British couple takes children on year-long Southeast Asia trip instead of school
Parents say their two young children are too young for desks and aim to teach them through world schooling across multiple countries.
A British couple from Derbyshire has begun a year-long Southeast Asia journey with their two young children, choosing world schooling over traditional schooling. James Humphries-Stone, 38, and Hayley Griffiths, 42, sold their car and rented out their home to travel with Stanley, five, and Margot, three, who touched down in Bangkok this week.
They plan to spend six weeks in Chiang Mai, then Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia over roughly 12 months. The trip unfolds as Stanley would be starting his first year at school, but the couple say their children are too young to sit at a desk all day. "We believe they are too young to start school at this age. And our interpretation of the school environment is that they will spend time behind desks and learning with textbooks and what have you," James said. "Our belief is that we can bring them here and teach them through exploring, through play. It’s a lot of what we did in the UK, but we’re bringing it to a whole new environment. We want to teach them to count through currency, rather than through an abacus or something else."
Having recently touched down in Bangkok, the family will relocate to Chiang Mai for six weeks before continuing their itinerary through Southeast Asia.
World schooling — a concept that blends travel with real-world learning — uses cultural, historical and natural environments as classrooms. James and Hayley describe the approach as an opportunity to educate through immersive experiences rather than traditional textbooks. A lot of people in these world-school hubs are ex-teachers, they say, and they believe there is a better way to raise children. "You learn in a similar environment to a conventional school, but in a far more practical way," James explained. "I guess I’ll be a bit outlandish with this, but I think the UK school system is outdated. A lot of the Scandinavian countries tend not to send their children to school until around seven, and I just think that five, and it may just be Stanley, is far too soon to start. We don’t do a lot of telly time in our house. We’re a very active family, so we just didn’t see the school environment as very useful for him."
Across their journey, the family plans to explore safari parks, aquariums, forests, waterfalls and bustling city markets, using these environments as ongoing classrooms. They argue that travel provides a more practical education and that it aligns with a broader worldview beyond the confines of a classroom.
Not everyone agrees with the decision to educate children outside of formal schooling. Humphries-Stone said the family "definitely have some critics," but he and Hayley—each with one GCSE and now running their own business—describe themselves as living by their own terms rather than following a conventional path. "I do think the school system is designed to fit a very one-dimensional way of leading life: paying taxes, getting a mortgage, getting married, having children and conforming," he said.
The couple says they have already begun their journey in Thailand, where they have visited Lumpini Park in Bangkok and introduced Stanley and Margot to new animals and plants they would otherwise study from textbooks at home. They emphasize that the movement toward world schooling is about fostering curiosity and practical learning through direct exposure to the world.
Over the next year, the family intends to extend their travels across the region and eventually to Australia, where they expect to encounter new facts about kangaroos, the Outback and the Great Barrier Reef. James noted that the adventure will continue to emphasize active learning through hands-on experiences and cultural immersion rather than conventional schooling.
The world-school approach has gained traction in pockets of the travel-education community, attracting families who see value in experiential learning and global exposure. Proponents argue that such programs can cultivate resilience, adaptability and critical thinking by placing children in diverse settings and encouraging them to observe, ask questions and problem-solve in real time. Critics, however, warn about gaps in structured curricula and potential disparities in education quality.
As the family charts their course, they stress that their aim is not to reject formal education outright but to redefine how and where learning occurs. They plan to document milestones along the way and share insights with other families considering similar paths, while continuing to prioritize safety, language exposure and age-appropriate experiences for Stanley and Margot. In a world increasingly defined by mobility and cross-cultural exchange, their journey underscores a broader debate about the purpose and timing of schooling in the 21st century.