As part of our ‘activities week’ nineteen children, from Mr. Kirkham’s class and Mr. Johnson’s class left the school for a residential trip in Borneo. This was the first of the residential trips that are planned each year by the British School here in Kuala Lumpur. The trip was organised with the help of Camps International who provided us with exceptional support before, throughout and after the trip and a fabulous camp in which to stay.

Early Monday morning the children and parents gathered on the basketball court prior to leaving to catch the school buses to the airport. There were lots of tears and quite a few nerves but that’s only to be expected from the parents! The children said their goodbyes as we set of to the airport. We arrived in good time and checked in smoothly. 

After disembarking in KK we were met by the Camps International representatives and we boarded the coach for the long journey up to camp just south of Kudat in the north of Borneo. The journey was to last nearly three hours but thankfully most of the children fell asleep for the majority of the journey there. We arrived safely, passing through some very picturesque countryside and were welcomed by Zul, the camp manager and the rest of the team who were going to be looking after us during our week long stay there.

The rest of the week consisted of many different activities, from fishing (Serena , Year 5, catching the first fish) and jungle trekking (Nicholas Chang, Year 4, officially now known as ‘The Wild Man of Borneo’ for his jungle skills) to painting traditional Murut artefacts on the walls of the village hall (Shu Cheng and Henry, Year 4, showed some excellent painting skills), visiting the gong (Elwen ,Year 4, looking for the largest gong in Asia then realising he was standing in front of it!) and bead making factories and a day on the beach (Ziad, Year 4, losing his glasses in the sea and Mao, Nairne and Mei Jun for trying to bury Mr Johnson in the sand) and a barbeque.

Also a big thank you also to Jordan (Year3), Nairne and Aruna (Year 5) for performing in front of the Village Chief and local school children at our leaving party with some fantastic singing. 

Even a two hour traffic jam outside the school on our return could not dampen the children’s enthusiasm as we abandoned the coach and marched into the school singing the school song. Again there were lots of tears and huge sighs of relief as we arrived - but the parents are okay now!

I’ve spoken to all of the children and they each have different favourite activities that they took part in, so it is difficult to pick out any one highlight of the trip. There were so many to choose from. I think one of the best things as a teacher to witness was how supportive the children were with each other. There was never a cross word between them and they have become a much closer group of friends because of the experience. The children, at all times, behaved impeccably and were excellent ambassadors for the school.

It was a pleasure to spend time with the children and I think the teachers enjoyed the trip as much as the children did. I would like to pass on my thanks to Miss Verity, Miss Roslyn, Mr. Johnson, Miss Sook Ling, Miss Kaelyn  and the Camps International staff for all the help in organising and supervising the children on the trip.  We can’t wait for our next adventure.

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