Bringing students face to face with their potential
WestVenture
An extension of Westminster School’s Outdoor Education Program, WestVenture is a signature experience offered to Year 9 students, building on the skills derived from the Year 7 and Year 8 Outdoor Education camp curricula. Westminster School recognises that the outdoor setting offers a powerful medium for achieving many aspects of the School’s educational philosophy. We believe that by taking students away from their everyday, comfortable environment into a place of perceived uncertainty, we can engage students in learning that might not be possible in an urban context or day-program. Many activities are conducted on the School property, Glenroy, in the first week and the majestic Coorong in the second week. The program is facilitated by a full-time staff of one teacher and five instructors who plan and lead the whole experience. With a strong focus on Wellbeing, this is a critical age to focus on building self-esteem, responsibility, resourcefulness, teamwork, and communication skills. The challenges provided by these outdoor experiences are used as a means to an end, the development of positive and important life-skills. Facing challenges, setting goals, working individually or in a group (often outside of their comfort zone) prepares students for the rest of their school life. For many students, it is the experience of a lifetime.
WestVenture seeks to promote self-discovery, interactive social skills, as well as a more holistic understanding of the natural world through experiential, adventurous, and environmental education. Westventure provides students with outdoor learning experiences that are processed, reflected upon and integrated into the students’ lives. These experiences are designed to challenge both the individual and the group physically, emotionally, and intellectually. Westventure prides itself on its contribution to Westminster’s mission to inspire students to thrive, build positive and meaningful lives and inspire students to face their future with confidence.
WestVenture operates under the premise that role modelling sensible decision-making with respect to risks is inherent to the experiential learning process. Using the natural world as a classroom affords us many opportunities to expand the participant’s life experience and encourage personal growth. Support, trust and respect are valued and promoted throughout all phases of instruction and trip management. Our environmental ethic is such that we enter all our program areas as visitors and practice minimum impact camping skills that promote respect and understanding of the natural environment. Westventure aims to instil a connection with nature that will encourage the students to continue to pursue outdoor activities in the future.
WestQuest
WestQuest, our residential Outdoor Education experience, is a great example of fantastic experiential learning, and an opportunity to complement our FUSS studies. It prepares our students for the VUCAH (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous, Hyperconnected) world we live in. The program is designed to help students build resilience, interdependence, independence, self-belief, awareness, courage and a growth mindset, along with a skillset they can use for life.
Building on from the WestVenture signature experience in Year 9, WestQuest is a new and exciting Outdoor Education program designed for students in Year 10. A unique and rewarding program, WestQuest furthers student’s abilities, utilising and building on the skills they have developed throughout the Outdoor Education Program in previous years. Offering a range of signature expeditions including Sea Kayaking in the Whitsundays, Hiking and Rafting in Tasmania, Sailing and living at sea on the One and All Tall Ship and Scuba Diving on the Great Barrier Reef, students are afforded the opportunity to select an expedition to suitably challenge them, providing not only a chance to grow but another experience of a lifetime. As a school, Westminster has an enviable reputation as an outstanding provider of OE. Our students’ engagement is a contributing factor to the culture of our School and the success of our Old Scholars. The adventure that they experience in our Outdoor Education program, consciously and subconsciously, provides them with invaluable skills.
Our students have unique OE opportunities to learn risk-taking in a safe environment, working as individuals and in teams. Their knowledge of our environment is enhanced considerably. They learn to endure hardship, discovering their limits are often well beyond what they thought. This all helps our students develop emotional intelligence and a raft of skills, allowing them to fulfil their potential.
As parents, we identify opportunities for our children to grow. This means encouraging them to do things they may not want to do but we anticipate will serve them well. When they enter the workforce, they may find themselves in jobs where they may not want to do elements of their work, yet they cannot shy away from them. We have an obligation to teach our students how to face seemingly insurmountable challenges so they can deal with them in a proactive manner, without negative wellbeing ramifications. We can do our children a great disservice by always letting them do what they want, inadvertently creating a life where adversity is never faced.
WestQuest commenced in 2023 and has offered students a great range of activities from which to choose. The nature of the expeditions being offered means that the program will run throughout the year as climatic conditions allow. All students are expected to be involved in WestQuest. It will require them to be organised, prepared and methodical with their overall study, an excellent segue into Years 11 and 12.
A ladder to a wonderful, fulfilling and successful life is climbed only by using the rungs of opportunity. Your hands don’t pull you up a ladder, it’s your legs that do the driving, which only happens when you take the risk of stepping up. Building on WestVenture, Westminster School’s WestQuest program provides another fulfilling experience for students to embrace, stepping up and achieving more than they thought possible.
Duke of Edinburgh's International Award Program
The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme presents to young people, a balanced, non-competitive programme of voluntary activities, encouraging personal growth, self-reliance, perseverance, and responsibility to themselves and service to their community.