Prep 3 managed to squeeze one last visit into this academic year and maybe we saved the best till last…
To link into Prep 3’s Science curriculum and knowing some of their passions for crystals and geology, Mrs Nash and Mrs Priest took the class to Matlock Bath, to scale the Heights of Abraham!
Conversely, in order to get to the deep underground caverns that this area of Derbyshire is famous for, you first have to take the cable cars up the cliff to the visitor site. Some children really had to face their fears here but it was soon over and we headed to our first guided tour of the Great Masson Cavern. Narrow tunnels led to huge, echoey caves deep in the limestone hills. Once mined extensively for lead, we can now explore these caves and examine the geology left behind. The children were very excited to find real fossils, brachiopods, calcite and malachite hidden in the rocks.
Our second tour was into the Great Rutland Cavern where we were told all about the lives of the people who mined the caves; children were sent down with pickaxes from their sixth birthdays!
After lunch and a play on the slides, we went off to The Rock Shop where all the children could indulge their love of gems and stones and buy souvenirs of the visit.
It was a super trip, enabling the children to build character through resilience, curiosity, risk-taking and courage.
