Fifth Form Morocco Trip 2015
Every academic year, a group of Fifth Form Geographers travel to Morocco during the October half term to visit the desert, mountains, and city of Marrakech.
This year, Mr Sanderson (Head of Geography) took thirty pupils and every day was packed with activities. They ranged from camel riding in the desert, visiting a sand encroached village that had only received rainfall three times in the last ten years, to hiking in the mountains and bartering in the souks.
Mr Sanderson and the school’s mantra is very much for the pupils and staff to experience Morocco, not for Morocco to experience them, and by encouraging pupils to not use their mobile phones and instead open their eyes to fresh landscapes, people and culture, it was hoped this would give them a new outlook on the world.
One of the group’s highlights was visiting a charity that supports the education of girls by providing accommodation for them, not dissimilar to our own boarding houses, allowing them to access secondary school each day. Mr Sanderson and the Fifth Formers gave the girls some gifts, said a few words, but more importantly shared time together and started to build a relationship between King’s and their school for future years.
Without exception, the Geography Morocco trip remains one of the all-time favourite expeditions that King’s puts on, and Mr Sanderson is sure that many pupils’ lives will have been influenced for the better – ‘The opportunity to be able to cut oneself off from the busy western world and all its social media bombardment certainly helped to re-evaluate what is important in life.’