From the Management Team

Experiences beyond the classroom

As both a parent and a teacher, Week 4 highlights one of the great strengths of Endeavour College; that being the experiences it provides to students beyond their academic program in the classroom. As I watch my son preparing his clothes for this week’s Voyage Camp, laying them out on his bed, trying to stuff his sleeping bag inside the all-too-tiny sack and seeing him make decisions about what to take and what to leave behind, I am reminded of the important life lessons he is learning beyond the classroom. Not to diminish what goes on in the classroom, but there is a level of “artificial” to any classroom experience. The natural consequences brought on by the decisions about what to pack and what to leave out for a camp are important life lessons and ones that our children must learn. The natural bonding when sharing a bus ride for extended periods of time and the cohabitation of dorm or tent experiences are ones that classrooms cannot and do not replicate.

Interestingly, during our recent interviews for a new College Pastor, there was a common thread amongst the answers related to teenagers’ spiritual growth. Camp experiences seemed to be a special time when questions naturally occurred about spirituality and where young people often sought someone, like a Pastor, for answers. A critical mass of time together doing a range of shared experiences as well as an opportunity to be away from home and school seems to be a common time for our teenagers to seek answers to the big questions they have about life, its purpose and where God fits.

One of the great aspects I have witnessed during my first year at Endeavour has been the wealth of opportunities teachers provide their students through the range of related excursions offered. Curriculum is important, classroom experiences necessary, but when our teaching staff also take their curriculum beyond the classroom walls, we see real engagement with learning within the contexts to which it is aimed; real life.

I want to wish our Year 11s and Year 9s amazing experiences on their respective camps this week and next. Much time and effort has gone into making them safe, aligned and meaningful experiences. I am thankful for the tireless efforts of our staff who are also giving up their time away from their own families to spend this time with our children. I also want to express my sincere thanks for the efforts all year from the staff who have provided a wide range of exciting learning experiences through the experiential learning they have provided. We are indeed lucky to have our children involved in such vibrant learning and blessed to have such great buy-in from our parent community.

Peter Pearse

Deputy Principal