Well…here I am again writing about another Ski Trip which, for me anyway, was even better than last year because I already knew how to ski and so there was less falling over!

The journey to Austria took about 24 hours and we had to pick up our twin group, from North Leamington School, on the way to the Euro Tunnel.  We had several stops on the journey for refreshments; ordering breakfast was difficult since we had to speak German but that is where our German lessons come in use of course!  In Germany we saw the Allianz Arena – Bayern Munich’s stadium.  During our journey to Gosau – our ski resort- we had passed near busy cities and through peaceful towns and remote tiny mountain communities.  Seeing the ski slopes made me so eager to ski because last year I had so much fun.

Once we had arrived at our hotel we carried our suitcases to our rooms and then we had to get our boots and skis fitted. It had been a tiring journey so we had an early night after our evening meal.

We had the same routine every day, waking up at around 7:30 and then, after breakfast, making sure that we had everything ready for skiing.  We skied for about 5 hours a day, 9:30 to 12:30 and then 1:30 to 3:30.  After a day on the piste we were exhausted since skiing uses a lot of energy; thus we had to eat plenty of food!  In the morning we had bread rolls with a mixture of fillings and spreads, and cereal.  We also made our packed lunch to take on the mountain.  For our evening meal we had soup, which was very salty, a main meal and desert.

Our first day of skiing was highly anticipated and very exciting. We were separated into different groups based on ability and weeks skied on the snow. This was my second week so I was in an intermediate group.  Our instructor was called Felix and he was only 17.  He had started skiing at the age of 3 so you can imagine how good he was!  Our group started off by going on the nursery slopes just to get used to skiing again. On our second day we were able to go higher up the mountain so I tried to develop my turning and started to ski parallel. Throughout the day, a lot of people fell but that’s just part of skiing I guess.  In the afternoons, the snow became bumpy; this makes it harder to ski and it’s a lot more tiring and a good challenge.

Every evening we had an activity. On Sunday we had a quiz in teams based on our hotel rooms.  We were also competing against North Leamington School who had their teachers in some of their teams!  However, the HGS Team consisting of Yusuf, Amar, Shivam, Roshan and Dhiren won overall.

Another evening event was bowling. The teams were the Year 8s versus teachers and the two Sixth Formers (Jack and Josef) and the Year 9s versus the Year 10s.  Our game was very tight at the end but Jagjeet ended up scoring the most in Year 8 with me coming second. In the other game, Yusuf scored the most points and, yet again, a Galahad student came first!

On Tuesday evening we went to a pizzeria. It was an interesting and rather strange place.  As we walked in, there was a well under the floor with glass covering it up. The pizzas were really nice but they were the size of a big plate so they were also very filling.

Wednesday evening’s activity was swimming. We travelled around 45 minutes to a swimming complex. There was an outdoor pool linked to an indoor pool, 3 other indoor pools and a jacuzzi. Towards the end of our time there, there was laser show and party. Arrays of lights bounced around the room in sync to different songs; there was a remix of Pirates of the Caribbean and a song from Avicii.  It was a unique experience.

Because Thursday was our last full day in the resort, in the evening we had a disco with the other school, but some people played pool or darts and others sat down and talked or played cards.

Every evening we voted for two people to wear high visibility jackets for the following 24 hours, one had ‘HGS MUPPET’ written on the back and the other had ‘HGS WIPEOUT’.  We nominated who we wanted to wear them and had to give a reason why.  To decide who would get the jacket, Josef called out the names in turn and we made the loudest noise for who we wanted.  For example, in our group Felix let us to do some jumps. Amar, aka ‘Bambi’ due to his ‘unique’ skiing technique tried to do a jump and fell over. When he tried to get up he fell back down then when he finally got up he left without his pole. Because Mr Campbell had recorded it, everyone could see it and he had the loudest cheer for ‘muppet’.  Jagjeet managed to be awarded both jackets on one day.  He got ‘muppet’ for napping half way down the mountain in the snow and ‘wipeout’ for taking out his instructor and for skiing into several people, including some people from another group!

After skiing on Friday we had our evening meal and then started our journey back to England. I slept most of the time until we arrived at the Euro Tunnel where we had breakfast. Although it was great to see our families again we were disappointed to be back home because our skiing had finished and we had school on Monday.

It was a great pleasure to go on the Ski Trip for the second time. I would like to thank Mr Jones, Mr Campbell, Mr Bedi and Mrs Hartt for providing me with this opportunity. I would also like to thank our PGL Rep. Rafa (Kevin) for planning our trip and devoting time to make it the best it could be. The skiing was great again, and the evening activities were very entertaining as well.  I’m looking forward to going again next year!

Kylan Sandhu 8G

 

 

Click here to see more photos in the gallery.

 

The day began with a brief introduction to DNA and its uses in forensic analysis, criminal investigations, paternity tests, cancer screening and a myriad of other applications.  Whilst simple the tests may seem, the techniques used required precision and patience to carry them out accurately.

We first practised using micropipettes to transfer liquids into small eppendorf tubes which were then placed into a thermocycler to replicate the DNA – we made several billion copies.  We also isolated DNA from our cheek cells and saw a visible strand of DNA.

This experience helped us in further developing our understanding of the relevant A-level Biology topics by granting us first-hand experience of genetic screening. Overall it was an informative and enjoyable experience, and was definitely worth it.

Tahera, Sara, Rafayeth, Simran, Rahul, Iffat, Ben, Khizar, Sandeep, Manhoor and Arfa.

 

 

 

 

Click here to view the photo gallery.

On Tuesday 28th February, year 10 and 11 students went on a trip to the Alexandra Theatre to see GCSE Poetry Live. During the day we heard some fantastic poetry from established poets, including the likes of John Agard, Grace Nichols and Owen Sheers. We were able to ask questions and interact with the poets, who were able to give their answers, thoughts and reflections in an erudite way – something we cannot do on a normal school day. We were also lectured on how to answer questions from an unseen text. Overall, it was a very enjoyable day for everyone involved and it gave us an insight into the world of poetry.