This week saw the return of the Year 12 students, back from their Leadership trip to Chiang Mai, northern Thailand.  It was an action packed 10 days, encompassing an introduction to Thai culture, Leadership training, zip wiring, rock climbing, kayaking, elephant washing and jungle cooking, to name but a few of the activities.  An overnight in a hill tribe village enabled the students to gain an insight into a traditional northern Thai way of life, including tasting the local food, experiencing local customs and being woken up very early in the morning by the cockerels!

We enjoyed the beautiful countryside on a 13 kilometre mountain bike ride in an area around a national park, greeting local villagers as we peddled past and stopping off to admire the outside of a Thai temple.   The Year 12’s showed great road safety and awareness and despite some members of the group only learning to ride a bike two days before, the cycle ride was accident free!

The students also completed one and a half days of community service, where they worked in a hill tribe school, building and finishing off a boundary wall to keep the young students safe.  Year 12 learnt how to mix cement, cut bricks to size and build a straight and sturdy wall, in addition to painting a mural for an already constructed wall.  They  threw themselves into the project, showing commitment in finishing both sets of work off to a very high standard indeed and the mural was pronounced ‘the best ever by a Visiting School’.

It was a pleasure to take such a group of talented and enthusiastic students away and to watch them really challenging themselves by participating in, and learning from, the new experiences they were presented with.   I hope the memories stay with them as they move through the rest of this year and they can look back at their trip with pride in their accomplishments.

Many thanks to all the staff who enabled this trip run so smoothly, including Sally Abdelmoniem , who worked tirelessly on the mountain of background paperwork needed, and accompanying trip staff Mrs. Sarah and Dr. Tom.

Ms Izzy
ODE Coordinator.