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Image by Alexander Schimmeck

South America Pathway Living Landscapes

Guiding Inquiry: How do landscapes, cultures, and knowledge systems evolve together to sustain life across generations?
Key Concepts: Interdependence · Sustainability · Resilience · Cultural Continuity
Focus: Life on Land · Clean Water & Ecosystems · Sustainable Communities

Highlights

The South America Pathway invites learners into a year of deep, place-based learning across Peru, Argentina and Chile, exploring how landscapes, cultures, and knowledge systems sustain life across generations.

 

Throughout the year, learning unfolds through forests, lakes, mountains, farms, and coastal communities, with sustainability, food systems, biodiversity, and cultural continuity at the heart of the inquiry. Alongside this, the programme is designed as a Spanish immersion experience, supported by a fluent Spanish-speaking facilitator who lives and works bilingually within the learning community.

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While the programme is delivered in both English and Spanish, learners are continually encouraged to engage with Spanish as a living language, through daily interactions, community engagement, fieldwork, and shared projects. Families do not need to be Spanish speakers to take part; the intention is that, over the course of the year, learners build confidence, fluency, and cultural understanding through authentic immersion rather than formal classroom instruction.

Peru

Image by Chloé Sarthou

28 September - 04 December 2026

Sacred Valley – Pisac

In the Sacred Valley, learning shifts toward human systems shaped by thousands of years of adaptation.

 

Learners explore:

  • Highland agriculture, terraces, and water management

  • Andean cosmology and Pachamama (earth stewardship)

  • Textile traditions, natural dyes, and material culture

  • Markets as economic, social, and cultural systems

  • Archaeology and living history.

 

This term invites learners to consider how knowledge survives, how communities adapt across generations, and what modern societies can learn from ancestral practices.

Argentina

San Martín de los Andes

We begin the year immersed in the Patagonian lake district, where water, forest, and mountain systems shape daily life.

 

Learners explore:

  • Freshwater ecosystems and lake ecology

  • Forest systems, biodiversity, and seasonal cycles

  • Indigenous Mapuche culture and land stewardship

  • Organic farming, food systems, and self-sufficiency

  • Movement through landscape: hiking, paddling, navigation and horse riding

 

This term centres on observation, independence, and grounding, helping learners build confidence, routines, and a deep sense of place while learning how ecosystems support human life.

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04 January - 12 March 2027

Chile

Image by Jaume Galofré

29 March - 04 June 2027

Araucanía & Chiloé

The final term explores threshold spaces — between land and sea, tradition and change, stability and adaptation.

 

Learners explore:

  • Forest, lake, and geothermal systems in southern Chile

  • Coastal ecosystems, tides, and marine food systems

  • Fishing cultures, preservation methods, and seasonal living

  • Myths, folklore, and storytelling as knowledge systems

  • Community resilience and cooperation in remote environments

 

This term challenges learners to think about adaptation, resilience, and responsibility, preparing them to synthesise learning from the year and reflect on their own role within global systems.

El mundo es nuestro aula

Spanish Immersion & Bilingual Learning

Spanish is not treated as a separate subject within the South America Pathway — it is the language of daily life.

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Learning is intentionally bilingual. English remains available for clarity, reflection, and deeper conceptual understanding, while Spanish is used consistently and meaningfully in real-world contexts. Learners are supported to take risks, communicate imperfectly, and grow through use.

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The aim is not short-term exposure, but long-term fluency through immersion. Over the course of the year, learners move from comprehension to confident expression, developing Spanish as a practical, social, and cultural tool.

We are currently taking expressions of interest for the Global Classroom South America Pathway (2026–27).

An expression of interest is not a commitment — it simply helps us understand who this pathway might serve best, shape group size, and confirm facilitation and logistics. Families who register their interest will be the first to receive updates, detailed timelines, and invitations to upcoming information sessions.

Programme Cost

The Global Classroom South America Pathway is priced at USD $396 per week, delivered over a 10-week term. While each term includes a period of in-person learning and remote project weeks, the cost is spread evenly across the full 10 weeks. This allows us to plan and deliver the programme responsibly, even though the majority of our operational and educational costs occur during the in-person weeks.

 

Your contribution supports:

  • experienced, fairly paid facilitators (including a fluent Spanish-speaking facilitator)

  • thoughtful curriculum design and planninglocal guides, artisans, and community partners

  • learning resources, field activities, and transport

  • safe, ethical, and well-run programme delivery

 

We are committed to ensuring that the largest portion of the budget is directed toward educational delivery, not profit. The weekly structure also provides clarity and consistency for families planning longer-term travel and learning.

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