HEAD OF ADVENTURE EDUCATION

SECTION 02 — SCHOOL SIMON FINNIGAN

Simon Finnigan joined the School in 2022 as our inaugural Head of Adventure Education. Simon brings a wealth of experience, most recently as Director of Outdoor Education at Melbourne Grammar School for the past nine years. He believes in creating experiences in nature that integrate academic curriculum, nurture environmental stewardship, and promote leadership, Indigenous cultural awareness and community service. Simon has been a Director of Outdoor Education and Sustainability at Scotch Oakburn College in Tasmania, taught Outdoor Education at De La Salle College in Malvern, and worked with Adventure/Outdoor Education providers in New Zealand. He also spent a period at Hume City Council implementing the Council’s pioneering Pathways to Sustainability framework.

I see Adventure Education as being broader than Outdoor Education. The definition of Adventure Education, of experiential learning through and with nature, opens it up to include sustainability and environmental education. We are in the process of developing the Adventure Education programme through a series of interviews and focus groups with staff and students, canvassing different ideas and opinions which will help inform what the strategy is for the future.

There is an element of how we leverage that Timbertop experience, which builds independence, self-reliance and resilience in Year 9, but really each year level should have an Adventure Education experience that is of importance and significance for that year level. If we get the scope and sequence of the programme right, then Timbertop is something that happens within that. There are a whole lot of components that can be included within an Adventure Education programme, like increasing levels of awareness around Indigenous culture, especially how it relates to the natural world. There will be a focus on giving students a greater sense of appreciation of the natural world through enabling time in nature. Hopefully, some values will stem from that experience – that through learning about those environments and appreciating those environments, our students will ultimately want to look after them and protect them, which will provide opportunities for future generations that come after them. We’re considering a lot of the philosophy that informs learning through and with nature.

At Corio there are plenty of opportunities with Corio Bay, both through academic learning and enabling different activities that can take place on the bay. That will also be incorporated into the Corio Campus Masterplan; what infrastructure is required to enable adventure on campus, whether that be water-based activities or trail running or mountain biking, for example. The aim is to create something whereby students have access to adventurous activities on campus – the new Primary School will have a climbing wall for example, and those sorts of things will actualise adventure on campus and enable students to have an adventurous experience.

Adventure Education is really important for our younger learners because through nature and environment we introduce principles like sustainability. Play-based learning is so important for students to develop social and emotional intelligence. There is research that shows that through time spent in nature, you actually develop different neural pathways in your brain, which is distinct from what you learn from being in the classroom. There is a lot of research around the mental health benefits of being in nature as well. There are mental health benefits of being active too, like increased cortisol levels, which has an important physiological role in wellbeing. Adventure ticks a lot of boxes, including the interaction and overlap with Positive Education and Creative Education. We talk about these Strategic Pillars as the triple helix, and how they combine to underpin the School’s philosophy and approach to learning.

Adventure Education is in the DNA of the School. Almost 70 years ago, Timbertop was such a progressive move for GGS and education more broadly. Utilising the opportunity to develop something that leverages that heritage and is unique and innovative in its own way is the key to the Adventure Education programme being successful. You look at how much that Timbertop experience means to OGGs and creating opportunities to provide those experiences for other year levels is a central part of my job. The fact that it has been such a defining part of the School’s history reinforces why it is such an important focus for the future.

Simon Finnigan, Head of Adventure Education

“The definition of Adventure Education, of experiential learning through and with nature, opens it up to include sustainability and environmental education.”

Simon Finnigan, Head of Adventure Education