Situated in Geneva, CERN is famous for being the home of the Large Hadron Collider which has been at the cutting edge of experimental particle physics for decades and also the birthplace of the world wide web. Whilst in Geneva, they also embarked on a day trip to Lausanne to visit another research facility, namely the Swiss Plasma Centre, which is another cutting edge research facility exploring how to make limitless clean electricity in the future from fusion reactions (similar to the reactions that take place in the Sun).

The trip provided an excellent opportunity for the students to see and experience life as a professional scientist, and many of them took the opportunity to ask questions of the guides (all of whom are working scientists at the sites) on how they had chosen this career path and how to apply for these careers etc. The guides were also able to give detailed explanations of their work, and the students found it particularly interesting to see how the theory from the classroom all comes together practically in the real world.

We also had some time to experience Geneva as a city and embarked on a walking tour of the city in order to greater understand its history and traditions (and also discover the best chocolate shops that the city had to offer), as well as engaging in some traditional Swiss experiences such as a traditional fondue meal in a local restaurant.

The students were exemplary ambassadors for both themselves and the School, and despite some very long tiring days, everybody exhibited patience and good humour even when our plane had a technical issue just before take off back to London; the year 13 students seeing it as an opportunity for an impromptu revision lesson with Mr Haselwood whilst we waited for repairs.

All in all the trip was an amazing success, and one I hope that the students remember for a very long time.

Mr Williams, Teacher of Chemistry