This article features a Singapore-based international school’s hiking expedition with Beyond Expeditions during the school’s Outdoor Education week.

Our instructors hosted 150 Year 9 students over four days (6th - 9th February 2023).

Through this article, get a glimpse of how international students hone their survival and leadership skills while experiencing the outdoors in Singapore!

The school had planned a week full of outdoor expeditions for their Year 9 students. Students from their four school Houses took on these 4 expeditions: stand-up paddling, cycling, kayaking and lastly, hiking with our instructors at Beyond Expeditions.

Read on to see how our student participants conquer a 17km hiking expedition, learnt to chop wood, and savour a taste of outdoor cooking. These three essential survival skills can nurture these students towards thriving in the wild, because regardless of the environment, their ability to survive and thrive would remain relatively the same if equipped with the right skills. Throughout their day with us, the students would also get to sharpen their leadership skills, activate their sense of curiosity and tap into perseverance and collaboration.

Amidst these various segments, the key message we aimed to drive home for these students is this;

“Once you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything."

A belief we find valuable for students to have in themselves, whether in the context of school or any other part of their life.

If you’re a teacher from an International School in Singapore or a parent with a wild heart, and you find yourself inspired to want a similar experience for your young ones after reading this article, reach out to us by simply sending us an inquiry email here. We would love to share more and explore how we can work together to bring you and your students meaningful experiences with the outdoors. We can also curate our program in a way that allows us to bring the outdoors to your students within the school compound, if that’s what you prefer!

If not, let’s keep reading about how a day with us went for our students!

***Please note that in some photos, the students' faces have been cropped out to protect their privacy.

17km is not THAT impossible, after all!

Navigation is the process of finding your way from one place to another. It involves using tools and techniques to determine your location and the direction you need to go to reach your destination. This skill can mean the difference between a successful and safe adventure, and a dangerous and potentially life-threatening experience, especially when international school students head for outbound camps in countries like New Zealand or Cambodia, or post-graduation life in universities far from Singapore. When you're in the wilderness, you're in an unfamiliar and often hostile environment. You may not have access to landmarks or reliable maps, and you may encounter obstacles like steep terrain, dense forests, and water bodies. Navigation skills help you overcome these challenges and reach your destination safely and effectively.

We gave maps and compasses to the four Houses we met across these four days, before equipping them with the necessary knowledge and skills to navigate most effectively. The students then received their first task of the day; lead your group from Dairy Farm to the endpoint on the map (our yurt base camp) within 5 hours, across an estimated distance of 17 kilometers. Teamwork and effective application of navigation skills and knowledge were emphasised for the groups to focus on; we wanted them to embody one of the school’s principles of being “a school of many nations but a family of one”.

Clustering around the maps, voices rose in volume as some students fumbled with their compasses, while some had fingers tracing routes across their maps. Everyone was constantly discussing which is the ‘best’ route; there were different paths they could choose to take at different points throughout the entire journey, including dirt paths, nature trails, treetop walks, and reservoirs.

If you’d like a visual glimpse of the hiking expedition, check out our Instagram Highlights for each of the four days the school was with us!

If not, keep reading for more of what your international students or children could experience with us.

Each group began their trail adventure, one of our instructors tagging along to every group. Our instructors ensured safety, enhanced our students’ understanding of the principle of ‘living worldwise’, and introduced facts about different flora and fauna to our Year 9 students as we encountered different sights and sounds. Here is a non-exhaustive list of the various things our instructors covered during these 5 hours with them.

Being a responsible hiker:

Watch out for signboards and keep to the right path (cyclist path vs. hiking path)

Adhering to The 7 Principles - Leave No Trace , which encourages students to leave minimum impact wherever they go when visiting the outdoors.

Map guidance 101:

When looking at the map, ensure you look at the right legend! Our instructors also taught the students how to use the scale on the map and the ruler on the compass to measure how far they were from a point.

5 'D's of Navigation:

Students learnt how to apply each of these ‘D’s when navigating from one place to another; Destination, Direction, Distance, Duration, and Description.

And read on to see what else our trainers covered with the students!

Only one chop away from survival success!

