Communication Tool for Updates

Dear Parents of the VA Club members,

this blog will serve as updates for your child who will be embarking on the

learning journey to Perth.

Pictures and news will be updated daily so as you can know how the day

went for your child.

The teachers-in-charge will be posting entries whenever there's an

internet connection available.

We understand your concerns of the easy accessibility to contact your

child.

However, we are unable to give you direct phone numbers of the

teachers.

You can call Admiralty Primary School during school hours and they will

contact us if there's a need to.

You can also call the hotel we are occupying in the evening if there's a

need for you to talk to your child.

Rest assured, we will try our very best to have this learning journey, a

safe and enriching experience for your

child.

It may be their first time being away from Singapore and their family.

But here are some of the things your child may gain from this trip.

1) Increased self confidence – having to face up to new challenges alone is difficult for any of us at any age, but for students and young people the challenge can be so incredibly rewarding and it can build significant self confidence. Those who take the challenge and accepting all the tests that decision can bring, end up coming out of the experience so much stronger.

2) Increased maturity – it may be just five days but they will learn a great deal about another country, culture and people, about themselves and about getting things done. This naturally leads to a rapid advancement in terms of gaining maturity, and this stands an individual in good stead for the immediate and long-term future.

3) Develop a broader mind – they say travel broadens the mind, and for youngsters who go abroad on their own and are willing to remain open and accepting of change and cultural differences, the experience can indeed be mind altering! Those who get a chance to go abroad at a young age have a much broader view of the world and don’t just see things in relation to their own home environment.

4) Learn more about different cultures and values – as part of the concept of travel expanding the mind, those who spend some time abroad in a different culture begin to better understand their own culture and their own values and biases as well as those of their nation as a whole. This enables one to get things more in perspective in life, and appreciate that we are all individuals, we are all different, and we all deserve the same amount of respect.

5) Make more friends – anyone who embraces the idea of going overseas for a period of time will find that they make so many more friends! It is par for the course when living in a new country that you will seek out those who can make the experience easier and more fun – and in so doing an individual immediately vastly widens their circle of friends, and for many people these friendships exist for life and are life enhancing!

6) Learn new skills – some people who travels learn so much more than just the languages, they learn new skills and passions that influence the whole of the rest of their life.

7) Acquire a lifetime of benefits!Finally, it seems that those who get a chance to go overseas gain so many rounding experiences and skills that their lives are positively and profoundly altered forever.

Hope you will find this entry useful for your reading pleasure.