Last year in November we took our Class 10 over to the Island State of Vanuatu. Our sixteen students got involved in two community service projects, one on the small island of Pele where we helped to put a roof onto their community hall/cyclone evacuation centre, and the second project in Vila where the students built two 3500 litre water storage tanks from woven plastic tubing material.
In June this year another Class 10 travelled to those same two communities in Vanuatu and offered their services. We had 21 students accompanied by six adults: three teachers and three professional past-student volunteers (two who were carpenters, and a tree lopper).
These trips happen in school term time and are scheduled activities where the students make deep connections with the local people and their culture. They contribute to overcome infrastructure issues of a developing country like Vanuatu, and students also have a hands-on climate change experience by being involved in coral reef rehabilitation and the planting of coral branches in shallow waters. In this way, the world becomes their classroom.
