Fun in the French Alps

We recently saw the return of the annual skip trip after a two year gap. Following months of planning, an excited party of 35 headed for the pistes of Serre Chevalier in the French Alps. After a short flight from Gatwick, we were soon meandering our way through the infamous mountains, having been diverted via Italy due to the excessive snow falls during the days leading up to our arrival.
Once in resort, pupils, staff and parents alike were allocated to their 5-star rooms, before being kitted out with ski and snowboarding equipment - although some opted for ‘blades', the preferred choice of the professionals! On all the ski trip ‘working holidays', there seems to be a catchphrase that spreads amongst the staff and parents alike; this year Mr McNally's ‘oxymoron' was the ‘loving hate' of this holiday showing his ‘serious vanity' and ‘misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms', not to mention Mr Meier's ‘still waking sleep'! ("Romeo and Juliet" Act I Scene 1!)

The week promised perfect skiing, with the early days seeing continuous snow falls creating wonderful skiing conditions for so early in the season. The powdery snow also provided plenty of ammunition for the daily snowball fights, with the staff having the upper hand; isn't that right Brooke Mason? In addition, this highlighted some children's artistic talents with snow men and women a-plenty! On top of this, some skiing/snowboarding did take place, although most ended up looking like snowmen after a few ‘wipe-outs', perfected by Mr McNally!

Children enjoyed four hours of skiing each day with expert tuition, which enabled good progression and a chance to demonstrate the skills that they had mastered in a test at the end of the week for the coveted ‘ski awards'! The week was surprisingly uneventful on the slopes, with the exception of Anatasiya, who was fascinated by the ‘orange sledges' that often passed her by! With this, it was not long before Anatasiya decided that she wanted to have ago at the ‘extreme sledging' and ended up putting the local emergency services through their paces; but after a ‘few short hours' in the doctor's surgery she was deemed fit to fly the slopes once more!

Apres ski took the form of a variety of activities, ranging from ‘Dodge Ball' to ‘Dodge the Piste Basher'! After trading our skis for bum boards, we soon hit the pistes again for the annual ‘downhill' train race, although most had derailed long before the finish line! Other activities included a disco and games night; the latter of which saw Mr Meier and Zeph cheating their way to the final, although they still strongly dispute this! One of the highlights of the entertainment was the talent contest, which saw acts such as: ‘the Kung Fu fighters, The Whistler and The Mulligan Magic Show to name but a few! However, it was Daniel Darabi-fard that stole the show, with his rendition of ‘Pie Jesu'!

The final night, saw budding ‘Torvill and Deans' on the local ice rink, although we can categorically say that they should stick to their skis!

There would not be enough ‘superlatives' to describe this trip and a great time was had by all, with next year promising to be just as exciting! We would like to thank all the staff, parents and, more importantly, children for making it possible and we look forward to reconvening in Risoul, France in January 2010!

Peter Sutherland / Peter Meier