The weekend of the 10th October at Tregoyd House in Wales was the beginning of a growing friendship between the lower sixth forms at both Alton Convent and Salesian College. Over the four days the groups got to know each through activities such as rafting and kayaking (where we all got throughly soaked including Mr Maher) zip wire, quad biking, fencing and archery!

In the evenings everyone participated in team building games, including hide and seek in the dark, problem solving and a disco.

We have made such good friends and are all looking forward to building on this realtionship over the next two years, especially in Lourdes next Easter.

On a sunny morning when serious matters were being discussed deep in the Bank of England, girls from AC's LVI were busy next door trying to control inflation! They tested their skill in the Bank of England museum where they were visiting the current exhibition "The Pound in Your Pocket" .

After becoming more informed about the financial world they spent time soaking up the atmosphere in Covent Garden before moving to the world of art in the National Portrait Gallery and the Tate Modern. Their cultural visit was rounded off by a visit to the theatre where they enjoyed the current hit production "Wicked".

The Duke of Edinburgh expedition was an exhausting but most definitely rewarding experienee. It involved walking sixteen miles over two days and camping overnight in a field surrounded by gorgeous views of countryside hills, and although this conjures up an image of bliss, the walking was certainly a challenge! But at the end of the weekend when we collapsed onto a road in the middle of Alresford, we all felt a remarkable sense of achievement, and we are all looking forward to the real expedition.

The 16-mile walk was performed in groups of seven and was separated into 'checkpoints'. Between each checkpoint, where we would rest briefly and have a small snack, the groups would walk for varying times: sometimes half an hour, sometimes almost two hours, but with each section of the walk completed, the sense of achievement was an incentive to keep going. The walk took us through wide fields, often muddy but beautiful forest paths and along roads and footpaths, and some of the views we had the chance to appreciate were stunning, especially with the wonderful sunny weather we were so lucky to enjoy. When we arrived at camp that afternoon and set up our tents before eating some quite interesting foodstuffs (for me and my friends, a selection of unusually flavoured but strangely delicious noodles), there was some time to relax before the night. The moon was beautiful: bright orange and unusually large, we were fortunate enough to come across a harvest moon night.