Reminder that all passports and EHICs must be handed into school as soon as possible, remember if you do not produce a valid passport your child will not be allowed on the coach, your child must also have a valid EHIC card and/or travel and health insurance.

Pupils on Coach A should hand their passports into Mr Denny in Social Subjects and Coach B to Mrs Sutherland in Science.

Monies in a sealed envelope with the child’s name and full amount should also be handed in at this time, you can opt to give your child their money to take with them but staff cannot be held responsible for any loss, last year we had one pupil who left his wallet with all of his trip money at Gretna Services on the way out!

We have several pupils travelling on the trip who have severe nut allergies, and can suffer reactions even by touching nut products.

We therefore request that no nut products or food items containing nuts are either packed or purchased during the trip

Can you impress upon your daughter/son the importance of adhering to this request.

As the date for departure draws ever closer there have been a few concerns voiced by a small number of pupils who are going on the trip, hopefully I’ll be able to answer some of these concerns and reassure you all.

Your child may be feeling apprehensive, it may be their first foreign trip without you and it’s natural to feel a bit of anxiety, I can assure you the staff going on the trip feel exactly the same!

As we allocate pupils to coaches by PSR class there’s often the feeling that a pupil may be separated from their friends. During the long drive from Dunblane to Hull the two coaches travel in convoy, there will be at least 3 stops en route, two short toilet breaks and one 45 minute meal break, pupils are free to socialise with their friends from the other coach during these stops. On the coach pupils are free to sit with anyone they like, and we actually encourage them to swap seats regularly.

When on the ferry overnight during leisure and meal time your child will once again be free to associate with their friends. Cabins on the ferry are allocated by PSR class, gender and then alphabetical order, pupils need only be in their cabins from “curfew” time, which will be 2200 and are then expected to be in bed, and sleeping by 2230, P&O ships staff will be patrolling the cabin area for security and to ensure that pupils adhere to these requirements.

Once we reach the hostel pupils will be allocated to their respective rooms, we usually manage to give each pupil their first choice of room mate, up until lights out, again usually 2230, pupils are free to socialise with their friends from the other coach.

When we are actually out during the 3 days we are in Belgium and France, your son/daughter will, apart from the trip to the Somme and back, be facing only short duration journeys on the coach.

Your child may be feeling that they are isolated from the friends during travel, however our experience over many years taking S1 on this trip, is that this turns out to be a positive experience for them and they make new and lasting friendships during the trip. There is a feeling of camaraderie which often lasts right through to the end of sixth year.