Sport - Rugby School

Trips
2009/10
Trips
& Visits
London Docklands Trip
The annual trip to London’s Docklands comes around very
quickly and once again we were blessed with excellent weather
for this day trip. Mr Evans was very kind to the group, booking
seats on a late departure train from Rugby at 9.23am. However,
even that time was almost too early for some of the students
who managed to leave arriving at the station to the very last
minute - nearly missing the train.
We arrived in London within the hour, and the group was soon
brought to its senses by negotiating the underground and the
considerable traffic to our first destination, St Katherine’s Dock.
The students were given an activity familiarising themselves
with the new environment whilst the staff admired the luxurious
boats that were moored in the dock, one of which belonged to
a current Rugbeian!
Our stomachs were now rumbling, so we set off on the DLR for
Canary Wharf – probably at just the wrong time as it was the
start of the lunch hour and the restaurants were very busy. The
students still managed to find Burger King without too much
trouble, however!
After lunch, we took the Jubilee Line to Stratford, the site for
the 2012 London Olympics. The group enjoyed a whistle-stop
bus tour of the site, and it was quite incredible to hear of how
rapidly the area was changing at an estimated cost of £9 billion!
The question was – is it all going to be worthwhile
photo to commemorate the day’s activities. Once we had found
suitable refreshment, we braved the fight through the London
rush hour on the DLR and tube to get to London Euston. Despite
the 50 minute train journey, the trip was made all the longer as
there were passengers already sat in our reserved seats – the joys
of public transport!
JCE
XX Art Historians’ Trip to London
On 17 th January the XX Art Historians took a trip down to London
to see ‘Turner and the Masters’ at Tate Britain and to visit the
Courtauld Institute. As a group we all enjoyed the exhibition,
which visually demonstrated Turner’s ambition, and we also took
the opportunity to have a quick look at some of Turner’s more
characteristic works which were in the permanent galleries. The
trip was hugely enlightening and influential on our overall view
of Turner and it deepened our understanding of his work that
we had studied as part of the syllabus.
In complete contrast, we continued our journey east to the
residential area of Canning Town, a close knit community which
is currently seeing some level of economic change although we
did question the benefits to the locals.
Our final destination was Excel, which was particularly fitting
considering that from this vantage point we could see both
the regeneration of the past as well as the possible future for
this particular area of London. There was also time for a group
After lunch we went to the Courtauld Institute which holds an
eclectic mix of art works, but we were particularly interested in
its collection of nineteenth century French art. Degas’ bronzes
were particularly exciting and it was fascinating to see his work
as a sculptor. Overall the most beneficial part of our visit to the
Courtauld was having the chance to see in real life the paintings
which we had studied giving us all a greater appreciation of
them. These included works such as Manet’s Bar at the Folies
Bergère and Monet’s Autumn at Argenteuil. The overall trip was
a big success and was a huge inspiration for our studies for the
rest of the term.
Rose Button
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