OUTDOOR adventure students are on a high after hearing about the latest challenge in their learning journey.
Darlington College students will head out to Nepal for the first time ever in a life-shaping trip to the Himalayas.
They will embark on a five day trek, at heights of up to 3,200m, to Poon Hill for breath-taking views of the 8,091m tall Annapurna, the world’s 10th highest mountain, which is renowned for the difficulty of its ascent.
The Year 1-3 Level 3 NCFE students will also spend time working in a Nepalese school on a range of environmental projects, as well as helping local children with their studies.
They will leave this spring on a 10 hour flight to Nepal, via Delhi in India. But before then they have another mountain to climb – raising extra funding for the trip.
So far the college has managed to secure enough money to send 15 students on the expedition but 16 have asked to go.
So they are now thinking of ways to raise an extra £4,000, one of which includes a gruelling sponsored walk up the Yorkshire 3 Peaks of Ingleborough, Whernside and Pen-y-ghent, a total ascent of 1,585m.
Darlington College’s head of outdoor leadership Richard Longstaff said: “This is an incredible opportunity, particularly as some of the students are just 16. They are a brilliant group with an amazing attendance record and thoroughly deserve it.
“This is a significant step in the learning journey of our students, from a state of relative dependency towards independent autonomy.
“It will help them understand a different culture, expand their horizons and teach them not to be fearful of other countries but to embrace them.
“Nothing will get them a job quicker than the experience of trekking in the Himalayas and even now, as they prepare, the project has them thinking of how they can work together as a team to raise the extra funding needed to take another person. After this I am sure they will be comfortable working anywhere in the world.”
For more information on opportunities at Darlington College visit www.darlington.ac.uk.
