On Monday 30^th September our Year 11 historians took the long journey up to Derbyshire to visit the Elizabethan manor house, Hardwick Hall. Whilst this was a lovely day out, the reason for going was because Hardwick Hall is the specified site for this year’s History GCSE and so students will have to become experts! After the initial excitement of visiting a service station with 50 teenagers was over, we arrived in the very miserable weather at the beautiful Hardwick Hall. The students were then split into groups and were given a booklet to complete all about the house and gardens. They were able to interact with the history and gain lots of knowledge from the helpful tour guides in each room. I was so impressed with how the students handled themselves and it was amazing to see so many engaging so well! One member of the public stopped me to tell me that he’s been a teacher for many years and he had never seen a school group behave so well on a trip! The students did myself, the school and themselves proud and they even learned a bit of History while they were at it! Mrs Smith