Educational Enhancement

Trips 

All of our boarders come on a weekly supermarket trip. Driven by our school mini-bus drivers and accompanied by our boarding staff, the boarders are empowered to do their own shopping. If they want to cook for themselves on weekends, the weekly trip to the shops encourages meal planning and develops their organisational skills. Our boarders are supported to practice their English language skills with shop staff and are always grateful for the additional conversation. Supermarket trips are a highlight of our boarders’ week – The only difficulty is remembering our reusable shopping bags!  

At Wisbech Grammar School, we have a weekend trip away from school, at least every fortnight. We find that this gives the boarders the opportunity to balance their academic responsibilities, hobbies, cultural education as well as time to focus on their mental well-being. We plan weekend trips to enhance our boarder’s education as well as giving them time to try new things and discover who they are.  

Trips like Archery and Axe throwing, Go Ape, and Rock climbing encourage our boarders to be physically active while pushing them out of their comfort zone. Boarding staff attend trips with the students, and it turns out that seeing a houseparent stuck at the top of a rock-climbing wall does wonders for group morale! 

To enable our creative boarders some time to thrive, we often run activities such as make your own tie-dye, baking or lantern painting. The animal lovers in our cohort of boarders always enjoy zoo or farm park visits. Many of our boarders have pets back at home and it can be quite difficult to go without seeing them for so long – therefore we encourage as many animal encounters as we can. We even invited Fen’s Falconry in, to give a bird of prey display to our boarders and we had a go at handling the birds too!  

Cultural and historical education is a very important part of our boarding house trip programme. Some examples of trips we run to ensure our pupils have well-rounded cultural knowledge are; visiting National trust sites like Peckover house, Punting tours in Cambridge, Visiting Sandringham grounds and not forgetting celebrations such as Halloween and Guy Fawkes Night.  

Our boarders here at Wisbech Grammar School always have the opportunity to suggest any activities or trips that they would like to do on a weekend, our helpful House Reps bring these ideas to staff and then the planning begins! Some pupils suggest thrill filled days out at theme parks, others suggest time to unwind and relax watching a newly released film at the cinema. Whatever the boarders are doing on a weekend you can be sure they are having a great time.  

 Food provision at weekends:  

All evening meals take place in Skelton hall Sunday to Friday. Over the weekend, boarding pupils can try cooking their own meals or they have the option to eat school-provided meals, cooked in house. Once a week (Usually Saturday night) we have a takeaway night and everyone in the house votes on what food we get. The good thing about less structured mealtimes at weekends is that the boarders can manage their own time. Some opting to phone family and friends in other parts of the world, then coming down to have brunch instead of breakfast.