The Geography department was excited to offer pupils the opportunity to attend an educational visit to Plantasia in Swansea last term. Plantasia is a fully immersive, interactive tropical zoo experience and this is the first time, under the new curriculum, where we have been able to offer such an enriching day out. Pupils had the chance to experience the climate, vegetation and animals found in the world’s tropical rainforests first hand. Not only did this support the learning and knowledge they have gained during their topic on Earth Systems and Cycles in Year 7 but added purpose to their knowledge, deepening their understanding further.

The pupils absolutely loved their day and were enthusiastic and eager to learn more about the animals and plants in the experience. Following a trail, pupils completed activities and challenges, information scavenger hunts and were also able to see the highly popular axolotl. Pupils were amazed with the size and adaptations of some of the plants that they had studied and thrived off the opportunity to see exotic animals like the Caiman crocodiles, Burmese pythons, Goliath bird eating tarantula and crawl through a tropical ant tunnel. Some of the photos taken on the day portray the interest and delight pupils were feeling and enabled them to showcase their photography skills such as the particularly impressive one below taken by Eleanor Thomas.