Woodchopping is a practical skill that can be useful in various situations, such as building fires for warmth or cooking. International students in Singapore may not have had the opportunity to learn this skill, given the lack of accessibility to wilderness survival learning here. To chop wood most effectively, you’ll need coordination and perseverance; integrating the right posture and technique from when first holding the axe till axe meets wood, and being willing to continuously adapt and learn from mistakes till you successfully split wood. You and your students/ children can learn more about woodchopping, alongside several other essential survival skills, at our Level One workshop too.

A student excitedly approached us right before we began this segment, asking if we would be using the axe today. Good news for him, because the answer is a big “YES!” Our instructors first led the students through a safety briefing, followed by a demonstration of the exact posture and technique to help them split wood most effectively.

"Put the axe up, slide your hands down, lift the axe higher... bum off heels, eyes locked on the target… Swing down."

Each student was then given a chance to try it out; everyone was assigned their own spot, where they got access to an axe and wood. Our instructors would be paying close attention to each student during their attempt so that they could give personalised guidance regarding their posture and technique.

Throughout the 4 Houses of the school’s Year 9 students, an impressive handful managed to split wood in just one attempt!

Survival Chef Season 1

In a survival situation, access to food can be scarce, and knowing how to prepare and cook what you can find can be critical to your survival. Outdoor cooking allows you to prepare and cook food found in the wilderness, such as fish, game, and wild plants. Cooking also allows you to purify water, making it safe for drinking. Water sources may be contaminated in the wilderness, and drinking contaminated water can lead to illness or even death. Knowing how to filter and boil water can help ensure you have a safe source of hydration. Overall, learning outdoor cooking can help you become more self-sufficient. In a survival situation, you may not have access to modern cooking equipment or technology. Knowing how to cook over an open fire or using improvised tools can be essential.

It’s time for most teenagers’ favourite part of the day; lunch!

After an arduous 17 kilometre trek, we wanted to simulate the process of preparing food outdoors. A meal helps us refuel our energy to get back on our feet as soon as possible! So instead of ordering lunch, they would be their own chefs for the day! Even more exciting for the students was the premium outdoor cooking set our instructors had prepared for them to use in their cooking endeavors; the Trangia set. Every three students had access to one Trangia set.This outdoor cooking set earned such high praise from our students, so let us also show you what’s outstanding about the Trangia!

While dismantling the Trangia, the first part serves as a frying pan. You’ll then see a kettle sitting snugly in the middle, with a couple of pots layered into each other. Lastly, you’ll also have a windshield and stand. These are easy to attach; just place them together, interlock, and twist.

To access the ingredients we prepared, students had to come up to the table to retrieve only the amount of food they were confident they could finish; the concept of food wastage is important in their development towards being responsible global citizens. Our instructors would then pour fuel into the Trangia set for each group, before using only a ferrocerium rod, a bushcraft knife, and an effective strike to ignite a flame! Since lighters and matches are hard to find in the wild, we wanted to parallel the cooking experience they may face during survival.

At the end of each day, the students expressed how they loved the activities today. They’d not only sharpened three practical skills they can carry with them forth into the wild, but they’d also experienced themselves honing different leadership muscles, being in a peaked state of curiosity, and tapping into perseverance and collaboration. We reminded them that regardless of the environment and situation, their ability to survive and thrive would remain relatively the same if equipped with the right skills, knowledge, and leadership. Through these three segments, the key message we aimed to drive home for them is this;

“Once you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything."

And we hope they leave this experience remembering what they’ve accomplished, because they had chosen to put their mind to it.

As for you! If you’re a teacher from an International School in Singapore or a parent with a wild heart, and you find yourself reading something in this article that inspires you to want a similar experience for your young ones too, reach out to us by simply sending us an inquiry email. We would love to share more and explore how we can work together to bring you and your students meaningful experiences with the outdoors. We can also curate our program in a way that allows us to bring the outdoors to your students within the school compound, if that’s what you prefer!

Here are some programmes we have conducted for children and young adults, to help you see if what we offer would meet your needs and requirements when it comes to planning outdoor education experiences for your students and children!

What’s stronger than Love? An Unbreakable Bond! BE x Victoria School 2022!

BE x United World College (UWC) East Campus Project Week 2022

Who Run The World? BE x Brownies 2022!

BE x Singapore American School (SAS) Outdoor Education Week 2022