The Highlands Programme: A New Experiential Learning Initiative from Tanglin Trust School
By Mark Cutchie, Head of Campus Tanglin Gippsland
This year, Tanglin Trust School marks its Centenary, and alongside a host of events to celebrate this significant milestone, the school is launching the Highlands Programme—a new 5-week experiential learning experience for Year 9 students. Based at Tanglin Gippsland in Australia, this pioneering programme exemplifies Tanglin’s commitment to holistic education and the importance of engaging students with the world around them through hands-on exploration, critical thinking, and real-world education.
In this article, Mark Cutchie, Head of Campus at Tanglin Gippsland, shares his insights into the educational benefits and core values underpinning this innovative experiential learning initiative. Mark brings extensive experience in educational leadership in Australia, at both local and national levels. Alongside his career in education, he has served as an emergency paramedic, including contributing to responses during major events and natural disasters in remote areas. His professional expertise, combined with a personal passion for outdoor adventure and camping, makes him well-equipped to oversee the planning and execution of the new campus and Highlands Programme.
A Transformative Experience
As a parent and an educator, I strongly affirm Johann von Goethe’s belief that: ‘There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings.’
In their younger years, we rightly focus on building children’s roots to give a firm foundation to not only launch from, but also to hold them firm when the storms of life inevitably come. However, in their mid-teens, we have to start helping children grow their wings. Their desire to establish their own identity and make their own way in life is perfectly normal and known as individuation. As parents and educators,
we have the responsibility to proactively guide them through it and not leave them to their own devices to fumble through it alone. This is what I believe is one of the greatest benefits of Tanglin’s Highlands Programme in Australia, teens will have the chance to stretch their wings through this transformative experience.
Over the five weeks, staff will support students as they face new challenges. For some, simply being in a new remote environment will be a significant step; for others, it may be tackling a demanding 4-day hike through the Victorian High Country. Activities will be tailored to accommodate varying abilities and confidence levels through ‘scaffolding experiences’ that empower students to achieve personal milestones.
Whether conducting a science experiment knee deep in a mountain stream, navigating through the bush on Mt Baw Baw or sleeping under the stars, each experience is designed to contribute to what it means to be a ‘Highlander.’
Gippsland: The Perfect Setting for Experiential Learning
Australia’s Gippsland region offers a vastly different learning environment from Tanglin Trust School in Singapore. With its diverse landscape ranging from rolling fertile farms to majestic mountains, true four-season climate and unique flora and fauna, it provides a distinctly different setting in which students live and learn. Despite this, the Highlands Programme has been designed to be an extension of Tanglin Middle School and is integral to the curriculum and development of its core values of curiosity, confidence, and community.
Achieving the 3Cs at Tanglin Gippsland
Curiosity will flourish as students spend much of their time learning outside the classroom. Core subjects taught in the field will allow students to learn through all five senses, problem-solve in new environments and apply knowledge in real-life scenarios to help deepen their understanding of each subject. This immersive approach encourages a mindset of discovery, ingenuity and adaptability, and will hopefully develop a deep reverence for the natural world and the desire and knowledge to know how they can play an active part in stewarding it well.
Confidence will grow as students participate in hiking and outdoor activities that push them to take calculated risks and move them out of their comfort zones. By embracing these challenges, students will develop grit, perseverance and resilience, character traits we believe are essential for thriving in life. I believe there is no greater classroom than the Australian bush to develop these attributes through experiences where they will face adversity, suffer setbacks or even get knocked down and have to pick themselves up, dust themselves off and try again and again.
Community engagement will strengthen as students contribute to the people, daily routines and responsibilities that come with living in their new home away from home. In their book Parenting Beyond Your Capacity, Joiner and Nieuwhof note: ‘The right community is not only important because of what it gives to your children, but also because of what it requires from your children.’
In the Gippsland community, students will be given much, but much will also be required of them. Students will sleep in dormitory rooms with three others, they will eat meals with staff and their families in the dining hall and do daily chores that teach life skills and the importance of putting others before self. An integral aspect of the programme is its low-tech environment, enabling students to fully immerse themselves in lessons, activities and the spectacular natural environment that surrounds the Gippsland campus. Additionally, the ‘digital detox’ aspect of the programme allows for meaningful face-to-face interactions which strengthen interpersonal connections.
Learning Beyond the Classroom
Tanglin believes in a holistic approach to education that goes beyond books and classrooms, and this pioneering programme will help equip students with the skills and mindset to be future-ready in a changing world. Through the Highlands Programme, Tanglin is committed to its vision to “be the best school in the world with a dynamic learning community which nurtures and inspires every individual to be the best they can be.”
Find out more:
The Tanglin Highlands Programme here
Tanglin Trust School: tts.edu.sg
Tanglin’s Centenary here
IG @Tanglingippsland
