On Saturday 20^th January 57 Year 10 students were eagerly awaiting the arrival of the coaches to take them to Pila in the Aosta Valley in Italy so they could complete their Ski Trip which they had been waiting for for nearly 2 years!

The coaches finally arrived, much to everyone’s relief, not least Mr Moise, as he had asked students and parents to arrive almost 40 minutes earlier than was needed and everyone was starting to get a little cold!!

Once loaded onto the coaches and seats assigned, it was time for parents and Mrs Cullen to wave goodbye as we set off on our 20 hour journey!

The first part of the trip went smoothly, with us arriving into Dover and lining up to board our ferry, where we were greeted with a nice hot meal to settle us for the long journey through France.  Once the ferry docked in Dunkirk it was lights out as we made our way through France, waking up in the south, near a place called Bourg-en Bresse for breakfast.  It was the first real chance our students had had at speaking French, and some of them did very well, although the rest were still very much half asleep!

We then pushed on up and through the Mont Blanc tunnel into Italy and proceeded to wind our way down to the town of Aosta while passing through stunning mountainous scenery.

Once we arrived into Aosta, we were greeted by our coordinators for the week and taken straight to ski hire to get kitted out with all our skis, boots and poles ready for the week ahead.  We then were dropped up at our hotels to familiarise ourselves with our new surroundings and get some well-deserved food inside.  The evening included; a small hike to view the village where we were staying, welcome meetings and briefings and more lovely Italian food before early to bed in anticipation of what Monday would bring.

Monday arrived and students were already up and ready in their ski clothing when the teachers; Mr Moise x 2, Mrs McMeakin, Mrs Rogerson, Mr Sainsbury and Mrs Hole did morning wake up!  Breakfast was filled with noise and excitement about getting onto the slopes.  Then off we went down to collect our ski gear and head up the gondola to the mountain.  The lessons began smoothly and throughout the week there were many great stories of epic wipeouts and silly moments, not least when a few of our students were not able to make out if they were walking into the male or female toilets!!

As the week went on we had students impressing their instructors and moving up groups, as well as moving up the mountain, it was great to see so much progress being made by everyone.  The evenings were filled with ‘All-you-can-eat’ Pizza night, bowling, quiz night and finally awards ceremony.  Every student managed to receive a certificate and pin describing the level of skiing that they had achieved throughout the week.

Then it was Friday and time to pack up and head home, with a long overnight drive up through Italy and France, before boarding a morning ferry to bring us back to the UK and home to Bruton.

The students were fantastic and represented the school really well, with many people within the resort commenting on how polite and well behaved they all were.  Thank you everyone who went on the trip, both staff and students and also a huge thank you to our colleagues in school who kept everything running in our absence.  Here’s to the ski trip in 2025!

Below are some of the photos from the week: