FEATURE: SCHOOL TRIPS
The importance of school trips in fostering an international outlook
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n our annual look at school trips and their importance to teachers and pupils alike, we’re delighted to speak to Johanna Sale, Vice Principal at Impington Village College in Cambridge, who explains how her school has used its school trips to help its students broaden their knowledge of new cultures and develop an open-minded attitude to the world around them.
The lasting impact of the pandemic means that it has never been more important to cultivate the knowledge, skills and values to live, and work, in an increasingly globalised world to prepare students for success beyond the classroom and their country borders.
Developing inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect underpins our entire curricula at the College. For over 30 years now, we have offered the International Baccalaureate (IB) and were one of the first state schools in the UK to do so; a testament to our belief in the power of the IB to help our students broaden their cultural horizons and develop attributes, such as tolerance, empathy and open-mindedness, that they need to become active members of the global community.
As an IB World School we aim to instil in our students a feeling of responsibility as citizens in the wider community, and international- mindedness sits at the heart of this. It is about so much more than the geographical location of where our students come from. Instead, it is about the global perspectives that are present throughout our curricula and daily College life, alongside our web of international connections and opportunities.
Our latest addition of the Middle Years Programme (MYP) means that we are the only state school in the UK to offer three IB programmes, including the Diploma Programme (DP) and the Career-related Programme (CP). Our college upholds the values of an IB education, ensuring that we promote inquiry and reflection, while encouraging our students to be open-minded in their learning. It also remains extremely important for us to foster a caring attitude amongst our cohort, which, in turn, supports the building of respectful relationships. Exposure to new cultures through international visits helps to develop these attributes amongst our students too. Learning about different cultures, and envisioning ourselves as part of a global community, is
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embedded in our daily learning, and, through our teaching of the IB programmes, we continue to build on our strengths of connectivity, inclusivity, and diversity; doing more to help our students nurture international mindsets and our plans for upcoming international travel will help to consolidate student learning and enable them to put their lessons into practice. We have previously been lucky enough to receive funding from the British Council’s Connecting Classrooms scheme which gave our students the opportunity to travel and connect with other schools across the world. In January 2020, a group of our students visited the Adea Model Secondary School in Bishoftu, Ethiopia, spending time in the classroom with staff and students. This trip provided our students with a physical, hands-on international trip, and helped to demonstrate an inclusive environment, which celebrated difference and diversity. Through our partner schools in France, Germany, Spain, Japan and Ethiopia, we have arranged exchange programmes and international conferences to expose our students to new cultures and classroom environments. Learning in a foreign country directly improves our students’ understanding of
January 2022
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