Written by Shona, Zainab and Ava
“In half term, 39 of us in Year 10 went to Amsterdam, a city which we were fortunate to come out unscathed, as we soon discovered that there are more bikes than people when many of us nearly got run over whilst we were out exploring the beautiful city! Our trip was filled with activities highlighting the importance of the Holocaust and the survivor’s experiences. On the second day, we took a train to Haarlem and visited the Corrie Ten Boom House where we learnt about a family who helped to hide Jewish people and rescued many more. On our third day, we were lucky enough to attend the Portuguese Synagogue and Jewish Museum where Mr Landsman guided us through it and gave us an insight into how everything works. We also had the privilege to attend a guided tour around Kamp Amersfoort a Nazi concentration camp just outside Amsterdam where we were told incredible stories about people fighting against the persecution of innocent people. There were memorials with small pebbles left to symbolise the importance and never to forget their experiences.
An unforgettable place we were fortunate enough to visit on the last day of our stay in Amsterdam was Anne Frank’s House, which was enlightening and provided a much-needed awareness into every aspect of the human struggles of Anne and her family’s life and how millions of other families had similar experiences that were not recorded.
For everyone on the trip including the teachers having as much fun as we could was a MUST. We were given free time to explore Amsterdam and Haarlem, and a lot of that time was taken up by eating the most delicious food we could find! Haarlem was also the place where we participated in the ‘Tai Challenge’ where we had to create a collage or video to a brief chosen by Miss Tai herself including talking to the locals and what makes a ‘perfect Watford girl’. On the 2nd night we participated in a quiz which had 5 rounds, one of them being the teacher’s favourite music resulting in dancing from Miss McDougall herself. On our final day, the teachers surprised us with a canal boat trip, and we are so grateful for everything they did for us!”
