After some heated debate on Monday, all the students had the chance to enjoy a more leisurely afternoon yesterday. While the 13-15 year old students had the opportunity to go on an historical excursion to Blenheim Palace after lunch, most of the 16–18 year old students took free time in the afternoon to complete their assignments or head into Oxford to do some independent sightseeing.

Despite some rather ominous grey clouds, all of the 13-15 year old students seemed enthusiastic to experience an informative and cultural afternoon, as they loaded onto the coach for their short journey to Blenheim.

Blenheim Palace is a world heritage site with over 300 years of history. It is set within beautiful country gardens and is notable as Sir Winston Churchill’s birthplace, being only a stone’s throw away from Bladon, where he has his final resting place.

On arrival, the group were impressed by the palace’s facade and were keen to get going on their tour. The group remained together to wander around the park and gardens and there was a resident pair of ducks to feed as they strolled. Some students even took to cartwheeling on the lawn and it was great to see them engaging as one, big group.

Having experienced all that the gardens had to offer, they headed into the palace for an audio guided tour of the house. This was followed by a long browse in the gift shop, where everyone was keen to pick up a souvenir to take home as a memento for their trip.