Over 140 students had initially applied to take part in the trip by creating a project around the United nations Sustainable Development Goals on Climate Action, Life Below Water and Life On Land.

The successful students left school at 4am on Thursday 5^th December and we travelled down to Heathrow by coach to catch our flight.

For the first day we orientated ourselves around the town and saw many of the famous sights and we also stopped for lunch in the Commonwealth Park. In the Evening we celebrated mass for the Epiphany with St. Theresa’s congregation. On Saturday, we ventured up to the ‘Top of the Rock’ on the cable car before starting our descent through the Nature Reserve via the Skywalk before stopping for lunch in the magnificent St Michael’s Cave. We then tested our nerves by crossing the Windsor Swing Bridge before meeting more Barbary Macaques on the way down.

Sunday was a day working on the scrap books and enjoying reflection time and mass with Fr Bob.

On Monday, we headed back up the ‘Rock’ to Tovey Cottage where we were met by Catherine Walsh from the Department of the Environment and Vincent from the Raptor Team. Vincent once again gave us a brilliant and captivating talk on the birds of prey and the different wildlife found on the Rock and introduced us to some of the residents. We then made our way to the Great Caves before visiting the Moorish Castle during our descent.

On Tuesday, we visited colleagues at Westside School where Mr Sean Ballester delivered an informative and engaging presentation on all the work that the schools carry out in Gibraltar as part of their ClimACT programme. In the afternoon, we made our way to Europa Point, the most southerly point, where not only could we see Africa but we also met with Clive Crisp, a biologist and a Department of the Environment representative from the Marine Exploration Centre. He led us on a walk around the coastline explaining the different marine species but also the impact of climate change on the environment. This prepared us for our final full day on Wednesday when we met up with our friend Lewis Stagnetto and his team from the Nautilus Project on Western Beach. We were separated into groups; we had a micro-plastic team and then individual teams collecting various types of rubbish found on the beach. In one hours work we retrieved:

Cans x 36

Foam x 4

Plastic Bottles x 62

Glass Bottles x 2

Beach Toys x 1

Carboard x 28

Vapes x 3

Lighters x 3

Wrappers x 122

Cigarette Butts x 690

Bottle Caps x 57

Balloons x 5

Bucket x 1

Plastic Containers x 2

Buoy x 1

Miscellaneous x 112

 

The students were astounded to see such waste because when they arrived they thought the beach was pretty clean. We followed on the nautical theme in the afternoon where we joined the Dolphin Adventure, and using the Nautilus NEMO app, we went dolphin spotting. We were in luck, we saw hundreds, and it was wonderful to hear the shouts of excitement from our students. After over 80 miles walked in 7 days we were looking forward to arriving home for a rest.

Another very successful trip, where lifelong memories and friends were made, imaginations ignited and passions driven to make a change. All thanks to the support from the Government’s Turing Scheme.

We look forward to our next activity in April to Turin in Italy with 40 Year 9 and 10 students.

Take a look at some photos from the trip: