Hitting the Slopes : Ski Trip Austria 2025

Day 1

Despite the airport queuing feeling worse than Glastonbury, the 57 of us herded our way around Heathrow, excitements included. As you’d expect the students were a delight in the flight, considerate of those passengers who were clearly furious they had booked a flight with a billion school kids!

Students had 20 minutes to grab some lunch before we jumped on our transfer. 57 Subway Sandwiches was a bit much for the one man team, thankfully the equivalent of a Tesco Express was dutifully raided.

The three hour journey was a chance to catch up on some sleep/ eating as many sweets as possible before arriving at our Hotel. The rooms are spacious, the dinner delicious and we have boots and skis ready for the morning!

Day 2

The team sprung out of bed and into a breakfast for Champions. A set up that would even have rivalled Oakview. Bacon, eggs, frankfurters, fruit, cereal, pastries, exactly what you need before a day on the slopes!

The first morning is always interesting, you need to find your boots and skis from a pile of 57, which have been packed in the bus in a novice form of Jenga! Inevitably one or two forget their ski number, someone leaves their poles, let’s not even get started on the gloves, as for goggles… However, we all made it onto the slopes. The sun was out but it was pretty chilly as the instructors sorted us into ability groups and then we were off! Tough early morning conditions of sheet ice eventually gave way to some perfect ski conditions. LP carved up the mountain. Not only did we seem to be the most impressive ski school but certainly the most stylish.

The afternoon session was stunning again. The mountains, even with such a large group does provide such amazing tranquillity.

Everyone returned to the bus safely with smiles on their faces and suitably exhausted but thankfully not too tired to head out to clear another local shop of all their snacks!

Quiz night this evening, post dinner, the excitement keeps mounting!

Day 3

After the excitement of last night’s quiz (brilliantly put together and delivered by our very own by Resident Tutor and PE Graduate, Jack Gardener) we were wondering how the energy levels would recover. LP stepped up to the plate once again.

We were all on the slopes before 9am. It was blue sky and beautiful snow. We managed to get to see most of the groups throughout the morning and the progress is already vast.

Whilst progress builds confidence, it can often spill into over-confidence, which has also brought about numerous falls, many of which involved taking out various members of their own group and other members of the public! Thankfully no injuries but a huge amount of laughter could be heard all over the mountain.

Lunch was bathed in sunshine and top class food to keep the troops going for another action packed afternoon.

The gang then headed out to a local Pizzeria for dinner. It was a culinary delight and super little restaurant complete with dance floor just in case the mood took us!

Each day we award the “Stack of the Day” and for the second day running Amir kept hold of his crown! Incredible footage of his fall was captured and is shared on Instagram and would surely have secured us £250 from Jeremy Beadle back in the day!

The students have been such a delight to spend time with. They look after each other (and us!) and are doing the school proud.

Day 4

Third day on the slopes and progress is huge. First timers look like intermediates, intermediates like advanced and frankly the top two groups could go professional!

Deputy Head: Academics, Alex Wallace and Chemistry Teacher and Head of Hockey, Matt Richards had the pleasure of skiing with the advanced group this morning as they tried to capture some GCSE footage for a couple of students. They performed very well, and I hope it didn’t feel too much like hard work. It was certainly mentioned that it beat doing English Coursework!

They skied hard and fast, which put Matt and Alex through their paces. Two students felt so confident they decided upon a slightly different route down the mountain to the one being led by the instructor. They were reunited shortly afterwards as we sought them out at the bottom of the run! Luckily, they were easy to spot amongst the 5,000 school children also at the resort!

We returned to our favourite restaurant for lunch and were once again impressed. However, the sun had the audacity to sneak behind the clouds for various periods of the afternoon. As is often the case when skiing this time of year, the conditions deteriorate in the afternoon. Still, we embraced this is an additional challenge to be conquered.

This evening’s activity is mini golf! Mini-golf it turns out is very competitive! The conditions were perfect- dry without a breath of wind in the mini golf warehouse. There were, as ever, some challenging holes, even for the most advanced mini golfers amongst us.

There were 5 champions from the different year groups with Arun and Dasha coming out on top. Celebrations were cut short as we knew we had a big day ahead tomorrow.

Day 5

The weather today was a little more overcast but that did not dampen the spirits. Each group had enough energy to make the very best of a full final day skiing. Lunch was taken inside for the first time today, the staff even had a little apple strudel as a mid morning break- we were knackered!

The groups all came together at the bottom of the slopes for the Awards Ceremony. The instructors gave out various awards and the students presented them with thank you cards. The instructors have been brilliant this week once again.

More importantly, they have been hugely impressed by our students. One of them said it was the best school they have ever had! She said they were so kind to them but also to each other. It made us feel like proud parents! They really have been exceptional company.

Today, we were really hoping might be the day they remembered everything off the bus but alas, a couple of poles, helmet and googles… maybe next year!

Find the trip photos here.