Colegio Gran Bretana: A Night Under the Stars

As a primary school teacher, it has been fascinating to see the parallels between the style of education Round Square champions and our approach in the primary years. Much of what we do focuses on experiential learning, but in applying this to each of the IDEALS, we recognised that the spirit of Adventure is one area that is more difficult for us to implement.

Our school is situated in Bogota, Colombia; an area that is considered one of the safer urban areas in Colombia but one that still experiences a high incidence of street crime and terrorist activity.  As a result, the embassy has imposed strict guidelines on student activity outside of school.

Author and position: Nicola Hayward, Year 6 teacher

Planning

As a gentle introduction to the spirit of adventure and ‘taking risks’, we organised a school camp out for students in years 3-6. As we were based in familiar territory (the school grounds) we thought it would be exciting for the students to give the event a creative purpose: something which would make the students (and parents!) excited about the camp out. I have a personal interest in Space, learning about the stars and the planets, and thought this would make a great hook for this age group. So, an overnight camp in school evolved into a night of stargazing.

Activity

The stargazing night began with a short visit to our local planetarium, where the students learned about the solar system, the constellations, and the history of space exploration from the Greeks right up to modern times.

They returned to the school for a series of team building activities, led by students in the senior school. These included ‘blind mines’: students were blindfolded and had to cross an area whilst avoiding the ‘mines’ (objects), guided by their partner. Then we came together to sing a song outside, and shared photos showing the different parts of the world the students originate from. Activities such as these varied the format of the evening and allowed them to expend just some of the energy that children of this age tend to have!

Before retiring for bed, students used an iPad app to identify some of the best-known constellations before coming together to watch an ‘event’ in the night sky above (a meteor shower /new moon).

Obviously, the evening needs to be co-ordinated to ensure an event of note is expected to happen!

Challenges

The key challenge we faced was from the outset – how to offer an adventure experience in a safe environment. By keeping the experience within school, we could ensure the security and safety of all involved. The downside of an evening and overnight experience is that it can be difficult to recruit staff, but we hope that varying the format of the camp will attract a broader group of teacher volunteers.

Impact

The camp has resulted in greater interest in Round Square as students move through the school. Having celebrated their adventurous spirit, they show an eagerness to explore other aspects of the IDEALS in their secondary school years, and this is shown by the increase in interest for attending Round Square conferences. Students also gain an appreciation for Round Square: they see how Round Square can apply to their own lives, and identify Round Square with unique experiences that are fun and take them out of traditional learning environments.

The camp also provides another opportunity to teach our students how to work together as a team. Their understanding of this enables them to participate more effectively in group activities back in the classroom.

The future

The camp has been so popular that we often have more interest than places (we cap the number of students to 40 to make the event manageable). The interest has led to us considering more frequent camps across a broader range of topics (such as a film night) and spirits (Environmentalism), and even extending the camps to younger children (we are considering a camp for Year 2).

Advice

• Don’t work alone – Don’t be the only person flying the Round Square flag in your school! Initiatives such as these allow staff to enter the world of Round Square and ignite an interest which may extend to other areas of school life.
• Get the word out – I am continually looking at ways to highlight our Round Square membership, whether it’s through a Round Square Day or through school ceremonies.