Steyning Grammar Boarding School was able to coordinate and plan - taking all one hundred plus pupils from years 9-11 and 13 to Disneyland Paris for a day trip. It seems difficult for many of us to plan such a trip with one or two people, so how did such a large community plan such a journey?

The idea was pushed by eager head-boy candidate Harry Cheung, who continually pushes new ideas to keep the quality of life in boarding new and exciting. I asked him how the discussion came to be.

“I was in the car with Mr Leighton coming back from Southwick. We began discussing this years boarding enrichment as it seemed a little disorganised due to the lack of staffing as rock road had just opened, the staff had been a bit stretched. Mr Leighton spoke about how the enrichment was the same as last year and for simplicity's sake it was always kept more or less the same.”

“How did you decide to go to Disney then?” I asked him.

“Well, I found out that because the number of boarding students is so large, no matter where we go it was always cost approximately the same. As long as health and safety protocols are followed, going to DisneyLand is the same as all of us going out for a meal.”

“How did you manage to convince the boarding directors to go ahead with the trip?” Was my final question.

“I wanted to test my theory” He was referring to the idea that the accessibility of Paris was the same as a trip to a Chinese restaurant. “I mentioned going to Paris, and it turns out we had already been as a day trip before so logistically going to Disney wasn’t too difficult. When I discovered this I mentioned it in a house meeting. After one month of discussion we took the opportunity of an inset day, leaving Thursday night at 11pm and arriving Friday morning.”

As far as irony goes, this was the epitome. Harry was on study leave the day of the DisneyLand excursion. All year twelves couldn’t attend as they had to focus on their up and coming exams. Yet he was still able to create a great day for everybody else.