The recent camping experience for Year 6 students from YCIS Shanghai Gubei Campus was no ordinary excursion; this trip featured a plethora of activities that pushed students’ perceptions of human capabilities and their limits.

Throughout the three-day camping, students participated in a number of challenging activities that put the body to the test, including the “assault course”, which featured a demanding rope climbing course; a human maze, in which students endeavoured to locate tennis balls placed throughout a difficult maze; a “spotlight activity”, where groups had to work together to find others, guided by flashlights, in the pitch black night; and an “orienteering challenge”, for students to race to various checkpoints using a map and a compass, drawing upon skills they had been learning in class leading up to the camping.

By participating in these taxing exercises, students developed in very tangible ways, including physical co-ordination and a heightened sense of the feeling of achievement. Some additional, intangible benefits that began to mature were the ways in which students grew in terms of leadership, decision-making, teamwork, creative self-expression, competence, and social interaction

Mr Stephen Bolton, a Year 6 Teacher, explains that, "the Year 6 camp helped students develop independence and trust in their own abilities because of the vast array of activities that honed in on skill development and promoted risk taking in a safe environment. Furthermore, a sense of positive achievement was imbued in the students, particularly during the kite-making task when the students were asked to independently assemble a kite and test its flying ability. This activity proved very popular among the students.”

During the camping, other fun and engaging activities included a visit to an aircraft carrier, Frisbee golf games, and a barbecue cooked by teachers and parents, capped off in the true tradition of camping: with toasted marshmallows.

Experiences, like the Year 6 Camp, that apply the YCIS educational philosophy outside of the classroom, are an important part of a curriculum that continues to benefit students’ skills and personal development long after the event has concluded, and well into their future.