Last week, 44 students from Carisbrooke College, along with Mrs A. Smith, Ms Ryan, Mr Burnett, Miss Begley and Mr Matthias, travelled to London to visit The Houses of Parliament and The Supreme Court. The group travelled by coach, leaving school at the ungodly hour of 5.15am and arrived in London for a walk down Whitehall to see the Cenotaph, The Women of War World War II Memorial and Downing Street. They then walked through Horse Guards Parade to St. James’s Park before returning to Parliament Square where the group split into two. Half went to The Houses of Parliament whilst the other group visited The Supreme Court.

At The Supreme Court students learned all about what The Supreme Court is, how it works and who works there before having a mock trial in a courtroom. After this, the groups went to watch an actual case live in action where barristers and lawyers explained their case in front of the Justices’.

In the Houses of Parliament the students were given a tour of the building including Westminster Hall – where Queen Elizabeth II lay in state last year. They were able to then go and see the House of Lords in full swing and watch the Lords debate funding for the upcoming general election. After this they were led to the gallery for the House of Commons to watch the MP’s debating cyber security policies. Our local MP, Bob Seely, made a surprise appearance and came to meet the students where they had the opportunity to ask him questions about the price of ferries, how he became an MP and sea pollution around the Isle of Wight.

The students also had the chance walk through Parliament Square where there were people protesting against Climate Change and Brexit. They were fascinated by this right to protest! They then crossed over Westminster Bridge and walked along the banks of the River Thames to look at the Covid Memorial Wall where they were blown away by just how many names there were. Some students had the opportunity to walk through St James’s Park to Buckingham Palace where they saw the changing of the guard and explored the surrounding area.

One student said that their favourite part was meeting our MP, Bob Seely; another enjoyed touring the Houses of Parliament best whilst another said seeing Buckingham Palace was the most memorable part.

Miley said that the most surprising part was discovering, ‘how the Houses of Parliament had dents in it from people trying to bomb it during World War II’.

Lara said that she enjoyed, ‘being split up into smaller groups as we got more stuff done.’

The students had an excellent day and were an absolute credit to Carisbrooke College. Thank you for a fantastic trip.