Year 12 and 13 pupils go on 'World Challenge' trip to Costa Rica

This week, some of our lucky year 12 and year 13 pupils are on a 'World Challenge' trip to Costa Rica. The aim of the 'World Challenge' trip is to inspire leadership through student-led expeditions.

On arrival, the students wasted no time getting prepared for their trip: holding team meetings, leading the team for the day and organising the accomodation, budget and food.

The key highlight of the trip was the turtle conservation activity with 'Turtle Love. Turtle Love is a community based conservation project whose mission it is to protect sea turtles nestling on Playa Tres, the 5-km stretch of beach immediately to the south of Tortuguero National Park on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. We were very proud of the resilience and determination of our students who braved the heat and humidity during the long walks and night patrols. Furthermore, the pupils assisted with tagging and measuring turtles for research and relocating their eggs to prevent poaching. The students enthusiastically commented that it was like "being in a David Attenborough documentary."

During their stay with Turtle Love, the World Challenge team also went on a wildlife-packed boat trip (spotting iguanas, spider monkeys and a huge variety of birds!), made empanadas, painted jicaro seed cases, and watched a turtle hatchling being released into the sea! On the final day with Turtle Love the students took part in a beach cleaning activity with the locals, removing bags and bags of bottles, plastics, polystyrene, shoes and 200 lighters. It really made the students think of their plastic use in the UK.

Following this, the World Challenge team had a well earned break in Puerto Viejo on the south Carribean coast, spotting sloths and snorkeling with beautiful coral, fish, rays and sharks! With the downtime came more decision making: we were proud to see the leaders becoming proficient at managing the budget (even making savings!), organising team briefings and delegating tasks to other team members. Finally, the students were gifted with a sunset for practicing their great leadership skills over the week. We hope our students will remember this trip fondly for many years, and remember the many skills they learned on this trip.