Destination Dolomites!
At the very end of last term, over 40 pupils arrived at school ready for an exciting ski adventure to the Italian Dolomites!
We started our journey from school around 9.30am and headed to Gatwick, enjoying a little shopping before boarding our flight to Verona. Once in the air, we enjoyed the beautiful sunset before the captain appeared from the cock pit and came to speak to the group. He was very kind and invited us to see the flight deck when we landed. The cabin crew told us how rare this was and the children were thrilled even more!
After a coach transfer and we arrived at our hotel in time to have dinner, collect our skis gear and unpack before a well deserved rest ready for our first day on the slopes.
We awoke to perfection – the snow, the sun, the slopes were stunning! We were so lucky to have the resort almost to ourselves the first day so this gave us a great opportunity to learn some skills and get some practice.
We were divided into groups so we could have specialist coaching to get us all up and running (or running a lot faster!). For all but the most experienced group this involved two skis, as they were treated to an incredibly challenging first task of skiing on one leg! Everyone had to remove their right ski and do several runs (and take a chair lift) with only one ski. Not for the faint hearted – but it certainly got the carving and balance skills honed!
All groups made outstanding progress throughout the week – it was said by the instructors how impressed they were with the determination and application of skills everyone had made. High praise indeed!
Off the slopes the activities continued with a full evening programme of entertainment too. We were thrilled with the skills of the magician who somehow solved a Rubik’s cube behind a pupil’s back and not touching it, made bottles appear and disappear and for eggs to go from containing silk scarves to real eggs! We visited an amazing set of pools with spa facilities, went shopping for Christmas presents in the local town and enjoyed all the delights of an ice cream parlour! One highlight was seeing the newly released ‘Wicked’ (in English!) at the local cinema!
Phone or Teams calls were arranged in the evenings so everyone could stay in touch with their family. The children were really thrilled to share all their news.
We were well looked after in every mealtime – breakfast was a fantastic array of pastries, cakes, bread, fruits and cereals – literally something for everyone to eat, fuel up for the day and keep out the cold. Lunch on the slopes was a really great time for all the groups to get together and compare what they had learned. In the evenings we enjoyed a Italian culinary adventure enjoying local produce with some traditional Italian dishes all prepared by the chef who was also the owner of the hotel.
On the last evening, we had a fantastic presentation to celebrate our progress on the slopes during the week culminating in the downhill slalom races and skills tests. The ski instructors were so impressed with the children and were thrilled to be a part of a trip filled with memories to last a lifetime!
We packed our suitcases with heavy hearts on that last night and went to bed ready to get up early in the morning to depart from Venice. We saw the sun rise as we journeyed to the airport and boarded our flight home to our families. Thank you to all the pupils who made this trip such a fun and happy experience for all.
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