Many of our students will embark on exciting field trips in the coming weeks to various locations. And as much as they will be missed, these excursions are significantly beneficial to their social, emotional and intellectual development. Each travel agenda has been created to complement our students’ academic curricula, but, by thoughtful design, these extended, overnight trips also encourage students to leave the comfort of the classroom and campus to experience what books and computers do not convey. They learn by doing and experiencing real life amongst the camaraderie of their friends and faculty. Of course these trips are extremely structured and highly secured to ensure the optimum safety and supervision of each child, but it only takes a look at the “Favorite Memories” section of our yearbook to validate how fun and meaningful these trips are to our families.
Departing early Tuesday, our sixth grade students will travel up the coast of Florida for their four-day journey. They will spend their first night in St. Augustine and visit the Pioneer Settlement in Barberville, Castillo de San Marcos, enjoy a trolley tour of the town and visit the Pirate Museum. Over the next few days, they will visit Fort George Island, Kingsley Plantation and the Historical Museum in Fernandina Beach as well as spend the second night in St. Mary’s where they will then visit Cumberland Island, Georgia’s biggest barrier island and a National Sea Shore.
From Wednesday through Friday of this week, our fifth grade students will experience Sea Camp on Big Pine Key. This three-day exposure to the eco-systems of the Florida Keys will provide students with an experiential education as they learn about the mixed algal community, shark biology, the physical factors that affect shallow bodies of water, geology of sand substrates, biology and identification of algae, and mangroves.
In April, our Middle School students will enjoy their Washington, DC trip, and in an upcoming blog, I will share the details of the exciting trip!
A first for Cushman this year is our abroad trip to Europe. As part of our Global Studies initiative and our exchange program with schools across the world, some of our students will be traveling to Spain over Spring Break. This experience is unique since most exchanges of this nature are only available to high school aged students. But with increased necessity for students to acquire a global perspective, we wanted to make this kind of international experience available for our interested Elementary and Middle School students. For one week, they will attend Colegio Internacional Altair in Madrid to become fully emerged in the Spanish language and culture with students their same age. The group will then tour onto Toledo, Cordoba and Sevilla to gain a true sense of the history, architecture and culture of this impressive country.
The purpose of our field trips, exchange programs, and global initiatives is to ensure The Cushman School offers a vast educational journey to meet the needs of our diverse community of learners while preparing them for the dynamic multi-cultural marketplace they will soon enter.
All my best,
Arvi