Over Half term, the Art department took a group of Year 12 and 13 students to Amsterdam to visit several exhibitions at art galleries including the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum, the Eye, the Rembrandt Museum and Moco. Spending time in Amsterdam also involved exploring other aspects of Dutch culture including the food, landscape and nightlife so we took a canal cruise around the city on our first night to take in all the architecture and landmarks, whilst eating our evening meal. We quickly familiarised ourselves with the excellent tramlines throughout the city and stopped off at Dam square before making our way back to our hotel (which was surprisingly comfortable and only 15 minutes from the centre of the city which made it ideal).
With sunny weather throughout our time there, we were able to walk to and from many of the venues and see as much of the city as we could in the time we had there. We walked past landmarks like the 16th century ‘skinny bridge’ and the Buddhist temple, as well as some of the more exotic sites in the city as we made our way from venue to venue.
We also visited the Anne Frank house where we took part in their educational programme and learned about the historical background of the Frank family and their time in Holland before we moved through the house/secret Annex.
Much of what the students experienced had already started to filter into their work and you will get a good flavour of the trip from the attached pictures.