CELEBRATING OUR NATURE TERM'S LEARNING EXPERIENCES
How quickly time passes. I cannot believe we are a third of the way through 2025 already. Inconceivable!!
This term, Nature, has now ended – and we can reflect on our achievements. When you consider how much our students explore (especially in a mixed up, mashed up term, where public holidays and weather intruded), it is significant to consider the learning experiences offered in context:
RESEARCH PROVEN
This is a key element of Living School: we explore more because we know, research quantifies, and our results prove, engaged schooling is quality learning.
There are research proven reasons WHY we do what we do. Experiential learning, fieldwork and outdoor education are so important in your child’s development.
1. Experiential Learning Boosts Engagement and Retention (link | link)
2. Field Trips Enhance Learning Outcomes (link | link)
3. Outdoor Education Develops Critical Thinking (link)
4. Adventure Education Fosters Personal Growth (link)
Living School’s approach, grounded in extensive research that underpins our VAST model, intentionally cultivates socially adept individuals ready to navigate life’s complexities. We believe that by acknowledging the inevitable “slugs” – the challenges and hardships our children face, particularly in social negotiations – and by fostering an understanding of life’s ‘seasons’, we empower them to thrive. Just as a well-equipped garden shed provides the necessary tools for every season and every weed, our approach aims to equip children with a robust set of social skills. These skills, nurtured through supportive actions and an open mindset, enable profound growth, often exceeding what’s learned in easier times. Ultimately, the VAST model is our guiding principle in nurturing good people prepared for a great future.
Is Instruction Time Quality Teaching Time?
The question posed above is really significant for learning. Does explicit instruction and testing based on knowledge recall indicate quality?
I know an overt reliance on instruction – and government reliance of quality based on bands of children achieving As to Es – misses a fundamental academic key to success: to learn children must be engaged, and learning in context is deeper and better retained.
Our Living School teaching offers so many opportunities to embed understanding beyond the classroom – and beyond direct instruction. Our model is not ‘normal’ – but I believe it should be!
Consider the OECD data from 2023 on total instruction time. Australia has the greatest number of instruction hours in all of the OECD schools!
Why is enriched learning – with lots of excursions – not common in Australia?
One reason is that what Living School offers does not happen with ease: to organise, plan, collaborate, communicate, oversee and supervise these events relies on the extra effort of our teachers and staff. Every one of these ‘activities’ takes hours of preparation.
Imagine the richness of learning that extends far beyond classroom walls and rote instruction – the deep understanding forged through excursions, camps, incursions, and expeditions. At Living School, we champion these powerful experiences, believing they are not just supplementary but fundamental to a truly enriching education. Yet, the vibrant learning we offer doesn’t happen effortlessly. Each opportunity requires countless hours of dedicated effort from our teachers and staff: meticulous organisation, thorough planning, seamless collaboration, clear communication, and vigilant supervision. While the ease of conventional teaching might seem appealing, we believe the profound impact of these hands-on experiences, though demanding, is an effort we cannot overlook. For the deeper understanding and lasting memories created through these adventures are invaluable investments in your child’s – and our children’s – future. We are a community that cares.
Acknowledging the Effort Underpinning Living School Learning
Acknowledging the significant effort invested by our dedicated teachers and staff, and to provide transparency regarding the organisation of our enriching learning experiences, I wish to outline the detailed procedures undertaken:
- Curriculum Integration: Each learning experience is meticulously aligned by the teacher with their termly learning plan. This ensures a direct connection to NESA requirements, established learning outcomes, and the Living School scope and sequence, demonstrating a commitment to purposeful education.
- Internal Approval Process: The teacher initiates the process by formally proposing the experience within our Consent2Go platform. This requires the explicit approval of the relevant Learning Neighbourhood Director (Annie, Emma, or Jo), ensuring pedagogical alignment and initial oversight.
