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School Visit to St Ippolyts
On Tuesday 10th July 2007 the children and staff of St Ippolyts enjoyed another fantastic visit from WO1 Pete Morewood and the flight crew from HMS Endurance who arrived in spectacular fashion via helicopter. It was an awesome sight to see and hear the powerful Lynx approach and land on our school playground!
It was a wonderful way to round off another busy year in school tracking HMS Endurance on her travels via the Visit and Learn website. This year the project has extended across all the classes in school; all children from age 4-11 have been fully involved in developing the link between the school and the ship’s crew.
The children did not know about the visit beforehand, so it caused great excitement when it was announced in assembly on the Tuesday morning. The oldest children then spent a busy hour chalking an enormous ‘H’ on the playground to guide the helicopter in and luckily the rain held off and didn’t wash it away!
Just before 1.00pm the whole school gathered to wait for the arrival and very soon the distinctive sound could be heard, cue much cheering and shouting from the children! Right on time at 1300, the helicopter landed safely and the flight crew and WO1 Pete Morewood emerged to a huge cheer. A few photos later, and everybody assembled in the school hall, where the St Ippolyts school choir welcomed our visitors with a beautiful song entitled ‘Where do we go from here?’ The song was one they had performed a few months previously in the Royal Albert Hall and it had become a firm favourite; we hope the crew enjoyed it too!
WO1 Pete Morewood then delivered a very informative presentation to the school about Antarctica and the work of Endurance during her time away. All the children learned lots but were also able to show off what they already knew by answering questions – even the youngest children have a very impressive knowledge of penguin species! The crew also got chance to see our ‘Endurance Gallery’ where the ship has been tracked on a world map since September, and the giant Antarctica frieze in our main entrance which had been made by all the children in school, with every class contributing a different part of the display.
Each class in turn then went to visit the helicopter and every child was able to sit inside (and a few grown-ups sneaked in too…) Some were lucky enough to sit in the pilot’s seat in the front and all were able to talk with the crew to find out more. Meanwhile WO1 Pete Morewood visited classes in school and answered questions about the ship, her travels, Antarctica….and whether or not anyone had been eaten by a killer whale!!
Far too soon it was time to say goodbye and everybody assembled once again to watch the helicopter depart. Lots more cheering, shouting and waving….and then it was gone. What a wonderful afternoon!
We at St Ippolyts would like to say a huge THANK YOU to the flight crew and WO1 Pete Morewood for a fantastic afternoon; we feel very privileged to receive such an exciting, unique visit. The children’s interest and enthusiasm for the work of Endurance in Antarctica shows no signs of waning; we would like to thank everyone involved with HMS Endurance and ‘Visit and Learn’ for helping to bring learning to life. Most of us will never be fortunate enough to visit Antarctica for ourselves, but we get the next best thing - you bring it to us instead!
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