February half-term saw Barr Beacon School travel to New Hampshire, USA, for their first-ever ski trip to the States. It was an early start on Friday to ensure that we got to Heathrow in plenty of time to board our flight. Following all of the travel, we finally arrived at our hotel late on Friday evening. There was a huge mix of emotions between the pupils. Some were tired from travelling across the Atlantic but most were very excited at seeing snow deeper than themselves. 

Saturday morning was an early get up in order to get breakfast and get to the mountain ready for our ski fit. Once all of the pupils had been issued with their skis and boots, they were eager to hit the slopes. What followed was five glorious days of skiing where all pupils made massive progress. This enabled all pupils by the end of the week to get a lift to the top of the mountain and make their way safely down a variety of slopes with their instructors. The maturity and politeness of our pupils was commented on by all of the ski instructors.  

Throughout the week we also completed a number of evening activities. These included visiting a local cinema, snow tubing, and drinking hot chocolate and marshmallows. We also incorporated time in the evening for the pupils to use the amenities of the hotel such as the swimming pool and games room.

The end of the week saw us depart New Hampshire and make our way to New York City. On the way to NYC, we had programmed a stop off at a local outlet village to allow the pupils to go shopping for themselves and their families. Upon arriving in NYC we swiftly dropped our bags into the hotel and started to make our way to The Hard Rock Café. On the way to Hard Rock, we stopped off at the iconic Times Square for the pupils to take photos in this iconic location. Following a lovely meal in the Hard Rock, we made our way to the Rockefeller Centre in order to scale the 68 floors and see the NYC skyline by night.

On our final day in the States, we started by making our way to Central Park to complete some ice-skating. Following on from this we then got picked up and travelled to Lower Manhattan to the iconic 9/11 memorial site. This was a very humbling experience for all and the pupils conducted themselves in an appropriate manner. From the memorial site, we made our way back to JFK airport in order to get our return flight home.