Over the February half term a number of Fitzalan students attended a trip of a lifetime to America.

First stop on our trip was Los Angeles, the fabulous City of Angels! The pupils took in the sights of Hollywood (the Walk of Fame, Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, Bel Air, Sunset Strip and Grauman’s Chinese Theatre). We stopped at the legendary Universal Studios Hollywood! Their fantastic attractions and rides included Jurassic Park – the Ride, Fear Factor Live, Terminator 2 - 3D, Waterworld, Back to the Future–the Ride, Special Effect Stages, Universal’s Animal Actors, Revenge of the Mummy–the Ride, Shrek 4-D and the Walking Dead maze. It was an experience never to be forgotten.

The second city on our trip was Las Vegas. Here we experienced a 'lazy river float trip' on the Colorado River, seeing the Hoover Dam up close. The ‘lazy river rafting’ turned out to be not so lazy and more like an Artic temperature, white-water, river-rafting experience but we laughed and smiled throughout.

Grand Canyon was our next stop after Las Vegas. The whole group took helicopter tours into the canyon, landing on the bottom. We took in the mammoth gorge, stretching 277 miles, which showcases amazing depths of colourful geology.

The final city was San Francisco, where we caught a ferry across the bay to the world’s most infamous and notorious former prison – Alcatraz! Used by the Federal Bureau of Prisons from 1933 to 1963 as a maximum- security prison, it was home to the likes of Al Capone, George “Machine Gun” Kelly and Robert “The Birdman” Stroud.  We walked the Golden Gate Bridge, visited China Town during Chinese New Year and rode the cable cars, taking in San Francisco’s most famous sights.

The pupils were a credit to their families and the school. It certainly lived up to the title “Trip of a Lifetime”.