High School Students to Experience Europe

The School Committee Tuesday night approved a trip for Chelmsford High School students to visit Alsager High School in Alsager, England.

High School Principal Anne O'Bryant said for the last three years, the exchange has been a one-way program: students from England have come to Chelmsford, attended classes, stayed with families of local students, and taken day trips around the area. The students stay for about two weeks, O'Bryant said.

O'Bryant said last year the Alsager High School staff suggested Chelmsford High students visit their school, but she couldn't coordinate a trip in time. Some of the seniors involved in the program missed their window of opportunity to visit the friends they had made in England, said O'Bryant.

"We had a nice visit last year, the kids are excited, a relationship has been estbalished," she said. "They wanted us to come for two weeks but I said that's against school policy."

This year, O'Bryant is planning the trip over April vacation, from April 14-23. The trip is dependent upon getting enough students to sign up to go, she said. A deposit is required to reserve a spot.

Many of the students who hosted a British exchange student have requested they stay with those same families while in England, said O'Bryant.

"They (students) know we have to have enough people interested in going," she said. O'Bryant has offered to chaperone if the school can't find enough chaperones.

"The principal selects the families who will host the students," said O'Bryant. "But you don't have to host to be an exchange student. They can just sign up for a host family. It's all volunteer. It develops the relationship between the two schools."