25 January 2018
Two extracurricular excursions to Stratford-upon-Avon and Devon took place during Reading Week last year with Undergraduate Preparatory Certificate students.

Stratford-upon-Avon
The
trip to Stratford was, again, a resounding success! 10 UPC students
plus Nick Lamarti and Baani Singh spent 48 hours visiting Shakespearean venues
and exploring Warwick Castle at the beginning of November.
There was also time
to see a bonfire and fireworks display as well as a play at an independent
theatre about an Anglo-Indian suffragette with first-time actors on stage!
Dinner at Nando's on the first night also went down a treat and, of
course, no trip would be complete without a visit to a typical English pub in a
small village near the hostel where we all stayed.
On our last day, we toured a Butterfly Farm before returning to London. All (yes, all) students gave very good feedback and the tutors were more than happy.
Devon
The trip to Devon, was similarly rip-roaring fun. 27 students, together with Peter Colebrook, Peter Bowman and Julie Willis, journeyed down to Devon by train, overnighting at an adventure centre on the edge of Dartmoor.
Our adventures included raft-building and splashing about on a lake, abseiling from the top of one of Dartmoor's grandest granite tors, climbing way up into the highermost branches of a huge beech tree, testing out our archery skills, and participating in a variety of physical and mental lateral-thinking skills.
This was all followed up in the Trout and Tipple by a sampling of the local Dartmoor ales and some much needed typically English refreshment at Nando's. Needless to say, the weekend was deemed a massive success by all who went.