- Comprehensive Planning and Risk Management: Upon initial approval, the teacher develops detailed excursion plans and undertakes thorough risk assessment and management protocols, again within the Consent2Go system. These critical documents are subject to rigorous review and final sign-off by our Risk Manager and the Conductor, prioritising student safety and well-being.
- Logistical Coordination: Where transportation is required, the excursion planner meticulously outlines all bus needs. This information is then forwarded to our dedicated Bus Manager, Mike, who manages the complex logistics and liaises directly with drivers to ensure a smooth and safe trip.
- Financial Transparency: All associated costs for these valuable experiences, including entrance fees, transportation, staffing, and incidentals, are carefully accounted for and relayed to our Accounts and Business Manager for processing. The vast majority of these costs are integrated into our annual fees, and I know we offer exceptional value of money!
- Efficient Communication and Parental Consent: The Consent2Go system automatically communicates all relevant excursion details to parents, facilitating digital consent. While this streamlines the process, our administrative staff diligently follow up with parents (we have to chase up a few) to ensure timely permissions are received, as student participation is contingent upon prior consent.
- Proactive Medical Support: The Consent2Go platform also captures critical medical information for each student. These details are immediately flagged to our office staff, enabling them to ensure that appropriate first-aid provisions are available and necessary items, such as EpiPens, are readily accessible. Every excursion takes a first aid kit.
- Food Considerations: Excursions occurring during lunch periods necessitate careful coordination with our Jabay food service, adding a layer of complexity as we prep food for the week ahead. Our team diligently manages these logistical challenges to maintain the quality of our food program – and we are adapting and adopting specific days of preference for excursions to alleviate pressure on our amazing Jabay team.
- Adaptive Response to Unforeseen Circumstances: On the day of an event, teachers must remain adaptable. In the event of inclement weather or students arriving without essential equipment (a persistent challenge, particularly regarding sun hats for Onland), our staff are prepared to modify plans, potentially leading to postponements or the resourceful ‘sourcing’ of necessary items. Postponed events necessitate a return to the initial stages of this comprehensive process – and we try to ensure our events run as planned.
- Dedicated On-site Supervision and Care: The execution of these learning experiences demands significant on-site supervision and proactive behaviour management. Our teachers and staff are responsible for the safety and well-being of excited students, addressing forgotten items, managing logistics, and ensuring the safe return of belongings (many items are not lost but left – and are unnamed, which makes the office management of lost property complex).
A Dollop of Gratitude
So when you come to collect your child – and you see a teacher after an excursion or camp – or when you come and drop by our reception staff – please pay it forward with a thank you! Gratitude is the grease for sustained effort.
It is evident that the breadth and depth of experiential learning offered at Living School far exceed the typical provision in many mainstream settings, where logistical ease often dictates a more limited program (many schools offer two excursions and two incursions per year). The fact that our Year 1 learners, for instance, benefited from five such experiences this term alone underscores our commitment. While a less comprehensive approach is undoubtedly more straightforward to administer and organise, we firmly believe that these immersive, real-world experiences are fundamental in transforming abstract concepts into profound and lasting understanding for our students.
I trust this detailed overview provides a greater appreciation for the dedication of our team and the exceptional educational opportunities afforded to your children at Living School.
We cannot simply accept the assumptions that life has given us—about our own worth, about how the world works, or what constitutes a ‘successful’ life. Mental resilience is not achieved by following prescribed paths but by confronting the questions that arise within us. What do I believe in? What do I seek? Where is my life headed? These are the fundamental questions that, if left unasked, will leave us with a sense of dissatisfaction and inner turmoil. In the modern era, we are often faced with societal pressures to fit into pre-determined roles, and this can lead to a crisis of identity. But it is precisely in the act of questioning the roles we’ve been handed and daring to forge our own path that we achieve personal fulfilment. We must not merely accept what others tell us; we must probe the deepest aspects of our own desires and beliefs. Only through this process of self-inquiry and reflection can we find the true meaning and purpose that sustains us in the face of life’s inevitable challenges.