Westland High School offers students an incredible learning experience of studying in New Zealand's outdoor adventure-land.
Students at Westland High School gain an unsurpassed wilderness experience through the outdoor education programme, with national parks of rainforest, majestic mountains and vast driftwood-strewn beaches easily accessible. Within five minutes of the school, students can reach the river, bush, lakes or beach.
Being so close to such a diverse environment means the school is able to offer a significant number of practical sessions. Highlights have included helicopter access to mountaineering and kayaking trips, snowcaving, and tramping to wilderness hot springs.
Our outdoor education programme is a holistic course that promotes personal growth through fun, challenging and positive experiences in the outdoors.
In the senior programme we have classes at Years 12 and 13 working towards NZQA unit standards and NCEA level 3. Students have been very successful in gaining Level 2 and 3 qualifications in rock climbing, kayaking, tramping, mountaineering and other related studies.
Due to our location our school has many staff who choose to spend their recreation time engaged in outdoor activities. Our outdoor education staff are all active to a high level in several outdoor pursuits and have the qualifications and enthusiasm to run safe, modern and enjoyable programmes.
Westland High School achieved the OutdoorsMark - safety audit in May 2011. We celebrate the achievement and recognition of the excellence of our programme especially in relation to safety. The report concludes: “The transparent safety culture at Westland High School is to be commended”.
OutdoorsMark is the national outdoor safety audit programme designed specifically for operations involved in outdoor recreation, education, and adventure programmes. It is designed by the New Zealand outdoor sector for the New Zealand outdoor sector and provides an independent process for assessing the robustness of operational safety policies, procedures and practices.
Outdoor education units contain both theoretical and practical components and are assessed in class and out in the field. Classes run on a four period per week timetable as well as regular day/multi-day blocks for practical work.
The course plans for Levels 2 and 3 follow the seasons and the term structure. Activities that take place throughout the year are:
Term 1: Kayaking
Term 2: Navigation, tramping and survival skills
Term 3: Mountain craft and rock climbing
Term 4: Rock climbing and kayaking
Students can choose to enrol for one or more terms.
Students are required to be in good health and have strong interest and enthusiasm for the outdoors. Students also need to be mature, reliable, responsible and committed.
The following curriculum documents are available for download:
Westland High School is an ODENZ school offering high quality, accredited outdoor education programmes. To learn more about ODENZ and the Outdoor Education programme visit http://www.outdoorednz.co.nz
The following brochure is also available for download:
You may also contact the school directly.
