Duke of Kent School

At the end of April, eight pupils from Year 9 signed up to take part in a Duke of Edinburgh Award training weekend. The Saturday was spent completing tasks in the classroom, followed by practical training. These included learning about compasses and bearings, first aid, checking their kit and learning some camp craft skills including cooking. The pupils then cooked their own dinner on Trangia stoves in the woods in the School grounds and where they later camped out, on what was a very cold Saturday night. The following morning they struck camp and then cooked breakfast before more classroom training. This was followed in the afternoon with an opportunity to put their newly acquired map work and compass skills in to practice, with a three hour hike in the surrounding Surrey Hills.

Years 1 and 2 visited Sayers Croft Field Study Centre in Ewhurst recently. The children took part in a mini-beast hunt, pond dipping and some energetic games, which helped them learn about the different methods of seed dispersal. The weather was perfect and all the children and their teachers thoroughly enjoyed the outing.

The Pre-Prep ducklings are growing fast. Born only 2 weeks ago, Primrose, Hush, Pingu, Nana, Freddie and Tiffany are very tame and quite used to being handled by the children. They are fun to watch and are attracting the older children into Pre-Prep, some of whom are spending much of their break times watching them!  They are taken swimming every day and have started being 'walked' on Top Pitch. Soon they will be living outside in their pen next door to the Link corridor so that the whole school can enjoy their antics.

After a ferry trip from Dover, a group of students from Years 10 and 11 accompanied by Mrs. Power and Mr. Hubbard, caught a TGV train from Calais to Paris. On arrival in Paris early in the afternoon, they went straight to the hotel to drop off their bags, before heading off to La Basilique du Sacré Coeur and then to the Eiffel Tower, which they climbed effortlessly. From there it was on to the quiet lanes of the Latin Quarter for dinner, where students ordered all their meals themselves and in French! After dinner there was still time to visit Notre Dame before taking the Metro back to the hotel, where they went straight to bed.

The following morning Mr. Hubbard went for a run along the River Seine while everyone else had breakfast and used the pool and gym at the hotel. The first visit of the day was to Le Louvre where everyone was given a Nintendo handheld device, enabling a virtual 3D tour of the museum with descriptions of the works of art, which made a very interesting and modern tour guide!

From Le Louvre the students went on a walking tour of the city. During the long walk to the Arc de Triomphe, they passed Musée d'Orsay, walked through Les Jardin des Tuileries, Place de la Concorde and finally along Les Champs-Elysées, where they caught a bus to the Arc de Triomphe. In beautiful sunshine, the students had their lunch on Les Champs Elysées, where there was an opportunity to go shopping before returning to Gare du Nord and catching the TGV back to Calais and the ferry to Dover. They arrived back at School just before midnight, having had a fabulous time and they all thoroughly enjoyed their stay in Paris.

On the Friday 19^th April, Mr Herbert, Mrs Lock and Mrs Wilson accompanied Year 4 pupils on the annual School trip to the Isle of Wight. After a busy afternoon at Carisbrooke Castle the group found their way to the YMCA in Shanklin, where the first challenge presented itself in the form of duvet covers to be put on 19 duvets. Once this had been achieved, Mr Herbert was left to tackle supper while everyone else took a walk along the cliff to Shanklin.

The following day was spent at Osborne House and later on the beach at Shanklin, the annual sandcastle competition was won by Freddie and Isaac.

Before crossing back to the mainland on Sunday the group went up Culver Down to see the Second World War defences. They also tried to catch a sighting of ‘Freddie the Snail’ who has been seen at this spot for a number of years. The ferry crossing back to Portsmouth was completed in beautiful weather, with a chance for final photos.

Well done everyone for helping to make this a very successful and enjoyable trip.