Students and teachers in School District 58 have been given tentative approval by the school board to embark on a number of exciting field trips.

On Sept. 23, during a regular school board meeting, ‘approval in principle’ was given out to a number of schools for out-of-area field trips.

Most of the trips are extra-curricular in nature.

Already approved field trips include: A trip by MSS volleyball team members to a tournament at St. Ann’s Academy in Kamloops on Oct. 2 to 3, a visit by the MSS Grade 10 to 12 cafeteria class to the Interior Savings Arena in Kamloops for the Food Expo on Oct. 8, and a trip by MSS students to Kelowna on Oct. 22 in order to participate in the BC Student Leadership Conference.

On Sept. 23, the school board approved several additional a field trips.

The MSS Grade 10 gym class received approval to travel to Manning Provincial Park on June 2 to 4 in 2010.

The MSS girls soccer team plans to participate in a YMCA Youth Exchange, which could see them travel to P.E.I. in the Spring of 2010.

Band students of all grades at MSS are planning a music tour in the coming academic year; possible destinations for the band trip include Edmonton, San Francisco or New York.

School board members on the Nicola-Similkameen School District were also quite positive in regard to a proposed trip to the Bamfield marine education and research facility by Grade 11 and 12 students. The Bamfield facility is located on the west coast of Vancouver Island.

The trip is planned for Nov. 11 to 15 of this year.

The most adventurous field trip on the table was a proposal for the girls rugby team at MSS to travel to Nadi, Fiji.

According to information submitted to the board by supervisors Denise Smith and Shelly Moorhead, the purpose of the field trip is, “To create an opportunity for a school rugby team to travel and play in an area of the world where rugby is omnipresent.”

Total cost of the trip to Fiji is estimated to be approximately $2,700 per student. Fund raising is expected to cover a large amount of this cost.

As expected, prices, safety, planning and logistics were among the concerns addressed by the board. Approval in principle was given for the field trip to Fiji. Board approval was necessary for the girls’ rugby team to get to work on fund raising.

Advance planning and fund raising is expected to help the team bond as a group before the 2011 trip, to be taken during Spring Break.

Field trips allow students to get an education outside the school, allowing them to see how academics and extra-curriculars relate to real world opportunities.