Is it possible that a cycle tour is the ideal school trip? Certainly it is a remarkable experience. Each year we run two cycle tours, one aimed at boys in the first three years of school and one at older boys. There's also an option to complete the Duke of Edinburgh Award Expedition by bike.

Touring combines the physical challenge of the riding with the historical perspective offered by places of interest through which we pass. As an example, in 2008 the junior tour travelled from Dunkerque to Amserdam, cycling along the canal leading to Ypres which for some time formed a part of the Western Front. Boys stopped to read John McCrae's famous words in the place where he wrote them, visited the museum in the re-built cloth hall, witnessed the last post ceremony at the Menin gate and the following day cycled through that gate before seeing trenches from the great war and visiting the Tyne Cot cemetery.

Parents can also take part in the tours if they wish, and boys who have toured with us before have the option of riding independently of the adults for most of the route, after attending suitable training.

Over the years we have toured in Ireland, France, Belgium and Holland, and in 2009 Denmark. British tours have included (three times now) the classic Land's End to John O'Groats, English Coast to Coast, Welsh Coast to Coast, Wiltshire Cycleway and the Sustrans Hull to Felixstowe route.