At 6am on Monday 1 July 2024, 39 bleary eyed pupils and 5 members of staff boarded the coach and set off on this year’s Netherlands trip. It was the beginning of a great week, with lots of exciting new experiences and fun had by all.

At 8pm local time, we arrived at our destination, a hostel in the city of Alkmaar. We settled in quickly, had a light meal and went for a short walk to check out the area. We were based in a charming old part of the city, with brick-paved streets, well-maintained canal bridges and interesting shops. The hostel was clean and the staff friendly. So far so good.

Tuesday found us at the wonderful Zaanse Schans, an open-air museum of Dutch culture. Pupils saw clogs being made, explored full-size working windmills and sampled many a cheese. There were traditional Dutch houses and shops full of all sorts of interesting artefacts and manufacturing processes from a bygone era. Despite the windy and wet weather, the pupils enjoyed it and we all learnt a great deal.

In the afternoon we enjoyed the Tiki Pool water slide experience at Duinrell Holiday Park. The exciting slides and wave pool were a real hit and we all had a marvellous time as you might expect.

Our Wednesday in Amsterdam was a real tour de force of culture and history. We began at the Anne Frank House, one of the highlights of the trip. Pupils were immersed in the story of 13 year old Anne and her family as they tried in vain to escape persecution by the Nazis, hiding for two years in a secret annexe behind a bookcase. I was very impressed by our young people's mature approach to the whole experience. They emerged from the museum with a much richer sense of the reality of the Nazi occupation and the effect it had had on the people unfortunate enough to be caught in its grip.

After lunch en route, we arrived at Pier 1 for our canal cruise. We were educated and entertained by stories about this fascinating city as we slid along in a glass-roofed canal boat. Pupils were particularly taken by the narrow merchant houses with their unusual roof types and characterful lean, as well as the houseboats which became popular in the 1970s due to a lack of space to build.

On the way back from Amsterdam we made a spontaneous stop at the beach at Egmond aan Zee. It was a bit windy, but the pupils enjoyed the long stretch of sand and had a paddle in the sea.

On Thursday the sun shone on ‘Theme Park Day’. Efteling Theme Park is one of the oldest and largest of its kind in Europe. Walt Disney himself visited the park as part of his research before designing the first Disneyland and he was clearly inspired by the clever use of animatronics, incredible attention to detail and the hair-raising rides. The pupils loved exploring this wonderfully entertaining attraction.

You can read comments from some of our pupils below: