The idea of this trip was to show our Geographers some of the landscapes we have been learning about this year. We headed off for North Wales on Saturday with 26 pupils in Year 10. Our first stop was Gorge Scrambling in the Afon Ddu Gorge. This involved putting on wetsuits and scrambling up a narrow stream in the National park. There were squeezes, cliffs, slides and jumps into the pools. Everyone gave it a go and kept smiling despite the cold water.

Then on the Sunday we took a walk around Cwm Idwal to look at an upland glaciated landscape. The cloud was low, but as we went into the mountains it slowly cleared revealing some of the effects of ice over 10,000 years ago on this part of the world. It is great to have the opportunity to see the scale and size of these landforms in person.

This walk was followed by a visit to the national mining museum, where we considered the human impact on the landscape. Plus got to see some of the conditions that miners used to work in when this area was at its peak of producing slates for the nations roofs. This was complimented by a demonstration of slate splitting by a local welsh man with a comedy sense of humour.

On the Monday we headed from our Youth hostel and went to 'Bounce Below' the UKs only underground trampoline park. This has been built in an old slate mine, and is a good example of the changing use of this area. It was great fun and the pupils enjoyed exploring the four levels and slides of the park.

It was an action packed weekend, and the pupils were a credit to the school. Overall a great chance to get immersed in the impact of ice, rivers, geology and people to create one of the nearest national parks to here.