27.03.23

Maths Live! Disneyland Paris March 2023

It was dark, cold and raining when a coach full of 4orty year 10 students and four teachers left Abbey Park School on a Saturday evening in March.  Nearly 4 hours later, we were racing to catch the last ferry of the day to Calais following slow and thorough checking of passports by UK and French border officials – we made it by a whisker!

We arrived at our hotel in the early hours of Sunday morning where we were not at our best trying to work out how the luggage lockers worked with no sleep!  Then to make it worse, Mrs Lloyd made us walk the couple of miles to the Disney Parks to help wake us up – it didn’t work!  A quick snack and we were in the Magic Kingdom.  We made a bee-line for the biggest rides before checking out the rest of the Park.  Some of us bought lunch in the Park and the prices made us wince!  Others made their way into the Disney Village where food was slightly cheaper.  We were able to move between the Magic Kingdom and Disney Studios Parks.  After a long and tiring but fun day we met up and made our way to first the public bus station and then the hotels’ bus station – our step count was high!  When the bus came, we managed to squeeze all 45 of us on board alongside the many families and held our breath as more and more people got on at each hotel stop and few got off, until we reached our hotel and emptied the bus!

We were so tired that some of us almost fell asleep in our dinner and we were glad to go to bed and sleep that night. 

However, the teachers woke us early next morning for breakfast – a struggle for some of us!

Our fantastic coach driver then drove us to the Park where we went to the Maths Live sessions in the theatre in the Disney Village.  We, along with just under a 1000 students from other schools, heard talks from famous mathematicians – Bobby Seagull on prime numbers and cryptography, Dr Matt Pritchard on maths and magical illusion and Dr Josie Peters on algorithms and social media.  We left to have lunch and to return to the Parks for more exciting and thrilling rides (Did you see Mr White’s face on the Avengers Ride?).

We made a quick visit to the hotel for dinner before we returned in the dark (I don’t know how the teachers didn’t lose us!) to either the Walt Disney Studios Park to see the Avengers drone show and fireworks or to the Magic Kingdom Park to see the 30^th Anniversary illuminations on the Disney Castle and fireworks.  Some of us managed both by racing between Parks, while others preferred to do a bit of last-minute shopping for Disney ears and cuddly toys – Mrs Lloyd was disappointed as she couldn’t find a Grogu toy.

That evening found us having a second wind and the teachers having to enforce the hotel curfew at 11pm.  Despite this, it was 1am before most students were asleep and breakfast was at 7am.

The Tuesday morning rise was difficult for most, but we left the hotel intact as we headed back home.  The journey was uneventful and we returned on the EuroShuttle, a new experience for a lot of us.  At the school car park, parents were overjoyed to see their children had returned in one piece (as were the teachers who had been counting students all trip and still had forty!).  The students were tired and happy having all had a marvellous experience.

Their advice: if you can, go on the maths trip not just because the maths talks were amazing, but because you develop independence by being away from home, you practise being responsible for yourself and your belongings and being reliable so that you meet where and when you should and get up in time and ready for the day ahead.