KANCHANABURI SCHEDULE

1. KANCHANABURI SCHEDULE Wednesday morning, Feb. 4, buses left the school and traveled to Kanchanaburi arriving around noon, students all eating lunch same place (the resort) Wednesday afternoon students rotated through different team building activities at the resort site, all eating dinner same place at resort and common activity there that evening Thursday morning, Feb 5, all had breakfast together at the resort Students on Bus numbers 1 and 2, along with Mr. Steenwijk's Synergy Group, went together during the day on Thursday, Feb. 5 to the same activities same time. Students on Bus numbers 3 and 4, along with Mr. Vaughan's Synergy Group, went together during the day on Thursday, Feb. 5 to the same activities same time. Both groups met up together and had lunch together - boxed lunches. Thursday evening, all had dinner together at the resort Friday morning, Feb 6, all had breakfast together at the resort then traveled back in same bus groups as before Friday morning, stopped along way for activity, all at same site Friday morning, a van with 7 sick students went back to Bangkok early. Friday lunch, all stopped and ate at same buffet Friday afternoon arrived back at ISB by 2:00pm and kids went home

2. Students reporting Illness/day

3. Illness Began (day & time of day)

4. Chaperone Debrief/Feedback Length & Type of Trip • By the end of the second day many students getting physically tired; this could be a factor in the various disorders observed. With this in mind, shortening the trip to one night could be an option. (the second day falls/caves could be eliminated) • A fifth grade overnight trip experience might help students be better prepared for a sixth grade trip. • Together with our travel agent we will seek out alternative sites that offer similar facilities and activities.

5. Recommendations • Resort Meals & Snacks • Works well not to have ice cream Wed night – just marshmallows • Consider eliminating ice cream after Thurs night team building activity • A specialist should review menus and make recommendations to help decrease any chances of food poisoning or spread of infection • Assign teachers meal duties maybe for 20 min rotations—having teachers move among tables would help with some of the social concerns, behavior, excitement… • Tell kids they need to eat together at tables & stay in area until dismissed. Some kids sought out special areas for their group – rocks, benches etc. • Students had 1 hour scheduled per meal – allowed for time to arrive a bit late if needed, eat, hang out in the area, hear announcements & then be excused to go prepare 15-20 min before next activity. Consider how to best manage this time or decrease it – some restless kids.

6. Recommendations • Erawan Falls Lunch: • Got rid of Styrofoam at lunch – good • No purchases at all until the end of the 2 hikes to encourage good eating/water drinking until the end when we spent about 30 minutes relaxing & regrouping around food stalls/bathrooms/buses • Need to find better food for lunch–sandwiches were not appealing to students. Consider other alternatives • Only provided exactly one bag of chips & one small muffin/person – need more or need something different instead as many kids want more • One water bottle per student not enough. Teachers bought several large bottles for all kids to be able to refill their water bottles

7. Recommendations • Health & Safety • Need 1-2 outstanding medical personnel on this trip. Nurse from Samitivej worked super hard and was super nice, but not as skilled at evaluating ISB kids’ level of illness. Therefore wasted a lot of time trying to get care for one child who was more homesick and later another child was referred to the nurse several times throughout trip but she felt there was nothing really wrong—just nerves. Child diagnosed with pneumonia upon return. Could have been dangerous. • Worked out by accident to have one spare room attached to nurses room to put sick kids in for monitoring during the night. Should build that in if possible. • Need a counselor on this trip to help the kids who are struggling with being away for first time, social concerns etc. as well as high need kids whose struggles lead to physical symptoms which are difficult to care for/respond appropriately to while handling all other needs. • Coordinator, synergy teacher & room supervisors need to have better information about high need kids (e.g., kids who are likely to be extremely anxious or stressed or ‘strategic’ about being away from home) in advance. A lot of time & energy was spent on a few high need kids – trying to asses their level of needs & best response. Assign rooms strategically accordingly to needs.

8. Recommendations • Need a medical specialist to review trip & make recommendations on minimizing illnesses. 7 students were sent home early on Fri morning and up to maybe 10 others complained about or actually had a stomach ache, diarrhea &/or vomiting during the trip. Many others developed symptoms at home or did not report them until arriving at home. About 4 teachers reported similar symptoms after the trip. One during. • Other injuries minimal. Wire swing bridge continues to cause some wire burns. • Including hand sanitizer & wipes on packing list was good—many students used their own. • Handing out wipes on buses, before marshmallows & before lunch at Erawan or directing kids to bathrooms where we placed bars of soap was good. Consider what else to do to encourage good hygiene. • Kids allowed to hang wet towels, shoes on balcony but not hang out/move around between balconies. Seemed OK. Need to monitor. • Coordinator – bring paper for written reflections & extra booklets

9. Recommendations At Erawan Falls: • Need minimum 4- ideally 6-8 strong swimmer teachers on the trip who know the falls (possible?) and who will enter the water with the kids at any level we swim at. This teacher plus others on side can point out where to enter water, where not to go. Consider only allowing swimming at 2 levels: 2 & 5 OR 7. Ended up what we did this year. Still not enough swimmer teachers/level to ensure safety. • Need to brief students where to go and where not to go before they enter water. • Designate a Team A & B leader for falls/cave trip to make on site decisions about supervision, moving between levels, timing and other concerns. • Consider taking rescue floatation devices. • Teachers should take whistles.

10. Recommendations At Erawan Falls: • Make an ALL FOURS rule-no moving around on rocks near water unless on all fours. • Have a specialist review & make recommendations on this part of the trip to ensure safety. • Have one science teacher talk in the cave. Arrange for cave guides to dim lights with teacher direction to give us time to stop and observe the cave sounds & dark environment. • How about ribbon or something tied to all daypacks so we can ID ISB lost bags • Schedule change: Lunch at 12-12:30 left around 3 got back to resort around 4. (Note typo on master duties list)

11. Recommendations Social/Team Building • Lots of great things observed – kids including others, helping others, trying new things, pushing themselves….. Keep the reminders and encouragement built in before during and after trip. • Wed campfire activity excellent – rope circle (sit down, stand up, support walkers), captain’s coming, singing, limbo, transmitting a color across the circle to calm kids, marshmallows – keep Dale & Andy on team 6! • Thurs team building activity excellent – down the line (Chinese whispers) like charades by synergy group plus a couple theater sports games. Keep Gareth, Ida & Jin on team 6!

12. Recommendations Communication Before, During & After Trip More extensive in-service for parents regarding overall trip. Provide a better system of notifying parents of overall progress on the trip (Wiki, Blog, etc.) Well defined procedure for communicating with parents regarding individual children and possible issues/concerns. Follow-up plan for communicating with all parents regarding possible health issues that might arise after return. (we were only directly in contact with the parents those who came home early on van) Clear “Chain-of-Command” as to who parents are to contact in case of emergency or requesting additional information after the students have returned home. (School did not resume until the Wednesday of the following week)

13. Additional Items • CDC volunteered to analyze the survey results (unfortunately data was inconclusive) and offered assistance in future. • Resort has agreed to have health specialists inspect their resort facilities prior to another trip. • Contacted other schools that use the same resort (BPS, Shrewsberry, Ekkamai) to determine how their trips went. One response indicated that they had no health issues along the lines of ours. (Ekkamai International School)