This year we have seen the return of our school trips with students embarking on journeys of discovery and adventure during May and June as part of our commitment to a holistic education programme for our students.
This programme of outdoor educational trips offers the students the opportunity to visit the highest quality destinations and facilities, and enjoy new, exciting experiences and activities under the guidance of professionally trained external providers, supported and encouraged by our equally talented BSB staff.
The aim of these trips is to provide our students with a safe new environment where they have the space to take measured risks, while encouraging their independence and holistic development. The trips put the students in situations where they can learn about and improve life skills through a range of justifiable activities and experiences.
A holistic approach to educational field trips
Each outdoor educational trip is designed to give students the opportunity to foster new and deeper relationships outside of the classroom and develop stronger bonds with each other and the staff who accompany them. Taking part in these adventures is an important part of the healthy, vibrant, and progressive culture we strive to create where children and adults can successfully learn together.
This year, our Secondary students have been on residential trips to Oetztal, Austrian alps, Les Orres in the Southern French Alps, and the Belgian Ardennes, among other exciting places. Along with their teachers, they have seen the highest waterfall in Tyrol, biked, hiked and zip-lined through stunning mountain scenery, learned about alpine flora and fauna and rafted rapids.
In early May, our Year 7 students travelled to the Netherlands for a four-day stay in the Amsterdam area. During their visit, they enjoyed team building exercises and sports activities on the fort island of Forteiland Ijmuiden, took part in dragon boat racing, played frisbee golf on the island’s private beach and refuelled at a fantastic BBQ at the Nova Zembla Pavilion.
Before returning to Belgium, students visited the Twiske Nature Reserve under beautiful blue skies, traversing the reserve’s tree top walk before descending by zipline to take part in mountain biking and orienteering activities.
Year 8 students travelled to the Austrian Tyrol for five days in early June, taking in Area 47 Europe’s largest outdoor park. Austria’s ultimate outdoor adventure park is known for its adrenaline-fuelled extreme sports, breath-taking gorges, deep caves, and wild white-water rapids. The students showed great courage and determination to tackle the park’s famous rafting experience and the thrills of wakeboarding on the lake, with everyone returning to dry land with huge, proud smiles and bursting with excitement to go again.
Outdoor learning in the heart of nature
More mountain adventures were enjoyed by our Year 9 group who ascended to an altitude of 1500 metres to stay at the resort of Les Orres in the Southern French Alps, also in the first half of June.
Nestled in the heart of a preserved forest, the resort provided our students with the best of both worlds: a Mediterranean climate and an amazing mountain experience with views of the Durance valley and the Serre-Ponçon lake, two exceptional sites for practicing water sports. It was at these sites that the group took part in a wide variety of aquatic activities on La Durance where they enjoyed rafting and sailing, before heading back up to the pastures and larch forests around the sports village of Les Orres to hit the trails for mountain biking and hiking.
Towards the end of June, our Year 10 group headed to the Belgian Ardennes for a staff-led, four-day excursion where the focus was on learning life skills as well as taking part in various outdoor exercises. The main party was made up of two groups: those following the Duke of Edinburgh Award programme and the Mixed Activities Group. Both groups enjoyed excursions to the surrounding areas, a navigation hike through the forests, a team clean-up challenge and social activities.
Additionally, the Duke of Edinburgh Award students took part in expedition training before undergoing a practice expedition. The Mixed Activities Group also went on an exploration trip as well as taking to the high ropes between the trees, and the hill paths on mountain bikes.
It has been wonderful to see all our students embracing the exciting opportunities and activities offered this year and to see how confident and courageous they can be when faced with these fun yet demanding activities.
For more information on the BSB outdoor educational trips programme, contact us
