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Leonard Ncube, Online Reporter

THE third term in the school calendar is usually characterized by various activities in and outside the learning institutions with many schools taking their children, especially Grades Seven and Ordinary Levels for leisure and educational trips around the country.

Many usually visit Victoria Falls, Hwange National Park, Great Zimbabwe, Matopo Hills and National Park, Nyanga and Kariba resorts.

For Sacred Heart Primary School, a Roman Catholic Church run learning institution in Esigodini, Matabeleland South, trips are systematic such that by the time a child completes Grade Seven, he or she would have visited not less than seven resorts in the country.

The school authorities designed a programme whereby each Grade, starting with Early Childhood Development, visits a resort once in a year.

This is the learning institution’s deliberate way of encouraging children to have a culture of visiting tourism resorts within the country, as the nation pushes a deliberate policy of promoting domestic tourism.

The trips are not just ordinary leisure but are a learning class away from the school and teachers have said this has contributed to in-class performance for the school whose pass rates hovers between 96 and 100 percent.

When parents enroll their child with the school, they are asked to complete a form that includes trips as part of the school calendar and they know the places their children will visit until they get to Grade 7.

Kids in ECDA up to Grade 2 visit places around Bulawayo, the museum and Chipangali Nature Game Reserve.

Those in Grade 3 and 4 go to Matopos and Bulawayo while those in Grade 5 visit Nyanga and Masvingo.

Grade 6 learners visit Kariba, Chinhoyi and Harare while Grade 7 learners go to Victoria Falls.

All the trips are made during the third term after the Grade 7 examinations and Grade 7 learners are usually the first to go.

Between Tuesday and Friday 27 October, the Grade 7 learners were in Victoria Falls.

They started by visiting the Victoria Falls Airport on Tuesday as they arrived into the resort city and on Wednesday the kids visited the Victoria Falls Rainforest, Elephant Experience for interaction with elephants and wound up the day with a game drive in the Zambezi National Park.

On Thursday they were taken to the Crocodile Farm, boat cruise and the curio market for shopping and interacting with informal traders.

They are leaving Victoria Falls today Friday back to the school in Esigodini.

They are accompanied by the school deputy head Mrs Lineo Madzulu Moyo, Sr Thando Leocadio Dube and Mr Nqobizitha Mposi, who is in charge of the children’s welfare.

“The annual trips are organised for each Grade which goes once per year. By the end of Grade 7 a child should have visited all the resorts in our plan and they get to experience places, different cultures and enjoy, and above all they learn a lot,” said Mr Mposi.

The deputy head said the school uses trips to enhance the quality of in-class work.

“This is meant to enhance what they get on the academic side. The trips have been playing a critical role and it shows in their school work as they improve even in their CALA. When they are given school work or CALA that needs sites and places that they have visited, it’s a matter of them recalling what they saw and experienced and this has helped us score 100 percent pass rate every year,” she said.

 Sacred Heart, with a total enrollment of 229 learners, has over the years maintained 100 percent pass rate and scored 96 percent once.

 Sr Dube said the trips also enhance the relationship between parents and the school.

 “The trips train children’s sense of creativity. The new education curriculum hinges on creativity and experience, and the children can easily relate to places they have visited. When a child enrolls, there is a form that a parent completes detailing the trips for each Grade and it helps in planning knowing where the child will go. Parents know that trips are part of the school learning activities and have been cooperative.

 “Usually they have a positive response and this is evident in the way they make an effort to pay fees and for trips. Even when we travel with kids, parents are always in touch checking on us and to us that’s a sign that we are one community,” said Sr Dube.