On Friday 16th February, a group of Year 9, 10, 12 & 13 students embarked on the annual school ski trip to Falcade, Italy. The momentous 26-hour journey began. We traveled through France, Germany, Austria, and into the wonderful Dolomites mountain range down into Falcade and arrived at our hotel door. We collected our ski hire and headed up the mountain to store our equipment for the next early morning skiing. The views at the top of the mountain were incredible and the first time many students saw the view they were in awe of it. Once all the equipment was stored we headed back to our hotel for a well-earned rest before dinner and an early night for our early start skiing the next day. Students were being knocked on at 6:30 am.

Early morning wake up, quick breakfast, and up the mountain, we went for 8:30 am before we collected our skis divided into our groups, and ended up in our first lessons on the trip. Many nervous and excited faces graced the slopes that day with a large number of students never having skied before. A few more early nights and early mornings and the students were very tired. They were using loads of energy on the slopes with their skiing. Some groups were flying and off onto Red slopes early on, and the top group was off and making their way down some Black slopes by Wednesday. Our wonderful instructors gave our students excellent opportunities to progress and supported them throughout the week.

In the evenings we are keen to allow students time to rest but some days we ensure that we do a few different activities to ensure that students experience the local area too. One of the nights we went for Pizza in town, a real treat to try some local pizza. Mr Cox also hosted a fiercely competitive quiz night which pitted each teacher group against each other which was won by Mr Furr’s team. We also had a hugely successful disco one night which was an excellent chance for many students to socialise and get to know people that they did not know before. On the other nights, students had an opportunity to mingle around the hotel and make use of the pool table, karaoke, and social areas. On our final night, we welcomed the instructors for the week into the hotel and they came and gave out certificates and awards to our students for their progress levels this week and ensured. Following this, we hosted our award ceremony with categories decided by staff and students.

AWARDS:

1. Most time spent on the floor – Zaki A
2. Best wipeout – Sienna B
3. Fastest recorded speed in a car – Harry M
4. Most improved boy – Harrison T-C
5. Most improved girl – Charlotte T
6. Best dressed boy – Joseph H
7. Best dressed girl – Ava-Rose H
8. Quote of the Week – Alex L
9. Most shoes lost – Amelie H
10. Most perseverance – Bethany W
11. Topsy Turvy – Stanley S
12. Kindness – Rahat R
13. Most birthdays celebrated – Cayley-Anne N
14. Most supportive – Louisa and Benji W
15. Bringing the energy – Olivia H, Charlotte T, Jessica S, Rovena G

On the final day, we were treated to a huge dumping of snow which made for some wary skiing from students. On this day the conditions of skiing became more difficult and therefore students had the choice to ski or not. Around 20 students chose to ski and had an excellent experience in some fresh powder. After the morning session, we headed back to the hotel where we then got ourselves ready to head home. We loaded our bags onto the bus, packed our food, and left on our long journey back to school. On the coach, we had a competition to guess how long the journey would take. The winner was Myran W in Year 10 who was 10 minutes out from the final time. The final time was: 28 hours, 15 minutes and 48 seconds. I will add this time was massively increased as due to the downpour of snow, we had to take a 2-hour, 30-minute diversion across Italy to avoid the impassable snowy roads.

A spectacular trip, the students on the trip were excellently behaved and had a positive attitude throughout the entire trip. They were an absolute testament to themselves and the school.

Next year’s Ski Trip is being prepared as I write this and letters will be going home soon and it will appear on Scopay as soon as those letters go out. If anyone is interested but unsure, please feel free to send me an email with any questions. Places are confirmed on a first-come, first-served basis for this trip so get in fast and confirm your place.