School Group Travel
We do school group tours differently
We specialise in providing Australian Schools with educational travel experiences much more impactful than your average school group tours. We extend students’ learning far beyond their classroom walls. With hundreds of destinations (explore them here!), there are endless possibilities.
Here at Rustic Pathways, we know that student success depends on much more than fact recall and content knowledge. To that end, we design experiences that actively develop positive character traits. These include:
- Self-awareness
- Empathy
- Persistence
- The ability to communicate and collaborate with diverse groups
We believe that purposefully designed travel experiences develop students who better understand complex issues. These students are also better prepared to take on modern global challenges. We strive to provide immersive travel experiences that shape students’ perspective of the world and foster a sense of shared humanity. It’s important to us to ensure that students go into the world making globally minded decisions.
We believe that travel experiences have a profound impact on who students become and how they view the world. This belief sits at the core of our program design. Believing that travel provides a unique opportunity for student learning, we intentionally design our programs to promote student growth.
Learn more about our Mission, Vision and Values.
The experiences we create for school groups are designed to align with:
The Mission and Values of Your School:
We design innovative programs that help schools achieve their mission and live their values.
Your Vision and Purpose for Travelling with Students:
We admire the passion and vision of teachers. Allow us to partner with you and help create your legacy.
Your School’s Curriculum:
Our school group tours can integrate with your school curriculum and become part of the school culture. (See below for our links with the Aussie curriculum.)
Coursework or a Specific Content Area:
We help teachers to choose or design programs that meet their specific objectives. We also provide teachers with resources to help deepen their students’ engagement before, during, and after travel. We customise the activities and discussions and staff each program with the most capable Program Leaders to achieve teachers’ goals.
Projects and Essays:
There are numerous ways we can work with educators to link their program to in-class goals. For example, we can suggest projects that complement our program experiences. We can also work with educators to integrate an existing project into the program experience.
Themes or Methods of Inquiry:
Our staff are trained to facilitate thoughtful inquiry around the key questions and themes at the heart of our programs. By doing this work outside of students’ home cultures and communities, we have seen incredible learning outcomes. These include:
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- A greater personal ownership of their thinking
- A recognition of the factors that have combined to shape their experience
- A wider worldview, and an appreciation of the abundance of perspectives in our world
- Read more about these outcomes here
Your School’s Service Philosophy:
Our country teams work hand-in-hand with our partner communities to set up service projects. (Find out more about our community impact here.) These projects are based on a combination of community needs and students’ skill sets. We can connect your group to a program that best supports your school’s philosophy and goals. Many of our students obtain service hours through our programs. We will work with you to ensure any community service on our school group tours meets your school’s requirements. Community service often becomes a catalyst for students to reflect on larger issues. It is an opportunity to help them understand the responsibility they have as members of global and local communities.
Purposeful Alignment with International Baccalaureate (IB) Curriculum
With a shared vision for developing enthusiastic, compassionate, and empowered lifelong learners, Rustic Pathways experiences are fundamentally aligned to IB education. We believe deeply in IB’s framework of learning that encourages students to become creative, critical, and reactive thinkers.
We also believe in the power of students making connections between their classroom experiences and the global community. Rustic Pathways experiences extend students’ learning far beyond the context of their own school, community, or country.
Australian Curriculum Links
Global education is central to what it means to be an educated person in the 21st century. The Australian Curriculum recognises the importance of developing Australians into active and informed citizens. This involves being able to relate to and communicate across cultures, especially the cultures and countries of Asia. Many schools have discovered one of the most powerful catalysts for effective international education is learning while living in another country.
Rustic Pathways works with educators and supports schools by providing creative solutions to reach enduring understandings. Our school group tours support students to develop in ways vital for living and working successfully in the twenty-first century. These general competencies are recognised by the Australian Curriculum as being essential for young Australians:
- Intercultural Understanding
- Ethical Understanding
- Personal and Social Capability
- Critical and Creative Thinking
Within the Australian Curriculum, Humanities and Social Sciences focuses on Civics & Citizenship. Students from Years 7-10 explore citizenship, diversity and identity. Travel helps students understand how ideas of Australian identity are influenced by global connectedness. Rustic Pathways programs create greater awareness of political, legal, national and international issues. They also allow students to consider their roles and responsibilities as global citizens.
Interested? Check out our “How It Works” page for next steps.
Wondering why you should travel with your class? Find out here!
Explore our custom programs types here!
