At Woodlands we understand the importance and benefits of residential experiences for our pupils as part of our wider curriculum offer. All pupils will be offered the opportunity to take part in a residential experience during their time at the school.

During this academic year (2022 – 2023), 4 residential trips have either already taken place or are due to take place:

• Lea Green – Sept 2022
• High Ashurst – Oct 2022 and May 2023
• Prato Nevoso, Italy – January 2023

We are very excited to have been invited to send a group to join the SPENSOL ski trip to Italy in January 2023. This is the first time that the trip has been run since before the Covid 19 pandemic started. In line with the other SLD schools who are participating, we are taking a much smaller group this year as we continue to cautiously re-discover previous opportunities that were paused during the pandemic. 

The ski trip is a fantastic and valuable educational opportunity for our pupils and we would love as many of our pupils as possible to benefit from it throughout their time at Woodlands. However, it is a physically challenging week with two long overnight coach journeys to and from Italy and 4 hours of ski lessons each day. It is also a very fast-paced week where we will be part of a much larger group of up to 100 other students and staff.

Therefore, we need to be sure that it is in a pupil’s best interests to be offered a place on this trip and that their participation will not impact on the safety and wellbeing of themselves or others. Pupils must be able to cope in a busy public environment, follow an adult led daily routine, keep up with a fairly tight daily schedule and have reasonable levels of fitness and stamina.

As we have had a 3 year absence from this trip, invitations for the 2023 trip were initially offered to pupils in year 10 and above who had never been offered this opportunity in previous years, followed by final year pupils who had been on the fewest number of previous trips.