About our school

School visits

We have a full range of exchange visits with schools in France and Germany, together with residential trips to Spain, Italy and Greece, so that students can improve their language skills and gain personal experience of other European countries and cultures. We also support the World Challenge trips on which students have been to Costa Rica, Morocco and Venezuela. These trips enable the students to challenge themselves in very different environments from normal and also to develop team building skills.

School residential visits within this country are part of the curriculum in subjects such as Biology and Geography. Students visit the Peak District in Year 11 and areas such as the Isle of Wight, Devon or Norfolk in the Sixth Form. In addition, we believe that the curriculum is enriched by first-hand experience provided by school trips and so we provide an extensive programme of activities and visits throughout a student's school career. Most of these are curriculum-related and include field trips, visits to museums for Art, Science, History and Classics, theatre visits for English and Drama, musical activities, and a Year 9 Activities Week for P.E. Sixth Form students attend conferences for their AS/A2 Level subjects. Fun activities include the annual ski trip to either Europe or North America and a PGL holiday in the summer.

Head's of Year also organise year trips on some year groups which have a curriculum element as well as the social development associated with such trips. Year 7, for example, have visited London Zoo and the Lower Sixth have visited the Tate Gallery in conjunction with the Art element of their General Studies programme.

We also arrange events off time-table to enrich the students' curriculum such as Health Day in Year 7, a Creative Arts day in Year 8, Careers related activities in Years 9, 10 and the Sixth Form, a Shakespeare Workshop for Year 9 to name a sample.

For some trips the school seeks voluntary contributions from parents. When an excursion forms a compulsory part of an examination syllabus, the school covers payment for tuition. A copy of the school's Charging Policy is available on request.