Outdoor education

The College offers a wealth of outdoor educational experiences. We aim to enhance and enrich students' classroom experiences with cross curricular teaching and opportunities for learning outside of the classroom. Our philosophy applies to expeditions, residential trips, community programmes and after school activities.

Kurt Hahn, who inspired the establishment of the UWC movement, believed that education should have the effect of drawing from students a greater range of skills and talents than they knew they possessed. Kurt Hahn's motto was "Plus est en vous", "There is more in you than you think". This is one of the foundations of adventure based learning.

Curriculum trips
All Grade 6 and Grade 7 students go on expeditions to Pulau Tioman in Malaysia, while Grade 8 students spend two weeks in Chiang Mai, Thailand. These challenging and fun expeditions provide invaluable learning experiences, and elements from these trips are drawn into the classroom across the academic curriculum. All students are expected to participate each year.

All are well within the capabilities of the students, though they may discover that they are taken "out of their comfort zones." Each adventure requires a level of commitment from the student and offers them the chance to succeed in a novel setting. Students not only enjoy these trips, but are often surprised to find that they possess the determination, adaptability and sense of teamwork to rise to the challenges presented.

Optional trips
The College also offers opportunities to participate in optional expeditions during school holidays. Recent holiday trips have included a trek for families in Nepal, rafting in Nepal, an adventure week in New Zealand, a survivor expedition to Australia, a cultural trip to China, housebuilding in Cambodia and a trip to South Africa and Waterford UWC in Swaziland. Several of these optional trips support elements of the school curriculum, such as the History house-building trip to Cambodia.

Our ethos
We operate a policy of "Challenge Of Choice". This principle refers to the participant's responsibility to choose his or her level of risk-taking in the learning experience. It is based on the belief that significant learning occurs when one pushes oneself out of a known "comfort zone," while at the same time recognizing that each person's experience will be different.

This encourages respect for one another, the skill of making one's own choices free of peer-group pressure and promotes an experience where everyone contributes to each other's choices and self esteem development.

Safety and working relationships
The department uses "best preferred practice" collated from experts around the world. This enables us to make appropriately informed management decisions as we develop the college outdoor education programme.

We enjoy good relationships with third party activity operators who have met our preferred provider status. Our annual Outdoor Education Conferences and technical advisor visits provide the latest training and workshops.