It is often said that your school days are some of the best of your life, and thinking back, what sticks out for you? There is probably at least one memory of a school trip. A school trip is a unique educational experience; it gets the kids out of their traditional learning environment and provides them with a more engaging approach to learning. Regardless of where you are going or what you are doing, school trips are incredibly beneficial. Let’s get into it.
Photo by Tanya Gorelova: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-boy-looking-at-the-lighthouse-3934194/
Enhances the Learning Experience
There are several approaches to learning, and a traditional school setting tends to lean more heavily into some than others. Whereas a school trip is much more engaging because it is a lot more immersive than school learning, which really helps to enhance the overall learning experience. The students can gain a new perspective, and sometimes, physically being there and seeing these things firsthand makes it much easy to process and retain. For example, NST can help you to arrange trips for a number of subjects, like a geography school trip where the students can see firsthand the things they are learning about. They can then develop a new appreciation which they can bring back to the classroom with them.
Confidence & Motivation
Learning in a classroom can be daunting for students that have anxiety or may simply be a little more shy because it does tend to feel more formal, and it can put more pressure on the students – this is not a reflection on the teachers either. By taking a school trip and getting them out of the classroom, the learning environment feels more informal, and they can interact more with their peers and develop some more confidence and work on their interpersonal skills.
The same can be said for their motivation to learn. By seeing these things up close and personal and getting their hands dirty, it can revitalise their desire to learn. This can translate into an increased motivation to learn and excel. They are amazing re-engagement tools that can bring back those students that maybe have lost some interest in the subject.
Encouraging Correct Behaviour
As every teacher knows, there are always those students that are just a little tricky. They act up and act out for whatever reason in a classroom setting. Maybe it is because their learning style isn’t being spoken to, maybe they aren’t engaged, or maybe it’s the proximity to their peers. Regardless, when they leave that classroom setting and go out on a school trip, their behaviour often does improve. However, these behavioural changes are not always sustainable, sometimes they can come back into the classroom, and sometimes they don’t.
In Conclusion
School trips provide students with unique experiences and access to things that they wouldn’t otherwise have. They can help the kids to develop interests and discover passions that they didn’t even know that they had. It can shape their lives. Ensuring that kids have access to these experiences is key. They really can be transformative for them.
