Global Experience Program

Tours and Immersions

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As part of the Global Experience Program, Secondary School students have the opportunity to take part in a variety of tours and immersions. Overseas tours are offered to experience the culture of another country and to complement subjects and courses such as History, Languages, Music and Visual Arts. Overseas immersions are offered to combine the cultural experience of global travel, with an outreach activity in a developing country.

Tours

Ravenswood offers a number of exciting tours. Students in Years 8–10 participate in a language and historical tour of China, where students enjoy many cultural highlights, including visits to the Great Wall, Forbidden City, Bird’s Nest Olympic stadium and the Terracotta Warriors. Students visit Beijing before travelling to Nanjing, to visit Ravenswood’s sister school, Nanjing No.1 Middle School. There, students attend classes before being invited home to share a family meal with their ‘buddies’.

Students in Years 7–9 are able to take part in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) tour of the USA. The purpose of the tour is to promote STEM as an exciting career opportunity in the future. During the tour, students visit places such as the Boeing Everett factory in Seattle and the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. Students also visit Silicon Valley, and the headquarters of some of the world’s largest technology companies including Microsoft, Cisco and Intel, as well as places like the NASA Ames Exploration Centre, Chabot Space and Science Centre and Disneyland.

Ravenswood Cadets have the option to trek the Kokoda Trail in Papua New Guinea biennially. The Cadets, and some of their parents, walk the 96 kilometres from Kokoda to Owers’ Corner, tracing the path followed by the Australian troops in the 1942 Kokoda campaign. This path gives the Cadets a deeper understanding of Australia’s part in World War II, as they walk through iconic wartime battlefields such as Deniki, Isurava, Brigade Hill, Ioribaiwa Ridge and Imita Ridge.

Students studying French in Years 9–11 benefit from the biennial linguistic and cultural Tour de Nouméa, in New Caledonia. The week-long experience gives students the opportunity to engage in the Melanesian culture and enhance their language skills through intensive lessons and their homestay, by communicating everyday with their French host families.

Immersions

Ravenswood’s Global Immersions to Cambodia and Fiji continue to provide the cultural experience of overseas travel, with a social justice focus.

Since 2012, Ravenswood has given Year 11 students the opportunity to take part in an Immersion. The 12-day program in Cambodia is run in conjunction with Knox Grammar School.

Prior to their departure to Cambodia, students are expected to raise money to be donated to communities through Matesabroad, a not-for-profit organisation. Students visit several different communities in Phnom Penh, teaching English, reading to primary school children, meeting and engaging with community leaders, planting rice and engaging in activities such as hammock weaving, re-thatching roofs and traditional Khmer cooking. Students interact with many underprivileged children, some of whom are physically disabled, visually or hearing impaired, or HIV positive. The students also visit places such as Tuol Sleng, the Killing Fields and the Temples of Angkor.

Every two years, students in Years 10–12 have the opportunity to travel to Fiji and participate in Operation Bula! A long established immersion that enables students to work in Tagaqe District School, located near Sigatoka, on the Coral Coast. Since 2007, Ravenswood has been assisting the Tagaqe community, focusing on developing the technological aspects of teaching and learning in the school. This has included donations such as laptops, funds to open a computer room and other resources.

Students participate in a variety of activities, including preparing lessons based on the Fiji curriculum and creating teaching resources which can be re-used. Students can use the experience as part of their Creativity, Action, Service (CAS) component in the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma or as part of The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.