OffTed’s Travels
Hi Everyone, I’m OffTed and I’m the Academy’s international mascot because there is nothing I love more than meeting people from other countries and finding out about their cultures. I represent the Academy on international trips and I collect badges from the countries I visit to put on my uniform. So far I’ve been to places such as New York in the USA, the battlefields in France, Barcelona in Spain and Cape Town in South Africa but I still have so much more to learn about the world we live in.
It isn’t just about me collecting stamps on my passport; I recently helped to welcome students from a school in the Netherlands who came here to find out about our British way of life. I was proud to show them what we do in our Academy and tell them about our nation, but I also enjoyed learning how it compared to the way they lived. Although we speak different languages, watch different television programmes and support rival sporting teams, it was great to see how much we actually had in common.
My ambition is to help every student in the Academy to have an international experience so that they can appreciate how much people from different nations can learn from each other. I promise you that you’ll have so much fun and you can even achieve your international pledge (Pledge 7).
In May 2011 I went to Holland with 14 Year 7 students to visit our partner school in Apeldoorn. I had a fantastic time with their students and it was really interesting to see what we all had in common and what they do differently. The thing I noticed most was how many bikes there were in the bike sheds and some of them told us that they ride 20km a day (12.5 miles) to go to school.
During the day we went to a garden party at a teacher’s house then we visited the nearby walled city of Zutphen where we did a treasure trail in mixed groups from both countries. In the evening we had a bar-b-cue back at the school followed by an England v Holland football match, remember they were world cup finalists in 201,0 but we didn’t take it that seriously. Dutch students learn English from an early age so it was easy for us all to communicate.
The next day we went to a traditional Dutch village with working windmills followed by a trip to their capital city, Amsterdam. It has lots of canals and the streets are really busy but we loved it there because there was lots to do.
Sadly our time in Holland came to an end but I still had the boat journey home to look forward to because my Year 7 friends were taking me to the disco.
We all gave the trip 10 out of 10 and we are looking forward to welcoming our Dutch friends to our Academy in the autumn.
During the summer holidays I enjoyed a fantastic trip to Belgium with a group of the Academy’s students. We sailed overnight and the fun started straight away because the boat had lots of entertainment including a disco and a cinema. When we landed in Belgium we travelled to the city of Bruges which is famous for its beauty and also for producing things such as chocolate and lace. Throughout the trip we had the chance to view the local landmarks, visit museums and galleries, try the local food and shop until we dropped. We visited the Choco Story Museum where we learnt about the history of chocolate, we saw how it was made but the best part was tasting some of it. Bruges also has a wide variety of street entertainment and a I had my photograph taken with a man dressed as a statue – he looked amazing and he made us laugh because he wouldn’t release me until somebody in the audience gave him a small coin.
We all had a wonderful time in Belgium and I can’t wait for my next adventure!
