Friday 1 April 2016

After many months planning and thinking about the ski trip we were finally on our way!

All students were ready to go, on time and eager with anticipation for our trip to the USA. We flew out with Virgin Atlantic and we were all able to catch-up with the latest movies on the in-flight entertainment. The food was good and after a seven hour flight we touched down in Boston. We then travelled north from Boston on a coach to the state of Maine and our resort, Sunday River. This was the hardest part of the trip. We’d been up for hours and this last leg really did drag on. It wasn’t helped by some particularly bad singing from the Year 10 girls preventing Mr Barton and me getting any sleep!

We got to the Snow Cap Ski Dorms and were given a safety briefing by our host. We were all tickled by his American accent and some were somewhat confused when he said ‘no horsin’ around!’  The dorms were perfect accommodation for a big ski party and we had plenty of communal space to relax, watch movies, play table tennis and chat. The staff spent most of their time playing cards, where we discovered how competitive Ms Scott and Ms Knight are!

The first morning we were all eager with anticipation about what the skiing would be like. We wanted to know what the ski groups would be and who the ski instructors were. The Sunday River staff was superb and they got us all prepared with our skis and boots - we were ready to go. The Wren Academy students made a fantastic impression with the instructors and they were all fantastic learners. It is difficult to learn how to ski and it takes real resilience. I think it is credit to Ms Miveld and the PE staff at Wren what good students they all were and how much progress they made. Most importantly we had no major injuries; to be honest we had very few minor injuries. Mrs Knight was waiting and ready to administer first aid, but her services were rarely called upon.

After the first night the resort made some artificial snow and the conditions for the rest of the week were very good and we happily skied in the morning, had some typical American food at lunch and then skied more in the afternoon. Ms Seth introduced us to a GPS app that allowed us to track our skiing distance and maximum speed! Mr Barton spent a long time trying to match the standards set by Ms Seth and myself (64.2 mph), but could never quite make it!

After 5 days of skiing we left the resort to head out to Boston. En-route we stopped out a retail outlet center. This proved very popular and many bargains were to be had by students and staff alike. We then headed into downtown Boston where we ate at the Hard Rock Cafe and celebrated Mr Barton’s ‘birthday’. Our final night was in a big hotel on the outskirts of the city. The following morning we went via Harvard University and then onto Quincy Market to get some last minute souvenirs. We were then ready to catch the overnight flight back to Heathrow and home.

The trip was a fantastic success and may I thank all the students, parents and staff for the huge contribution that they all made to this highly enjoyable trip.

Rob Davighi
Vice-Principal