SECONDARY RESIDENTIAL TRIP OPTIONS 2013/14
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Secondary Residential Trips – June 2014 The purpose of this booklet is to act as a guide for the Secondary residential trips for June 2014. Objective The core purpose of the Secondary Residential Trip Programme is to extend learning from the classroom to the natural environment. This learning can come in many forms; Academic Many of the trips will have explicit learning objectives associated with these. These will either support or extend existing learning. The trips will all encourage an appreciation and understanding of the natural world. Social development The most obvious advantage of our residential programme is the social benefits that they bring. Students will further hone their abilities in compromising and conflict resolution, sharing and coping with the unfamiliar. In addition to personal development, our trips also encourage our students to develop their social responsibility as each trip has an element of community service. Students will be given the opportunities to actively assist on a community project or to consider a global issue. Physical development The majority of the trips will have a physical element to them. These will be specific to the trip but could include swimming, snorkeling, kayaking, climbing, abseiling, hiking, sailing, cycling and orienteering. Responding to challenge The students will be taken out of their familiar environment and challenged in a number of ways listed above. We believe that this truly allows our students to find out a lot more about themselves. On such trips it is extremely gratifying to see hidden strengths come to the fore and even more gratifying to see students overcome obstacles or barriers and develop as people. Leadership Many of the trips involve groups coming together to successfully complete challenges. The students will have to demonstrate many different leadership qualities to do so.
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Format Year 7 and 8 students will attend residential trips with their Year group. This allows bonding with their form mates and means that age appropriate activities can be arranged. Year Group Trips: Year 7 Hainan: Page 5 Year 8 Dali: Page 6
Year 9 - 12 Optional Trips This year The British School of Guangzhou has moved away from offering year group based trips to our older secondary students and has instead moved to offering an interest based programme. Students are free to select which trip they wish to attend from a list of options. The majority of the trips are being offered in partnership with Insight Adventures. Each trip will offer a range of exciting and educational experiences for the students and are undertaken with the endeavor of offering an enriching and holistic experience for the students. Detailed itineraries have yet to be finalised for these trips; the activities listed are intended to act as a guide only. Each trip will offer a balance programme of outdoor education activities and leisure time that is partnered with a community service aspect. Students will be invited to make a selection from the offer trips and once numbers have been finalized they will be informed of which trip they will be attending. Please note that any trip will only be able to go ahead with a minimum number of students. Consequently, not all the trips listed below will go ahead. Students from Year 9 – Year 12 will take optional choices. This allows the older students to have more flexibility and choose activities that reflect their interests more closely. The booklet will give a brief outline of each trip. Year 9 – 12 will then need to opt for a first choice and second choice trip on the VLE. More detailed information will follow with regard to exact timings contact numbers and specific itineraries. Venue Xiamen: Guizhou: Mongolia: Twin Moon Bay:
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Focus Adventure / Cultural Community Service Cultural Conservation / Beach based
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Year 7: Hainan, Sanya: Focus - Beach This year the year 7 students will be visiting the beach resort of Sanya in the tropical Hainan province. Our current Year 8 students visited Sanya last year and the feedback from staff and students alike was excellent, with one student reporting that the ‘Sanya trip was fun and I would definitely go back. This year’s residential trip was valuable, memorable and I will never forget it’. Sanya offers a safe and well-developed beach side location that provides multiple outdoor education opportunities. In addition to this the students are accommodated in beachside hotels that offer both Western and Chinese cuisine. The students can expect a high octane week that is filled with opportunities for challenging themselves and pushing their boundaries. Activities on this trip will include kayaking, team building and beach games and hiking. In addition the students will also learn to surf and give something back to the local community by taking part in community service activities and visiting a minority village
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Year 8 Dali: Focus - adventure The year’s Year 8 students will be following in the footsteps of last year’s intrepid Year 8 adventures and returning to Dali in the mountainous Yunnan province. Dali offers a chance for our students to experience some of China’s most famous and spectacular scenery; Yunnan offers stunning views of slopping mountains, astral blue lakes and verdant green fields. Scenery aside the students will undertake a week of activities that will explore their surroundings and immerse themselves in local culture. Over the course of the trip students will have the opportunity to take part in kayaking, hiking along tea trails, biking and a scavenger hunt. Additionally, there will be the chance to bike around Er Hai Lake, take part in rock climbing and visit a Yak spring. Students will also take part in some community service as part of their trip. The accommodation offered during the Dali trip is a mixture of hotels and camping.
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The British School of Guangzhou
Years 9, 10, 11 & 12: Optional Trips Xiamen: Adventure Our current year 10 students visited Xiamen last year and we are offering the students the oppurtunity to visit this diverse part of Fujian province. Last year the students took part in a series of water based activities, hiking, team building games and visited a hot springs. In addition, the trip to Xiamen offers the chance for students to learn about the Hakka minority culture by visiting a series of traditional ‘Tulous’ (round houses) – including one of the largest in China, which houses 38 families. The school received resoundingly positive feedback about last year’s trip form both staff and students.
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Guizhou: Community service Guizhiou province is situated in south Western China and is one the countries least explored provinces. It is a mountainous province that is home to some of China’s most dramatic landscape – and the world’s highest railway bridge. The main focus of this trip will be community service and helping local minority groups. Whilst on this trip students will have a unique opportunity to explore one this undiscovered gem. Activities on this trip may include cave village camping, hiking, climbing, visits to national parks.
Inner Mongolia: Cultural trip Inner Mongolia is one of the largest, yet mostly sparsely populated, of China’s provinces. It was once home to Genghis Khan and is now opening up to the rest of the world offering a rich cultural experience to visitors. The grasslands of Inner Mongolia will offer a broad and exciting range of activities to our students including, horse and camel riding, kite building, wrestling and archery, sand sliding and finally a chance to do some Geocaching. The accommodation offed on this trip will involve yurt camping – with a chance to sample some Mongolian BBQ – and a stay in a hotel.
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Twin Moon Bay: Turtle Conservation / Beach based holiday Twin Moon bay is one of insight Adventure’s newest trips and it looks like it will be the one that the all the teachers will be fighting over. Located to the south-east of Huizhou city, Twin Moon bay is a watersports resort situated on a beachfront location. Once the students arrive there will be little additional traveling as everything is situated close to the resort. Kayaking, surfing and other beach activities will form the bulk of this trip. However, it won’t just be all fun as the students will be helping out at a local sea turtle sanctuary.
The British School of Guangzhou
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983-3 Tonghe Road, Nanhu, Guangzhou Guangdong Province, China 510515 Upper School Tel: (+8620) 8709 4788 www.bsg.org.cn