Social activities and optional trips

Orientation programme

The orientation programme and welcome reception on 1 July will give you the chance to meet your fellow students and the summer school staff.

We also arrange a number of evening social activities and optional trips during the programme.

Optional weekend trips

There will be two long weekends (three days) during the summer school, giving you the chance to undertake independent travel. In previous years we have worked with a tour company that provided optional trips to Scotland or Paris. We will find out closer to the time if the company can put on any trips for Summer 2021.

The other two weekends provide free time for exploring London and the area closer to Kingston.

Optional weekend British Cooking class

There will be the opportunity to attend a one day British Classics cooking class on Monday 12 July. You will learn to make three courses of traditional British dishes, then sit down as a group to enjoy the meal.

The three dishes are:

• gourmet fish, chips and mushy peas
• grass-fed organic roast beef with Yorkshire pudding
• bakewell tart

The kitchen is 100% gluten free.

The link for booking will be confirmed here nearer the time.

British Culture field trips

If you are not taking the British Culture class, you may still have the opportunity to participate in its field trips, paying a fee per trip (space permitting). Whether this is possible depends on your schedule.

Full information about the trips will be available at the start of the summer school, but in the meantime you can see details of last summer's trips below for an idea of what to expect:

• Hampton Court Palace: students travel to Hampton Court Palace by boat for a lecture tour of the palace and visit the grounds and gardens.
• Greenwich: this trip includes a visit to the Old Royal Observatory (the location of zero longitude), the Royal Naval College (designed by Christopher Wren) and the Queen's House (designed by Inigo Jones). It addressed the role of Britain in the development of accurate timekeeping and navigation in the 17th and 18th centuries.
• Stonehenge and Bath: this includes visiting Stonehenge, a World Heritage Site, en route to the Roman baths in Bath, where students take a walking tour of the town to see the Georgian architecture.
• Oxford: students take a walking tour of the ancient heart of the city of Oxford, which gives an introduction to the architecture, history and way of life in Britain's oldest university. They also visit Christ Church College.