As a Chinese saying goes, “It is better to travel 10 thousand miles than to read 10 thousand books.” Shenwai Longgang International School (SLIS) practiced this wisdom by organizing 4th graders a three-day trip to Conghua District of Guangzhou on March 20. During the trip students took part in various outdoor activities including kayaking, hiking and camping, through which they grew stronger physically and mentally and better understood the meaning of caring and sharing.

Outdoor trip experience is a compulsory course of the school’s Primary Years Program (PYP) and aims to implement SLIS’s philosophy of “Learning Without Walls” and the idea of the “invisible classroom.”

“Some activities are challenging for the students since the physical education classes in school don’t usually involve intense activities. The trip offers students a great chance to reconnect with the nature, which tempered their will and gave them courage to overcome difficulties,” PE teacher Gong said.

Head teachers Tamsen Chadwick and Guo see the benefits of the trip from another perspective. They believe the greatest thing the students could learn from the experience was team spirit. “Building tents, making bamboo rice, and kayaking all require teamwork. These special outdoor-living experiences helped the students to grow into people who know about caring and sharing, which they are also often taught at school,” they said.

The students were left with precious memories and reflections after the experience and they shared what they had learned with each other.

(Wheaty Cai, Qiu Jiaqi)