Year 11 student Nathan Beal flew half way round the world at half term, to spend a week with his father, a diplomat currently stationed in the Philippines. 

The trip was one of many that Nathan’s been lucky enough to experience: he’s travelled to Ethiopia, the USA, Ekaterinberg and China in recent years as his father has been moved around the British Embassies. In China, he was lucky enough to visit the Great Wall and the Terracotta Army, Beijing and Shanghai.

He says that visiting the Philippines was an amazing experience: Manila, the capital, is a huge bustling city which was once a Spanish colony. But out in the countryside, Nathan saw farmers using buffalo to draw carts and people living in wooden huts. He visited the island of Bohol in the south of the country where he saw the oldest monastery in Asia and the “chocolate hills” - a mountain range of around 2000 brown peaks.

Nathan says the experience of travelling has taught him a lot about the world, and he’s keen to return to the Philippines, where he says the people are very friendly and kind. He’s hoping to do voluntary work at the Embassy after his GCSEs and then join the RAF when he is 18 as a medic.