Travel updates

13:22 (French time): all boarded and hoping to take off on schedule at 13:55.

14:26 (English time):  Landed at Gatwick, taxiing.

15:34 Just leaving Gatwick in coach. If traffic OK should be back at school at around 16:15.

Final update:  Arrived at 16:15 and all pupils safely collected.  Many thanks.

Friday messages ...

No photos to post at present but I may put up some more in the next day or two.

You will be delighted to know that all pupils and staff survived the week with no injuries.

Please watch this blog tomorrow in case there is any change to the expected return time of 4.30pm at school. I will be able to be much more specific once we are leaving Gatwick on the coach.

Thursday's skiing

Once again, apart from the odd bruise here and there, everyone has returned intact and all report that they had a good day on the piste.  We did have a couple of skis dropped on the chairlift, only one of which was retrieved at the time and the other was delivered to the hotel later in the afternoon, having been found by a man on a quad bike!  The moral being not to try to bang them together to knock off the snow when on a chairlift.  Mr Mathias donated his skis which were adjusted to fit the person concerned, which was quite heroic as he then spent an hour and a half getting back to base by bus.  All is now sorted, finally.

Whilst waiting for a bus(!) Mr Mathias was able to email me these photos of today's skiing:

Not to be left out, Mr Edlin has just sent me some as well:

Ice skating

On Wednesday after the afternoon ski session we all strolled over to the ice rink for a session of ice skating, which went very well.  Lottie (a previous ice-skating casualty) is pleased to report that she survived unscathed for the second year running.

Wednesday morning

Another sunny morning on the piste. I skied with the beginners and nobody succeeded in wiping me out (although one or two made a pretty good effort!). We managed to descend the blue twice in the lesson with time to spare, having managed it only once (and having run out of time) yesterday, and the skiers remarked how much easier it seemed today. Progress indeed!

The beginners (plus Hannah who paid us a brief visit)

Years ago, people used to ski in interesting hats, which was always fun, but the recent very sensible move to wearing helmets had stopped that. Now, however, it is possible to buy novelty helmet covers, as modelled here by Harrison and Harley:

The chicken and the elephant go skiing

I am hoping to have some more photos from people to post later.

Beginners' progress

Our beginners have made really good progress over the first three days. We started by getting the hang of things on a very gentle slope just adjacent to the hotel on the first morning:

During the afternoon, we went up a chairlift and tried a different piste just at the top. On the Monday morning, we took a quick hop on the bus to the neighbouring village of Chantemerle and used the beginners' piste there which had the great advantage of "un tapis magique" (magic carpet), which is a conveyor belt to return the skiers to the top of the slope to try again. By the end of the second afternoon, the beginners were developing some nice controlled turns.

Le tapis magique

This morning, the instructors felt brave enough to take us all up to the top of a "blue" run and ski down it. The green runs aren't open yet, so this was going to be quite a challenge. I'm delighted to report that all our beginners successfully made it down the run with very few meltdowns. Aphra may now be in line for a special "taking down Mr Court" award as she managed to knock me completely off my feet (and skis) at one point. Needless to say, Aphra came off worse but fortunately was only winded!

Here are a few of our heroes about to ski off a snow mound:

Aphra

Freya

James

Monday skiing

More good skiing today and all have returned intact.  Here are a couple of photos by Louis Rawlinson from this morning.  I may have more later.

First day on the pistes

We were all very relieved and pleased to find that the snow cannons had been hard at work and there were good pistes to ski on in Serre Chevalier today. The more advanced skiers went up a couple of lifts and found some nice pistes at the top and the beginners were taken to an area adjacent to the hotel this morning and were able to cope with a chairlift this afternoon. All are going to Chantemerle by bus (about 15 minutes) tomorrow to try the pistes over there.

Higher intermediates (Photo: Louis Rawlinson)

Photo: Lily Simon 

Photo: Lily Simon

Photo: Mr Edlin

Photo: Mr Edlin

Photo: Mr Edlin

So far so good.

All pupils and staff seated on plane!  Always a relief ...

Now on the ground in Grenoble.

All arrived safely and installed in the hotel.

Serre Chevalier 2015: Final checks

Just a few final things:

• Please report to school at 6:20 am on Saturday 12th December
• See the post below to find out which member of staff is registering you on arrival
• BA allow suitcases to a maximum of 23kg but excess charges are very high, so be careful
• One small piece of hand luggage is also permitted
• Bring a sandwich or similar (no liquids) as the first meal is in the evening
• Bottled water etc. can be bought after passing through security
• There should be food of some sort on the flight
• Remember that liquids and sharp objects cannot be taken in hand luggage.  Follow this link for details from BA about what is permitted.
• We have done our best to allocate rooms as requested, we will tell you on arrival in Serre Chevalier.  If you want to do a direct swap, let us know, otherwise see how it goes.  We won't know if there is any flexibility until we arrive.

Serre Chevalier 2015: Registration groups

The following groups are for purposes of checking that pupils are present. Please report to the relevant member of staff when you arrive on Saturday morning (6.20am) and at any time that we ask you to do so to check that everyone is present.

Please note that there is no need to stay in this group and these are not the same as the rooming groups or the skiing groups, they are just to split up the large group to make it easier for us to count you all.

Mr Mathias:
Lily Simon, Ashleigh Phipps, Alex Griffiths, Lottie Bentham, Ben Carpenter, Luca Falletti, Euan Griffiths, Tom Prate, Alfie Simpson, Oscar Worley

Mr Court:
Blake Barling, Marshall Darby, Ben Fitzpatrick-Nash, George Fletcher, Adam Foster, Elliott Hasler, Charlie Knight, Reba McDowall, Louis Rawlinson, Lewis Sloggett

Mrs Liley:
Hannah Kistruck, Anna Frost, Aphra Saunders, Isabella Sawyer, Freya Simpson, Emily Tate, Maia Marston, Kai Green, Ethan Gilbert, Luca Bigg

Mr Edlin:
Harry Parker, James Wootton, Ben Townley, Harrison Rodger, Harley Prince, Joseph Pearlman (meeting us at Gatwick), Archie Hyde, Parsa Hedayat, Ollie Clouting.