2019 Outdoor Education Week

Internationalism, Democracy, Environment, Adventure, Leaderships and Service - these Round Square IDEALS permeate throughout everything we do at Regents and underpin why we do what we do. Regents is a proud member of Round Square, a worldwide association of over 100 leading schools that share a commitment to an education that goes beyond the classroom, to personal development and responsibility through its six ‘IDEALS’. 
Our involvement in Round Square extends into leadership: both our Principal and Assistant Principal are members of the Round Square Board of Directors. www.roundsquare.org

Learning through experience is an integral part of our educational philosophy here at Regents. It empowers our students in a way that guided, dependent work in the class room does not. Children are able to pursue their own specific areas of interest and problem solve as required, in the moment. Their learning becomes relative to their own interests and as such, this can produce higher levels of focus and concentration.

Key Stage 4 & 5 students spent one week off campus on a residential trip in Thailand during September. On the surface, these residential trips may just seem like fun excursions, but what many people don’t realise is that great consideration has gone into planning these experiences to best suit the personal and emotional development of students and at the same time putting their lives into context.

As part of Nord Anglia Education and through our membership with Round Square, Regents has developed a residential programme that values experiential learning as part of a well-rounded curriculum which educates the whole child.

In September all Key Stage 4 & 5 students left school for the week to take part in Outdoor Education Week. Here is a recap from each of the Year groups on what they got up to during the week.

Big Outdoors, Chonburi

Year 10 was led by Ms Hannah Crawley, students spent their Outdoor Education week in the beautiful surroundings of Khao Yai National Park.

"The trip provided a fantastic opportunity for the students to develop their team work and communication skills, show resilience in the face of some challenging activities as well as courage, for many, to face fears and push themselves out of their comfort zones.  Year 10 were absolutely fantastic, representing Regents with positive attitudes and smiles on their faces. All the students and staff returned exilerated and exhausted from a busy but very rewarding week!  We are looking forward to the next adventure!"

Day 1

"Despite heavy rainfall on the first day, students persevered through a very muddy and slippery hike in the park, followed by a night safari where they were greeted by wild elephants!" That night students camped at the Lam Takhong campsite. "What a phenomenal start to the trip!"

Day 2

"The weather improved significantly on Day 2 and throughout the remainder of the week. Students travelled to Petcharat via Wat Simala Songtham on Day 2 and were treated to an array of outdoor and adventurous activities rotated over the following 3 days, including rock climbing and kayaking and a night hike...talk about Outdoor Education!"

Day 3

Day 3 was spent with more amazing outdoor activities including; mountain biking and caving during the day. In the evening students had time for reflection: "a fantastic day, look how far we have come and how we can build on this experience."  Student also took part in a quiz after dinner.

Day 4

"Day 4 was spent hiking to a waterfall where students were able to enjoy a refreshing swim in the rock pools afterwards.  The evening was spent with a barbeque cooking activity for dinner followed by a talent show where everyone stepped out of their comfort zones and joined in!"

Day 5 

On day 5 students were feeling "tired and fullfilled", they started the day with Team games on site and took some time to reflect on the week.  One Year 10 student sums up their experience "It's always good to have with friends with you because they can help you out. Encouragement does go a long way when you're in a challenging activity..."

Pine Resort

Year 11 were led by Mr Anthony Johnstone and students spent the week at Pine Resort, located in Pathum Thani, to the north of Bangkok. Mr. Johnstone was "extremely proud of the whole group after seeing their courage, tenacity and teamwork to get involved in every single activity with such enthusiasm".  

Day 1

"We started off on our journey to Pines Resort and once we found our rooms we quickly got into the swing of things by getting stuck into team games and problem solving projects. We all had fun working with different people and developing our communication skills.”

One of the main objectives of this trip was to take students out of their comfort zone to speak to other classmates they may have never spoken to before and challenge themselves to face their fears and take on different activities.

Day 2

"What a crazy action-packed day, which ended with a campfire & marshmallows". The Year 11 students have been so couragous trying a range of activities and discovering the true meaning of 'there's no such thing as can't, only I can't yet!"

There were some incredible stories from Day 2 of the trip where students demonstrated their bravery to face the unknown. "There were a lot of nervous faces as there were students who were not confident cycling and others that were scared to go into the lake after raft building. Those fears were nowhere to be seen as soon as the students reached the lake and by the end of the day when they had to return to the resort, both the event staff and the Regents’ teachers struggled to get the students out of the lake!"

Day 3

Another day and another host of activities designed to encourage students to go outside of their comfort zone. "We ran across water, climbed a 50ft wall and took part in more team building games, what a day!".

Day 4

"Day 4 saw more problem solving and inquisitiveness as the group work continued for team catapult building. Year 11 had great fun being inventive and thiking outside of the box for this one!"

Photo credit to Year 11 student, Ing.

Kanchanaburi, Saiyok and Hellfire Pass

Year 12 was led by Ms Sara Morrow and students visited the province of Kanchanaburi and surrounding areas.

Day 1

"Day 1 was the journey to Kanchanaburi with a stop off at the beautiful Saiyok Noi waterfall and straight into trecking down to Hellfire pass. We visited the Hellfire pass museum which was really interesting. After that we arrived at our accommodation and after being assigned our rooms we were back out for our floating trip down the River Kwai".

Day 2

"Day 2 was spent fully emersed in the amazing range of activities planned for us from moutain biking and kayaking to cooking courses and knot skills! A brilliant day" 

Day 3

On the 3rd day we did another hike, continued with raft building where out knot skills came in very useful. We all had a turn at moutain biking and kayaking. We ended the day with an overnight on raft at River Kwai, great fun!"

Day 4

"Day 4 was spent with more rotation of activites so that everyone got a chance to try out everything - even if it was something they had never tried before and it pushed us out of our comfort zones - the highlight was a swim in hot spring pool after a busy day of raft building!"

Since returning to back to school Tischa in Year 12 was nominated for Pillar Award! The award went to Tischa for "showing amazing commitment to Adventure in Outdoor Education week. She battled through a lot of fear and completed every activity really well and was described by her nominator as quietly inspiring!”

Moment Resort, Rayong

Year 13 was led by Mr Jonathon Morris and the students spent their time in Rayong.

"Day 1 was spent traveling to Rayong which didn't take too long.  When we arrived at the Moment Resort we had lunch and spent the afternoon taking part in teambuilding games and an IA workshop, after dinner we had an extended essay workshop"

Day 2

"The next day we spent the morning taking part in service activities at Plong Sawai school and after lunch we got stuck in to creative arts, painting & scrap booking with Ms Spear and then we had a Thai culture class - which was cooking traditional Thai dishes like Pad Thai and making traditional ice cream, which was unbelievably delicious.  In the evening we we attended IA workshops and had a CAS guidance session with Mr Morris".

Day 3

"Day 3 was dedicated to project work in our team groups with help from the science department." The Group 4 project work is an essential part of the IB course for our Year 13 students.

Day 4

"Day 4 was spent on our final Group 4 project, followed by paddle boarding which was amazing fun and then shelter building. After a well earned dinner we presented our Group 4 projects to all of the staff members the group and had time to reflect on our time away".

Day 5

"Our final day was still high energy and although we were feeling tired we spent our last hours making the most of archery, more swimming and team building games. Then travelled back home."

Student quote "I got to collaborate with people who I have never worked with and develop bonds with my classmates"