Running a curriculum in a school, or on a smaller scale – within a department, requires diligence, creativity and organisation. This week Gill, our School Partnership Co-ordinator and an ex-Head of Department, has taken over our blog to share with you how booking a trip with Africa Adventures can help to enhance and develop your curriculum offer.
1. Curriculum maps can be developed
In subjects, such as geography, history, citizenship, music, languages, sport, design and technology, amongst other areas of the curriculum, our upcoming lesson resources and trip experience can be built directly into the curriculum maps to help teach all students at your school about your upcoming trip, not just the ones who are travelling. In turn, it also develops their holistic learning and creates significant links between subjects and the topic being taught.
2. Global citizenship
This means that students who are travelling on one of our trips benefit directly from the experiences they will encounter; however, all the students at your school can learn more about Africa, the visited country and volunteering as a concept in general. Creating a more ‘Global Britain’ is a national expectation for all schools; therefore booking a trip with us can assist you to fulfil this requirement.
3. Soft skill development
As teaching and learning have certain expectations and, in essence, restrictions, sometimes the ‘soft skills’ of everyday life can be difficult to incorporate into the school timetable. Booking a trip with us helps in many ways including:
- Forward planning – students can plan ahead about fundraising events and learn how best to manage their time
- Organisation – students will need to hone and develop their organisational skills from preparing to fundraise to planning their packing lists – a lifelong lesson for anyone
- Inter-personal skills – taking part in the fundraising, and ultimate volunteering trip will require your students to converse with many different people. This is an essential life skill that can be difficult to develop within curriculum time.
4. Behaviour management
Young people often require guidance and checks along the way around their decision-making and how they behave in different circumstances. Booking a trip with us can be used as an incentive for those wishing to attend, allowing only students who meet certain expectations to book onto and ultimately attend the trip. It also exposes them to various scenarios that they wouldn’t usually participate in or engage with, allowing them to develop their holistic view of the world and understand how to behave in different circumstances.
5. Behaviour rewards
Quite often, from my teaching experience, whole school incentives and rewards can be difficult to cater for. By booking a trip with African Adventures, and selecting the group of students attending, you are adding to your whole school’s positive behaviour provision and encouraging positive and constructive young people within your school.
6. Enterprise skills
Through the fundraising process, your students will be asked to think outside the box to contribute to the fees for the trip they wish to go on. This is a great way of developing their entrepreneurial skills and preparing them for future events that these skills are essential for.
7. Worldly wise young people
Participating in one of our trips will introduce your students to a range of people they are likely not going to encounter otherwise. From experiencing various ways to talk to young people compared to adults, one gender to another, one culture to what they are used to, their communication skills will be developed by being exposed to these situations and different people.
8. Humanitarian aid legacy
By participating in the trips we provide, your students will be contributing to the humanitarian effort of African Adventures to improve young people’s lives across the world. We work with 25 schools where we help to provide safe, hygienic and long-term environments, as well as assist with a high-quality education for all the young people within the schools. By doing this we are helping them to expand their horizons and giving them opportunities that they may not have had without our assistance.
9. Student leadership
Young leaders are often the most inventive, creative and passionate, allowing doors to be opened and progress to happen. The young people who travel with us develop their ability to lead in various capacities. Some young people are able to stand up in front of others and direct teaching activities or sports; whilst for others, this is a difficult thing to do. Regardless of the young people’s nature, we enable all students to push their boundaries and develop their leadership skills – allowing them to use these skills at a later date in their lives.
10. Broadening horizons
Finally, when booking a trip with African Adventures, the horizons of your staff, visiting students and your whole school becomes broader. Having connections to different cultures, education systems, ethnicities, and outlooks on life, help everyone to be more of a global citizen and contribute to society more positively.
To support you with your department’s curriculum planning, I have put together a Department Improvement Plan to help you identify key areas of improvement for your department and how the African Adventures programme can help to target those required actions.
Download your copy here, or feel free to get in touch with any questions!
