During the half-term, Upper and Lower Sixth Form students who have been studying Global Politics as part of their International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme took a trip across the pond to get some first-hand experience of US politics. The itinerary was packed and gave the girls a chance to visit the three branches of the US Government (The White House, Congress and the US Supreme Court) as well as explore social issues in American politics with visits to museums such as the African-American History Museum, the World Bank and the Stonewall Movement at the Newseum among many more. We also explored the US’ approach to global politics as we toured key monuments in DC including the Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson monuments to name but a few.

It wasn’t all work! The girls also had a chance to experience some US sports culture when we took in an NHL match between DC Capitals v Buffalo Sabres. Loud, bright and bonkers is probably the best way to describe this experience and despite a rather underwhelming performance by the team, we now seem to have some lifetime Sabres fans.

We completed the trip by visiting the British International School (BIS) in DC to meet with their Global Politics students. Like the Abbey, BIS was also a pilot for the Global Politics course when it began in 2014 and it was a pleasure to see our girls work with their counterparts who were from a wide-ranging international background to determine who was in more trouble: Boris or Donald?