine artefacts from the ships history, including an extremely heavy duffle coat, a real navy certificate, and some of the games sailors would have played to pass the time. This linked in with some of the work we have done in History, finding out about artefacts.
We then had time to explore the ship from top to bottom, so we split into three groups. Everyone was very interested in the huge ship, especially One of the students who managed to get all the way around, from the very bottom boiler rooms to the very top deck of all! Matthew H. got a fright when he looked in the potato store and heard the ships cat miaow at him (dont worry, it was just a sound effect).
We finished our day by taking the underground to Waterloo, where we had a class reward, going on The London Eye! It was getting dark by this point, and the London Eye was lit up in pink by special lights that were shining on it for Valentines Day. We got into our pod and up we went, getting brilliant views over London. Matthew B. spotted the Gherkin building and Tom could see Buckingham Palace. When we got to the very top, the London Eye broke down for a short while so we got to see the sun set over London, and we had an extra 15 minutes at the top for free! Eventually it started working again and we came down to the ground.
 
 
Our journey back was during the busy evening time when lots of people who work in London are trying to get out of London to go home. The trains home were very crowded because of this, but we had talked about this in class and the students were very patient, polite and sensible in the busy conditions.
We arrived back at school at about 7.00pm as planned, and to celebrate our successful day out and our recent class assembly about Chinese New Year we had a class Chinese meal which everyone enjoyed. It was great to see students being brave and trying new foods. All in all we had an excellent day out with lots of learning and fun involved, although the students were pretty tired out by the end and ready for bed!
The students behaviour was very good throughout and it made the occasion a real pleasure. Thanks go to Miss Smith and Miss Bull for putting in considerable additional time and energy to make the event a success, and for helping to carry around the snacks and drinks so that nobody had to go hungry.
By Mr. Hart
 
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