We have arrived in Italy!

After a very early 4am start at The Abbey we have had a fantastic journey so far. Students have been absolutely brilliant and a real credit to the school.

The coach journey to Heathrow was over before we knew it and everything ran smoothly at passport control. Once in the air we admired the spectacular views of mountains as we flew over The Alps.

We are now on a three hour coach journey to our hotel and hope to be there by 3pm. Then it will be ski fitting!

Sunday continued

A very long day for all and some extremely tired students at the end of it! All in bed and asleep by 9.30pm. We have collected our ski gear, had a lovely dinner and met our PGL host Från who has been brilliant. Lots to look forward to tomorrow with our first day skiing on the slopes. Students are all very excited about it and can’t wait. Bring on MONDAY!

 

Monday- first day of skiing in Aprica!

An awesome day! We completed 3 hours skiing this morning and 2 hours skiing this afternoon. It was -5 when arrived on the slopes which woke us all up very quickly.

We were split into three groups and all completed different activities.

Some comments from students about the day:

Seb - the skiing is nice, you should try it with your mums and dads if you haven't been before. if not you cant do this you should go with the school! When we got to the hotel the food was really nice - you should try it, it was really yummy, The hotel is very posh and stunning!

Ross - skiing  was fun  and  the hotel is posh  and  nice  we got  bunk  beds  food is  nice    and  IM NOT  COMING BACK TO SCHOOL

Josh - the skiing is great fun the food is nice and the hotel is great all the staff are nice and overall I'm  having a great time.

Ellen - I have had a lovely time here in Italy and I had a go with skiing which was very funny because I fell over quite allot. I have also been hanging out with my friends like Tara and grace who have been very nice to me. I hope you guys are having fun at school. Can't wait to go home and see my family.

Tara - it was my first time going skiing it was so much fun but it was very hard because of Kieran Cole and Patrick pushing me down the soft but I got them back for it. I do not want to go back to school but I do miss you guys!

Kieran C – dad, mum see snow!

 

Monday Continued

All in all a fantastic day where students absolutely excelled. They have achieved a lot more than we expected them to on their first day and the instructors were all very, very impressed.  There were some interesting moments when Grace careered down the slope  and landed in the barrier at the bottom (still smiling!) Ellen skied into the back of an unfortunate snowboarder taking a quick rest and Kieran C  who fell over no end of times in a range of painful positions but just didn’t give up! Our PGL rep has said our students have done better on their first day than any other group she has taken so what a great way to end the day.

All students now safely tucked up in bed for the night.

BRING ON TUESDAY....

 

Tuesday

Another very successful day. We have had glorious sunshine and all students have made huge progress. They have got into the routines of skiing and improved a lot more quickly than expected. All have put in huge amounts of effort.

Seb, Ross, Tom and Eloise skied to the Palabione ski area, a 3km trek and 1700m high. Our other students all began to ski down from higher start points and many of them managed to master the infamous button ski lift!

This evening we visited the local shops and students enjoyed the chance to spend some of their pocket money.

Our host at Hotel Posta, Mariano, has been incredibly accommodating and ensured that everyone is eating well. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are eagerly anticipated events!

 

Wednesday

Breakfast

Celebration for Keltons birthday

3 hours skiing

3 course lunch

2 hours skiing

Drinks and cake back at the hotel

Shower and room tidy/inspection

Time in the bar

4 course dinner

Bingo

Disco

Bed!!!

Another wonderful day. All students are going higher up the mountain, skiing faster and becoming much more independent.

 

Thursday

Another action packed day for all. Every student is now able to get themselves prepared for a day on the slopes independently. Given the amount they have to remember this is a fantastic achievement. You will see from the photos that some of our students are beginning to reach great heights and ski further afield. Many have mastered the chairlift and infamous drag lifts and now relish the opportunity to go on them. Others had a go doughnutting and on snow bikes which they delighted in.

Tonight we have had another disco and I am currently sitting amongst the group whilst they enjoy another round of Mr Kennedy’s bingo - not to be missed! The disco will start again afterwards (groan!).

The students have been absolutely fanstastic throughout the week and as a staff team we have thoroughly enjoyed bringing them. They are a real credit to the school.

Tomorrow is our last day on the slopes and we will be sorry to see it come to an end. That said it has been a very full on week and I think we will all be ready to return home!

Anyway back to the bingo and we will update you again tomorrow...

 

Friday

We had a lovely final day skiing to end the week with. It was wall-to-wall blue sky and the Sun was shining so perfect skiing conditions. We have been incredibly lucky with the weather this week as it has been sunny every day. After our usual 3 hour skiing lesson this morning, lunch and our 2 hour skiing lesson this afternoon we headed back to the hotel for an end of the week presentation with our ski instructors. Students received a certificate, badge from the ski school and ski achievement record. Congratulations to Josh who got the award for skier of the week and to Manel who received a special award from the ski school for his achievements.

We are now having our third disco! You can see from the photos below how much they are enjoying themselves!!

There are also photos of each one of the students receiving their awards from the ski instructors they were with this week.

Bags are now packed, rooms have been tidied and we are ready for the journey home tomorrow. We leave the hotel at 8am and hope to return to school for 4pm. We very much look forward to seeing you all then!