At Bali Island School we are firm believers in the fact that learning does not only occur in the classroom but also in our playgrounds, in our school garden and farm and right across the island of Bali. Education Outside the Classroom includes any curriculum based activity that takes place outside of the school including excursions, community service, sports trips or overnight camps. These activities allow us to build on and support the the learning in the classroom and allows students to transfer their knowledge, skills and understandings to real world settings.
Earlier this year, ou
r Grade 2 students were studying a Primary Years Programme (PYP) Unit of Inquiry with the Central idea, ‘People can make choices in order to sustain the Earth’s resources’. Throughout the unit, the students investigated personal choices that can help sustain the environment, reusing and recycling different materials and reducing waste. Their classroom learning led to them deciding that they could work with the Trash Hero organisation in Sanur to help clean up the beach. This meaningful action undertaken by our students allowed them to take real ownership of their learning while contributing to the local community and environment.
Our Grade 5 students participated in the overnight camp as part of our school’s Camping Programme that continues right through the secondary school until Grade 11. Our intrepid students travelled to Sila’s Agrotourism, Bedugul where they participated in numerous team building activities, some great forest hikes, some challenging cycling, a botanical journey and other fun things including building and lighting camp fires. Students who participate in overnight camps such as these early in the school year, benefit greatly as a class group or community with strong relationships between them being built or further developed.
Another major Education Outside the Classroom activity that is currently taking place involves our Grade 4 students who have been working with the students from the Kupu Kupu Foundation in Ubud. The Kupu-Kupu Foundation’s aim is to improve the lives of people with disabilities in Bali. Our Grade 4 students visited the students at Kupu Kupu to meet them and to lead them in a range of art, music, reading and sport activities. Kupu Kupu also asked for our support in setting up a recycling programme at their centre, so our Grade 4 students have decided to use some of the profits from their upcoming Market Day to purchase recycling bins. When the Kupu Kupu students visit us at Bali Island School in the next few weeks, our Grade 4 students will help teach them about recycling through a range of activities so that the Kupu Kupu students can implement their own recycling programme. This is a great example of a sustainable action undertaken by our Grade 4 students that will again benefit the local community and environment.
Other examples of great quality learning happening outside of the classroom include a number of our non Indonesian students traveling to a local market to practice their Bahasa Indonesian when shopping for fresh fruit. Our 3 and 4 year old students were inquiring into how plants play an important role in keeping us alive. They were quite interested in plants that grow and live in water as opposed to soil so designed a pond which they helped to build with support from our maintenance team. We repurposed an old bathtub and set up the pond in our school farm which is now home to numerous healthy plants and a few small turtles.
These are just a few of the great Education Outside the Classroom activities that take place in the Primary at Bali Island School throughout the year and our students, local community and environment are definitely much better off as a result of the programme.
BIS Primary Open Day on 9th May 2019 from 10 a.m to 12 p.m. Come and learn about our Primary programme at Bali Island School and see our fantastic facilities
Craig Eldred
Primary Principal
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