Geography Department Alps Excursion

The Geography Department runs an annual excursion to the French Alps at the end of May / beginning of June. This is open to all students taking Standard Grade Geography and usually between 30 and 40 pupils participate although it has been as many as 60 in the past.

The excursion is based in a hotel in one of the ski resorts in the Alps. In 2004 it was in Megeve, and the year before it was based at Chatel. Travel is by coach and the trip involves seven nights away from Kelso, five in the resort and two travelling!

The department has considerable experience of the area, and themes which run through the excursion are the impact of tourism on the Alps as well as glacial scenery, landforms and processes. Visits are usually made to the Mer de Glace glacier, the Aiguille de Midi or Brevent cablecar, as well as Geneva, Annecy, and retail therapy at a French hypermarket.

History Department Battlefields Trip

The History Department uses Mercat Tours, an Edinburgh based company with a solid reputation in imaginative historical tours, to run its annual trip to the Battlefields of World War 1, including visits to Ypres Salient, The Menin Gate, the Sommes and Bruges.

The visit is a tremendously useful back-up to the work we do in class on the First World War. It helps enormously in developing an understanding of what happened, where it happened and what it was really like. A visit to the places where the war was actually fought gives the kind of understanding that can never be gained from studying only books and films, however good.

The First World War made a huge impact on the whole of European society. In Britain War Memorials were erected in the 1920s to those who had died, and these now stand in every town and village in the country.

It's important that each generation remember the significance of these memorials and the young men of both World Wars they now commemorate, that they understand the huge impact war can have on a community, and that the ceremonies of Armistice Day have a meaning for them too. To hear the Last Post echoing through the Menin gate, surrounded by the names of over 50,000 men who marched out of Ypres along this road and whose bodies were never found, is an experience few will ever forget.

Another reason to go is enjoyment. Lest the above seem unduly sombre, it has to be stressed that those who have gone on Battlefields visits in the past have found that they gained a great deal from the experience, and that they enjoyed the week very much.

Here are some comments written by pupils who were on the Battlefields visits in 2002:

"This has been a moving, important experience, it has made me a more reflective person. It will stay with me for a long, long time."

"This has changed me and made me mature in three days."

"I thought that the trip was a life changing experience."

"This was the greatest experience in my life .."

"I felt that the whole experience was excellent.."

"The best bit of the whole Battlefields experience was everything."

"I'm really glad I came because it has been one of the best experiences of my life.."

"I thought it a chance in a lifetime ... I loved the whole trip"

"I feel that I have extremely enjoyed the whole battlefields experience. I don't think that I will ever experience such a thing ever again ...I have a lot of good memories and I will never forget this. It has been sad and a happy experience at the same time."

"I don't think I have one memory of the experience that I will remember the most as all the places I've visited are special and incredibly memorable for me."

"Over the whole battlefields experience it has been overwhelming..."

Photos from the 2011 trip here