Our School Trip Stories

From sneaking martini into the dorms to seeing the teacher in pyjamas, your school journey creates hilarious memories to last a lifetime

- Claudia Woodward

For many of us, school trips were the first blast of fledgling independence and often the first time we went abroad. With parents absent and teachers who thoughtfully decamped to the bar, we could try the forbidden fruits of alcohol, cigarettes and kissing boys. We talked to five women about their highlights.

BEANZ MEANS BRUM

I was in the athletics team and excited to be off to Birmingham to represent The FitzWimarc School in Rayleigh, Essex, at the competition finals. It was 1989 and, although a seat belt law came into effect that year, we spent the journey swapping seats and drawing love hearts on the windows.

At the hotel, the teachers seemed to vanish into thin air, or more likely to the bar, while we ran riot in the corridors late into the night, high on Sherbet Fountains and Fruit Salads.

We came back down to earth with a bump the next day as we entered the massive athletics stadium. As the event was sponsored by Heinz, we were all issued with bright orange sweatshirts, which were the butt of many Beanztype jokes. A highlight was meeting Jon Ridgeon, the 110m hurdler, who had taken part in the Seoul Olympics.

Our team didn’t win, sadly, but I am a part-time athletics coach today.

Kay Thoburn, 45, Rayleigh, Essex

CARRY ON CAMPING IN THE CAIRNGORMS

For some reason I’ve never worked out, the teachers at Alleyn’s, south-east London, thought it would be a good idea to take a group of 13-year-olds to the Cairngorms.

After a long train journey, we set off on a day’s hike carrying full camping gear to some wild Army base perched on a mountain, where we had to erect ridge-style tents in a howling gale under the beady eye of a teacher.