Washington Trip

Washington Exchange 2018

Twenty-five Peterites crossed the Atlantic for October half term to meet up with our old friends at Walt Whitman High School, Bethesda and to spend 10 days exploring Washington DC.

This was the sixth of our school exchange visits and we were generously hosted once again by Walt Whitman families and enjoyed getting to know the American students hosting us whilst spending some time in a typical US High School.

From Bethesda we were an easy Metro ride to the centre of DC with its wealth of political and cultural sites - not to mention the shops and branches of Shake Shack which quickly became this trip’s favourite eatery.

This was an opportunity to bring to life the American Politics and History being studied back at St Peter’s. We enjoyed a full tour of Congress, including a rarely seen, behind the scenes ride on Congress’ miniature underground rail road which links its different buildings. Most students’ favourite day was the one where we hired bikes and enjoyed a cycle tour of the National Mall, taking in the national memorials to former Presidents and those lost in battle – ending up at Arlington National Cemetery and the graves of the Unknown Warrior and President Kennedy.

We were also able to take in many of the constituent museums of the Smithsonian; including a visit to the newly opened National Museum of African American History and Culture, in a stunning new building. Our day of museums culminated in the gastronomic highlight of the trip: a meal of chicken tendies at Harriet’s Diner, each meal crowned with an Oreo cookie – I suppose that’s what they meant by dessert being inclusive. It was a meal and an experience that will live long in all our memories…

“This was an opportunity to bring to life American Politics and History.”

Evenings and weekends allowed time to socialize with our new American friends and to enthusiastically support Walt Whitman’s sports teams. The school has a breadth of competitions almost as impressive as St Peter’s and it’s fair to say that some matches were hard fought by both the teams and supporters. We’d like to thank all at Whitman, especially Mr Andrew Sonnabend and Mr Bob Mathis for welcoming us so warmly once again and giving us a great visit. I’d like to thank Mr and Mrs Gillies and Ellie for joining the trip again and for all their help and support.

Mr Ben Fuller Head of Government & Politics