Year 5 and 6 go on Tour!

Jess and Amelia in Year 6 have worked together to interview members of Year 5 and 6 and provide their thoughts on the week’s events in the Netherlands. Here we present their first-hand account of events up to Thursday night (with a little help from Mr Edwards): 

SUNDAY: Hooray for the start of our trip to Holland! When we found out it would take TEN HOURS no-one was sure how we would cope but it actually went really fast. Lots of people enjoyed the Eurotunnel. “We got to dance in a train under the water,” commented Aoife. Many loved having their own snacks and we were very pleased when we saw the hotel – so fancy and such good food at dinner! 

MONDAY: This was a day full of hockey. We started with training at the local club, Noordwijk. Our coaches included a first-class player who has represented his country at the Olympics. We practised our skills for a good while then we headed off to our next stop: Zaanse Schans. This was a pretty village that was really windy. We explored a windmill that was built in 1872. It’s still used to crush chalk. There were lots of shops to spend our money at but the wind was really strong. Leo said, “I was blown away by this village – almost literally!” In the afternoon, we were hosted by Klein Zwitzerland for our first hockey fixture. 

TUESDAY: This was another fun day. We went to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, which Annabelle, Josie and Grace said was amazing: “We saw a beautiful painting of a vase of flowers and The Night Watch, by Rembrandt, was enormous. Taking our sketch books means we have memories of the things we saw.” After that, we went on a canal cruise in beautiful weather. They gave us free headphones to listen to the history and we got to keep them. After the cruise we walked past the Coster Diamond Factory. Charlie delivered his joke of the day: “I bet they Coster lot.” In the afternoon we played more fixtures at MHC Alliance; they were really good but we held our own and enjoyed the afternoon. As Henry put it, “They gave us a chance to practise our defence.” 

WEDNESDAY: This was a very special day. We had to get up really early to head off to the British School in the Netherlands. We’d been practising for months to sing in a concert with them and we would also get to meet our penpals for the first time. It was very strange finally meeting the people we had been writing to. Sophie said she had lots of fun with her penpal and it was sad to leave. The concert went very well and each school presented the other with awards for their work. We ate lunch at the school and went to play with them; they have mini hills in the playground! After that, we went to the Tikibad Water Park in Duinrell. There were so many slides! We personally loved watching people on The Cyclone, seeing their shadows as they spun down the funnel and then dropped out with a splash. Alice said, “I was scared of some of the slides but this taught me to try things outside my comfort zone.” Following this we had a great trip to the beach. Jessica enjoyed playing ‘electric piggy’ and running around with her friends. 

THURSDAY: In the morning we went to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. Martha remarked, “This was so inspiring. I have read parts of the diary and learnt about Anne’s story in Mrs Martin’s lessons. It was incredible to see the actual house and find out more about what happened to her.” Grace added, “It was scary to think she was always just a bookcase and a door away from being discovered.” We then visited Farm Clara Maria to see them making clogs and cheese. Annabelle said she never knew cheese was so complicated. The gift shop was brilliant. This was followed by our final fixture, this time at Hisalis. The teams all played well and the experience of the week helped us to step up our game. 

To finish off, Mrs Mitchell has sent us some questions to ask our friends: 

1. What has been the biggest surprise on the trip?
Emma said the Tikibad waterpark. She had no idea the slides would be so big and impressive. Benji thought the quality of the hockey facilities was fantastic. 

2. Have the teachers behaved themselves?
Raffy and George said the teachers have behaved well (mostly) and have been very kind, letting us do so many new things and looking after us if we found things tricky. 

3. Which teacher deserves a Head’s Award?
Florence in Year 6 said Mrs Williamson was her personal choice because she was so supportive and made up dances and songs for every occasion. 

4. Has the food been good?
Arthur thought it was extremely good all week. Everyone loved the pizza.