Today, our year 6 pupils have been on the first day of their residential visit to Edinburgh. We are piloting this brand new trip for Hull Children's University and it's certainly been an action-packed day. Arriving at 6.30am at Hull's Paragon Railway Station, we boarded a train to York, before changing to a high-speed link for Scotland's famous capital city. The trains ran on time and we were soon disembarking at Waverley Station. Unlike London, the centre of Edinburgh is relatively small, so it was only a short walk before we arrived at our accommodation - the church hall of St. Columba by the Castle. We deposited our luggage and immediately set off down the Royal Mile to the Dynamic Earth centre. This is a wonderful modern museum near to Holyrood Palace. We spent a couple of hours walking around the exhibits, which tell the story of the earth’s geological history in many exciting and interactive ways. The visit ended with a workshop session on Natural Disasters. Pupils moved between activity tables where they studied rock, made earthquake-proof model buildings and researched Tsunami. There was even a chance to see how a tornado looked through some brilliant plastic bottle-based water-tornado simulators.
The next stop was at the world famous Camera Obscura, back at the top of the Royal Mile. Everyone spent the next hour or so looking at the obscura’s unique view of the city and the many amazing visual puzzles and displays. Perhaps the best bits were the mirror maze and the vortex tunnel. We could easily have spent hours here – well worth a visit. All this activity promotes a need for refreshment so tea was spent at the local Pizza Hut. A party of weary pupils and staff settled down to a good night’s sleep, ready for the second day.
