Summer Holidays 2025 – Preview 暑期活動 2025 – 預告編

The teaching pace at my son’s Sixth Form school  is honestly lightning fast — by early April, they had already covered nearly the entire Year 12 syllabus. Right after the Easter term break, it was straight into the Informal Examinations.

The rest of June and July was a much lighter affair, filled mostly with field trips, work experience, Wider Skills Week, as well as the school’s annual Open Day. That said, the university application process had also officially kicked off, giving students a head start on preparations over the summer holidays.

Last summer, we flew back to Hong Kong to visit relatives and managed to squeeze in trips to Taipei and Japan as well. This year, since my old classmate from Hong Kong were coming to the UK for a visit, we decided to do our part for the local economy and keep things domestic — we’d stay put and spend our money here instead.

“So, what’s the plan then?”   - My old classmate down in Portsmouth asked me again.

Huh? I’m in charge of planning again?

We did North Wales last Christmas, and over the Spring Term break we hit the Cotswolds (which, out of pure laziness, I still haven’t blogged about 😬). After a bit of back-and-forth, we finally made a decision: we’re heading up north — the six of us are off for a trip to the Peak District!

兒子就讀的 Sixth Forms 教學進度真的非常之快，四月初已差不多完成 Year 12 課程，放完 Easter Term Break 後便是 Informal Examinations。而整個六、七月則以一系列課堂外的 field trips，Work Experience，Wider Skills Week 及一年一度的學校開放日活動為主，日子亦變得輕鬆了很多。不過話雖如此，學校亦正式展開申請大學的程序，讓學生可在暑假期間作好準備。

2024 年的暑假我們一家回港探親，順道去了臺北，日本旅遊；今年趁着香港的舊同學到英國旅遊，我們決定為本地經濟出一分力，大夥兒留在英國消費。

「行程如何呢？」身在 Portsmouth 的同學問了我好幾次。

吓，又係我諗呀！

上年聖誕去了 North Wales，而今年 Spring Term Break 亦去了 Cotswolds（我承認我係懶，因此直到今天仍未出 blog post 😬），掙扎了一輪終於決定北上，一行六人就來個 Peak District 之旅啦！

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To keep things flexible, we went for a self-drive trip again this time. But my little Peugeot was way too small — even without factoring in luggage, it just wouldn’t fit us all. So, we decided to rent a 7-seater instead. The plan was to set off from Kingston and head to Bakewell, right in the heart of the Peak District. It’s around 160 miles, so we figured it’d take us about three hours.

I’d never actually rented a car in the UK before — so this was going to be a brand new experience for me!

考慮到行程安排上的彈性，今次亦會是自駕遊，只是我家的 Peugeot 太細了，即使不計行李，亦無法承載，所以會租一部七人車，打算從 Kingston 出發，目的地是 Peak District 中的 Bakewell，車程約 160 英哩，相信三小時應可到達。

我從未試過在英國租車，今次就來個全新體驗吧！

It was a 10-day trip, mainly planned around visiting charming towns in Peak District like Bakewell and Buxton. For hiking, we had places like Ladybower Reservoir, Mam Tor, and Jacob’s Ladder on the list. That said, we’d just see how we felt each day and decide based on our condition — no strict schedule!

十天行程，以參觀 Peak District 內小鎮如 Bakewell, Buxton，行山就打算到 Ladybower Reservoir，Mam Tor 及 Jacobs Ladder 等地為主，不過實際行程還是要視乎當時體能才决定吧！