A TEAM of 10 students from Bordon’s Mill Chase Academy have just returned from a VIP visit to the City of London.

The students, accompanied by two teachers and the chairman of governors, were able to see at first hand how the City operates through its centuries-old tradition of livery companies and how these organisations help society at large.

Mill Chase now has a revamped and re-equipped construction department thanks to the generosity of one such livery company, the Worshipful Company of Constructors.

First stop on the students’ visit was Mansion House, official residence of the lord mayor who took time out to personally meet the students. The group then spent some time at the Information Technology Livery Company - one of the youngest companies in the City.

Next on the schedule was the Museum of London and the Honourable Artillery Company, the senior regiment of the British Army, where students were able to see the armour and uniforms of the Company of Pikemen and Musketeers.

Chairman of governors Michael Grant, and one of the ceremonial pikemen, from the lord mayor’s private bodyguards, showed the students how to don the armour and wield the 12-foot pike.

Then, before heading home, the team met the non-aldermanic sheriff and a senior judge of the City of London at the Old Bailey who gave them a tour of the courtrooms and the cells.

Mr Grant said: “Too many people just see the City as a place where bankers and traders work but it also has a very deep and long-standing tradition of benevolence - something which is embodied within the culture of the livery companies.

“It is a side of the City which we wanted the students to understand and perhaps appreciate given the help which one of those companies have already given to our school.”