VOLCANOES, waterfalls, and the black sand beach from a Star Wars film were highlights of a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Iceland.

Students from Looe Community Academy took part in the expedition with their Geography teacher Paul Pilling.

The trip had originally been planned for February half term, but the youngsters’ plane was turned back at Reykjavik because of high winds and snow around the airport.

Flights were cancelled for the rest of the week, but not to be defeated, Mr Pilling spent days on the phone rearranging the adventure for later in the term.

Now the students say it was ‘second time lucky’ as they got to see the Northern Lights and visit a secret lagoon during the rescheduled trip.

Year 11 student George Ingham said: ‘I’m just so glad I went.’

’It’s an amazing country and I saw and learnt so much - volcanoes, waterfalls, hot springs and Black Sand Beach where they filmed Star Wars.’

While film locations may be unlikely to feature in a Geography GCSE paper, the students were let in on some of Iceland’s most exciting secrets just ahead of their exams.

‘The local guide who accompanied them decided they were such a well behaved group he was happy to take them off the beaten track to locations most groups never get to,’ said a school spokesperson.

‘They were allowed to swim in the Secret Lagoon, walk on a glacier, visit the Gullfloss Waterfall and the Geysir Centre, and went to a geothermal park, the Kerio crater and a quake exhibition.’

‘An exciting time was had by all the students.’