Skiing trip to Italy and a British Council School Exchange visit to Iceland 

This year pupils and staff from The Polygon School travelled to the Artesina in Italy to participate in the skiing residential. The Polygon School has offered pupils the opportunity to attend similar ski trips over the years but this was the first one to take place since the ill-fated ski trip of 2020, which was unfortunately cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

First flying into Turin, pupils then took the 2-hour coach journey into the Cuneo Mountains where they stayed in the beautiful surroundings of the Artesina Ski Resort. All of the 7 pupils were first time skiers before the trip but all showed fantastic resilience, persistence and a willing to learn, which aided them to develop their skills tremendously over the week.

By the end of the week the pupils were able to tackle some of the most advanced slopes on the mountain with ease and all earned their certificates and medals to the delight of their instructors and teachers.

Pupils were also given the opportunity to try new foods and meet and interact with people from different cultural backgrounds. One year 11 pupil said:

“It was really fun visiting a new place and enjoying some new and unique experiences”.

As part of the International Schools Award, that we have been building in to the fabric of our school for the past twelve years, we took ten pupils for our third British Council School Exchange visit to Iceland.  We visited our partner school, Husaskoli, Mr Patchell’s school in Reykjavik. Our pupils gave a presentation to the pupils in Year 7 about our city and its geothermal power.  Mr Patchell then gave us a presentation about Reykjavik, before we tasted some of the delights of Iceland. We exchanged cultural ideas by joining in and learning some games in sports lessons that are used to teach the Icelandic national sport of handball.

We had an amazing time visiting; the Blue Lagoon, Flyover Iceland, standing between two tectonic plates, exploring all the south coast has to offer and were lucky enough to see many Humpback Whales jumping very close to our vessel when whale watching.

We managed to use our pre-visit learning of Icelandic words and phrases when we visited the local shop for pupils to compare foods and prices to those at home in Southampton. They took part in a 1000 Krona challenge to buy a drink and healthy snacks. All the pupils paid themselves and it was nice to see them help each other with their prices and Maths skills.  One pupil before heading home said:

"It is great here, do we have to go back?!"

The trip was able to achieve this life experience by gaining a grant through the Turin Scheme.

Click on the link to view our blog posts about the two trips - School Blog