On Tuesday 23rd November 2021, Miss Millard, Dr Penny and Mr Thomas took 25 year 9, 10 and 11 pupils to London for a true Dickensian experience. 

We departed early morning and arrived at Charles Dickens' first home he shared with his wife and first 4 children. We had the 'Explorer Tour' - it was fantastic. We got a guided tour of his house, held important artefacts, discussed the specific rooms in his house that helped inspire 'A Christmas Carol', did a creative writing workshop with real ink and quill pens (it's harder than it looks - some of our pupils seemed to pick it up immediately though!). We saw Dickens' famous desk and chair that he sat at to write some of his most famous novels ('Great Expectations' being one of them!), the sitting room and mirror in which he performed his writing to his family before publication (some of our pupils stood in the exact same spot and recited an extract from 'A Christmas Carol'!), and discussed how a traditional Victorian family Christmas would be. All pupils thoroughly enjoyed themselves and benefited from the museum's expertise of one of Literature's most famous writers. 

We then dropped our bags off at Goodenough College, saw a new ITV period drama filming set (they were sharing the college with us on that day!), before embarking on our Dickensian walking tour of London. Richard, our tour guide, was a true Dickens fanatic and expert - he enthused our students with witty knowledge about Dickens' life, the landmarks that inspired his writing. The places we saw were stunning and the knowledge Richard shared was incredibly insightful. We ended the tour at Mcdonald's - a real crowd pleaser as I'm sure you can imagine!

We then went back to Goodenough College for a rest stop, food and catching our breath back - before the coach picked us up and took us to The Old Vic' theatre for Jack Thorne's version of 'A Christmas Carol'. The theatre was brimming with Christmas carols, beautiful live music from an incredible orchestra - all musicians centre stage were dressed in Victorian costume - with some moving through the crowds to hand out oranges and mince pies. Our pupils were transfixed from the moment they stepped in. Without spoiling too much of the magic (if you intend to see it yourself) - the play was brilliant. From playful snow fights to jaw dropping ghouls, the actors did an incredible job drawing us in and making us feel a part of the story.

We arrived back at school in the early hours of the morning - exhausted but filled with lots of stories to tell and pictures to share. Our pupils were utterly fantastic. Everyone we met at the museum, college and theatre commented on how polite, well behaved, and enthusiastic they were. It was a wonderful day and hopefully we will be able to do it all again next year.