On Friday Mrs Gould took her class to London for what we think was the best trip ever!
An early start was required of our young travellers and the first form of transport of the day was the school minibus to Lichfield. Once on board the train the children settled down for the long journey to London with colouring books and pens.
On arrival in London Euston Mrs Gould directed everyone onto the tube train to Embankment where one of the Thames Clippers would be waiting for them.
The Thames Clippers are a fleet of commuter and tourist catamarans that carry passengers up and down the Thames. They pass many of London’s famous landmarks including the Tower of London Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre the Maritime Museum the Royal Observatory the London Eye Parliament and also Big Ben! Osler particularly liked Big Ben “with its huge clock face!”
The children were able to see the differences between the modern architecture and the historical buildings from the comfort of their own boat! Amelia thought that these Catamarans travelled really fast and that it made her bobble up and down.
However the young men in the group definitely enjoyed the speed element of the journey!
The Thames clipper took the children to the O2 arena on the Greenwich peninsula in South-East London. The O2 is a state-of-the-art
concert arena that includes a music club, cinema and exhibition space and it was in the exhibition hall that Mrs Gould’s class were
going to see...
Dinosaurs Unleashed!
This exhibition is the UK’s largest animatronics dinosaur adventure and gave the children a unique opportunity to experience some of the most iconic creatures ever! The children were able to see 25 life-size dinosaurs and as Henry explained “we saw the biggest flying reptile
called the Quetzaleoatlus as we entered the show! The dinosaurs were quite scary as they moved and breathed.” This is something that Osler also loved “I couldn’t believe it when they moved! We also had our photo taken with a tyrannosaurus Rex. It looked as though it was coming out behind us!”
Mrs Gould also took advantage of the fact that they were the only ones in the exhibition at that time so they were all able to have a go at being an archaeologist trying to find replica fossils. They also had a go at ‘Dino Paint’ whereby any movement made by the children on
a computer screen was replicated on a model of a dinosaur! As the creators of the exhibition said “no one knows exactly what colour the dinosaurs were.” And if it was up to the pupils of Abbotsholme School they would be all of the colours of the rainbow! Well done artists!
The other areas that they discovered were the prehistoric aquarium which used the modern CGI technology they also viewed the holographic video presentations and took part in ‘Dino Buster’ where they had to test themselves on their dino knowledge and race across the screen against the clock.
After a fantastic but hectic tour of the Dinosaurs our young travellers made their way back to Derbyshire. I think the school trip can be summed up best by Charlotte who finished by saying “I liked all of it. The whole day!”
I think that can be said by all!
Mrs Gould would like to thank the children for their excellent behaviour and to all the helpers who made the day a great success!