Nothing could be further from the truth.
What school ski trips offer students is the opportunity to develop some key life skills in a fully-supported environment, while having fun at the same time.
Let’s take a closer look at the impact that school ski trips can have on young people.
Resilience
Resilience is the reservoir of strength that we’re able to call on at times of great stress that helps us to carry on without completely falling apart.
And the school ski trip is a perfect setting for working on students’ resilience.
When learning to ski, it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll fall and have to pick yourself up more than once. But students ski with peers of the same level, under the instruction of experts, so they are in a safe and supportive environment where, hopefully, they’re also having lots of fun.
During the course of their school ski trip, students learn that it’s OK to stumble – in fact, it’s expected. They also learn that getting back up and carrying on is the only way to get better.
Unfortunately, we can’t protect students from stressful experiences, but we can help to ensure that they develop the life skills required to cope and to bounce back. Allowing them to learn how to deal with setbacks in a supported, fun environment will help them to become resilient enough to cope with whatever life throws at them.
Growth mindset
An important part of teaching is inspiring our young people to believe that anything is possible if you put enough time, effort and persistence into it. And that is the essence of a growth mindset.
This is the opposite of a fixed mindset, which is when you believe that ability is innate and if you fail at something once, it means you don’t have the ability to succeed, so you may as well just give up.
Of course, it’s really important then that students develop a growth mindset, because it’s that that will open the door to so many possibilities for them.
And again, the school ski trip offers a fantastic opportunity to help students develop a growth mindset.
No-one has ever strapped on a pair of skis and instantly been a superstar skier – we all know it requires time, effort and persistence. But the payoff, as we all know, is incredible.
Even if your skiers are complete beginners, through the expert guidance of their ski instructors, they’ll surprise themselves with how much progress they make during the week. And they’ll return home with a better understanding of how a little time, effort and persistence can help them to achieve anything they set their minds to.
Independence
Helping to develop students’ independence can be a tough ask on top of everything else teachers are required to do. But, once again, a school ski trip offers the perfect opportunity for this.
Students may be away from home without their parents or guardians for the first time, or they may be more seasoned travellers. But on a school ski trip they will need to take responsibility for themselves, their belongings, their behaviour and their equipment.
They will need to ensure they get themselves up and ready in time to get a good breakfast and meet their instructors in time for their lessons.
They'll need to behave responsibly on the slopes, to avoid causing any injuries to themselves and others. And they'll have to make sure they look after their own belongings and any hire equipment that they’re using. But they’ll be doing all this with the support of their peers, their teachers, their ski instructors and their Halsbury Ski reps.
All this makes it a much less daunting prospect for them, while still providing them with the opportunity to develop a really important life skill.
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Find out more about the benefits of skiing here.