Class of 2025 IB Orientation

Preparing our DP1 students for the rigors, peaks and challenges of the IB Diploma Program (IBDP) is a key part of the beginning of OSC’s school year. Once again, we had the chance to take the latest cohort – the class of 2025- on an exhilarating team-building experience on the Kelani River. They rafted, jumped, slipped, worked collaboratively and reflected to take the plunge in the IBDP.

We were based at the Borderlands Kitulgala camp on the bank of the Kelani River. Our program followed a similar program to last year’s with a focus on team building and individual challenges. The activities involve a rich recipe for experiential education in a Sri Lankan setting and the feedback from students and teachers is overwhelmingly positive (see video testimonies at the end of this post). The team of teachers this year included Mechum Purnell (Secodanary Principal), Phil Leigh (DP Coordinator), Tyler Echols (HS Counsellor), Rachel Jackson (arts HOD/Drama) and myself (CAS Cooordinator/DP Teacher). Wade Campbell was with our team for the duration while his team was ably led by Sujith Kant.

Portraits of the Class of 2025 on IB Orientation in Kitulgala. (all images Ian Lockwood)

I had several personal highlights: Our daughter Amy was on this orientation trip and it was gratifying to see her and her classmates enjoying the outdoor learning so fully. We started with a run through the classic canyon -an activity that takes me back to some of my most cherished memories of adventures with my hiking buddies in the Palani Hills. I took my GoPro along the watery traverse and recorded the class at the different stages. This year we were able to go all the way through to the lower canyon where there are several very cool small jumps and slides. The rafting on Day I was good despite relatively low water levels (at the time, Sri Lanka was at the tail end of a prolonged dry spell). We spent most of Day 2 in the aptly named Marvel Canyon. I appreciated not being in a rush and having the time to work with the students on skills and then enjoy the different slides and jumps thoroughly. It culminated with the 12-meter jump (see video clip).

The newly built Broadlands power plant on the lower Kelani River near Kitulgala. It generates 35 MW of renewable energy but its construction has impacted stream flow and the rafting industry. We have been taking student groups into this energy during the construction process (and before). It sits on the site of where the Bridge Over the River Kwai movie set was built in the 1950s. The power plant started generating electricity in April 2022.

Class of 2025 team preparing for the canyon.

This pot-hole jump is carefully managed by the Borderlands team to ensure safety. Students and faculty members take turns sliding into this deep natural cavity towards the lower part of Marvel Canyon.

On Day 3 we did our TOK and revisited Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” up at Belilena Cave. This remains a strong natural site to expose our new Diploma students to ideas of knowledge and knowing. While Phil Leigh led the TOK brief, I took the other half (in turns) on a natural history treasure hunt in the secondary forest next to the cave. There were a few juvenile Sri Lankan Rock Frogs (Nannophrys ceylonensis), under the dripping cliffs as usual. I was thrilled that Amy located two endemic species within a few meters of the cave. She first found a Sri Lanka Green Pit Viper (Craspedocephalus trigonocephalus) and then a Hump Snout or Hump-Nosed Lizard (Lyriocephalus scutatus). Half of the 35 students are in my ES&S class so the discoveries provided a suburb teachable moment on Sri Lanka’s endemic biodiversity. The species are logged into my iNaturalist account – a tool that we are using to create inventories of sites that OSC students frequently visit (see the Kitulgala Biodiversity Observatory).

It’s been a busy semester so far and as I finish this post at the end of October we are making plans to take the same Class of 2025 group to the Sinharaja area for their science field trip in December. The learning continues.