The NIST Experiential Education Programme, NIST X, was launched in 2017 in collaboration with the JUMP! Foundation to enhance learning opportunities outside of the classroom. NIST X ensures that all NIST students have sequential, intentional and safe learning experiences from Years 1 to 13. Having a dedicated department ensures there are thematic objectives and continuity across year levels throughout school-wide expeditions, and overnight and day trips.
Core Expeditions
Residential trips that build targeted skills and attributes in line with curricular learning, core expeditions extend from Year 3 to Year 12.
Core Field Trips
The other type of core trips with direct links to the curriculum, these teacher-led trips reinforce what students are learning in their classrooms.
NIST Plus Trips
From ski trips to visits to cultural sites, these offer students opportunities to learn outside of the classroom, develop skills and explore the outdoors.
Service Trips
Supporting actions for the NIST service groups, these trips encourage students to collaboratively develop solutions to local, regional and global issues.
Sports Trips
These allow students to engage in structured competition and collaboration with other schools around Bangkok and Southeast Asia.
It helped me collaborate with others, which you need in life. That’s especially true if you’re a teacher when you have to collaborate in meetings and work with other teachers. I learned I can do things I didn’t expect.
I guess that my choices have a bigger effect than I thought before I went on the trip. I saw this because they showed us all the initiatives they started there to help the community and how one person can start something big.
I was able to understand how my lifestyle can affect my personality. I was surrounded by people who had a different perspective on life. This helped to understand different people, better connect with them and grow as a listener.
Our Beliefs
In line with the NIST mission, values and vision, we developed several key beliefs around experiential education, which guide how we structure learning experiences for students:
- Trips should appropriately challenge and push students out of their comfort zones.
- Nature should be experienced and appreciated, and students should have hands-on learning experiences outside of an urban setting.
- Skills and knowledge are built through self-discovery and real-world contexts.
- Students should be exposed to, and engage with, local cultures.
- In a caring community, students must have time and space to build relationships and create meaningful connections within and outside NIST.
Personal Growth
We strive to inspire and empower students to actively engage in the development of the self and their unique identity, and to realize their full potential.
Community Building
We help students explore how communities form and function, and develop an awareness of communities they are part of as passionate and positive global citizens.
Connection to Nature
We provide opportunities to connect with nature, instilling a passion for the outdoors, care for our planet and its natural resources, and an awareness of how our daily lives impact nature.
Cultural Engagement
We encourage students to develop curiosity and empathy, and explore the many vibrant local cultures within Thailand and the broader Asian region.
Building on our own experiential education programme, the International Award empowers young people from 14 to 24 years old to make a difference in their own lives and the lives of others by exploring their potential, taking on new challenges, giving back to their community and achieving success. It provides the opportunity to set goals and achieve results in fun and challenging ways.
The award is comprised of three levels (Bronze, Silver, Gold) and four sections (Service, Skills, Physical Recreation, Adventurous Journey). Participants complete all four sections at each level in order to achieve their award. NIST is one of the few international schools in Thailand to support all three levels of the award.
