On Friday 26th June, the whole of Year 7 were offered the chance to visit Marwell Zoo in Hampshire organised by the Art Department. When I heard about the trip I initially questioned why we would be visiting a zoo? Soon after, our Head of Art explained the reason for the outing. The aim of the trip was to focus on our techniques in Art, improve sketching and balanced proportion when drawing live objects. In preparation for the excursion, each one of us was handed our very own brand new sketch book. I started to feel excited as Art is one of my favourite subjects.

Nearly two hundred pupils boarded the 4 private coaches on the Friday morning. As we arrived at Marwell in the glorious sunshine, I was thankful that I had remembered my sun cream! The zoo was so much bigger than I had imagined, with acres and acres of land and over 1,200 different animals to see. Suddenly I saw some elegant, long-necked giraffes galloping strikingly in the distance. Watching them, I felt butterflies and for a split second I experienced how exciting it must be to live in Africa. I soon opened my sketch book and began to draw.

Our group continued for hours walking and sketching in the sunshine, penguins, tigers, meerkats, monkeys, snow leopards, cheetahs, rhino, hippos and more! The Art teachers advised as we went along on technique and ideas. My hands began to ache after a while. We stopped for a picnic lunch and in the afternoon had the chance to experience how it really feels to be a monkey as we climbed and messed about with the rest of the year group in the adventure playground. The trip had been so much more enjoyable, exciting and entertaining than I had expected. The teachers were more relaxed and fun outside of school too! On my way back I wondered to myself what the next Wallingford school trip would be!

- Olivia, 7KG