Activities

There are a number of different activities that form an integral part of the education within the school.

The school has an orchestra and a choir. As well as gymnastics lessons in the school curriculum, there is an optional after school gym club. There is also a weekly swimming school.

Days out are organised throughout the school, corresponding to the current main lesson, including visits to the theatre, cinema, museums, and local places of interest. These trips are designed not only to educate but also to create group harmony, self-reliance and an appreciation for the environment.

Weekends away are an integral part of life in the Upper School and provide an opportunity for students to engage in a number of outdoor pursuits. These include: water-skiing, kite surfing, wakeboarding and kneeboarding, climbing, hill walking and orienteering, caving, Canadian canoeing and archery.

The school has a considerable amount of adventure equipment, including a state-of-the art wakeboarding boat, sports boats, a handmade Polynesian Proa, 24’ long with an outrigger, made by the students under the leadership of a parent. This craft is used regularly. The school also owns a 24’ Caledonian Yawl, gaff-rigged, made by the students, which is used regularly on trips. In addition, the school has a fleet of Canadian canoes, which are used on camps and trips.

The Upper School are away each winter on ‘Winter Camp’ in Wales, for one week. In February there is an annual skiing/snowboarding trip to Austria. In July each year there is a Summer Adventure Camp in Wales, one for Lower School students and one for Upper School students.

Each year the entire Upper School go to Paris, visiting the cathedrals of Chartres, Notre Dame, Paris, including the Musee d’Orsay, Monet’s Garden in Giverny and Le Touquet.

Once every other year the Upper School embarks on a three-week history of art European Tour. The journey usually takes them through Calais, the battlefields of the World Wars, Rheims, the Black Forest, Uberlingen, Lake of Konstanz, Austrian Tyrol, Venice, Assisi, Rome, Naples, Vesuvius, Lauro, Pompeii, Florence, Siena, San Gimignano, Pisa, Carrara, the French Riviera, Cannes, Marseilles, Paris and home. The Upper School returned from the latest trip on 6th May 2009.

For the past three years, students in their final year have spent the Michaelmas term in Thailand through Acorn Overseas, working in orphanages and schools, and teaching English. This trip is undertaken by the students without a teacher, which is unique in education!