Message from the Vice Principal
Quest Week 2019 proved to be another successful and valuable week for our students and staff. All trips held during Quest Week fall into one of the four following categories, Service, Action, Creativity, Culture or a combination of these themes. To ensure this, we included trips of long standing (Baiwan and Katja House, both Island School selected and supported charities), repeat trips that continue to offer valuable and enriching experiences as well as new trips to add further variety and new challenges. This year the popularity of trip choices based on the focus of the trips was almost evenly split across the board.
We offered a total of 41 trips of which 31 ran (five overseas and five local trips did not run due to insufficient sign ups). As in the past, the overseas options proved more popular with 452 students opting for an overseas trip compared to 237 opting for a local trip (Year 7 and Year 8 Camp were not included in this breakdown).
Quest Week itself ran smoothly and successfully on the whole, with positive feedback from students and staff alike, as well as the parent feedback through the PTA. Reports from the Service Providers on the conduct and attitude of our students were also very positive and full of praise.
Some student comments regarding what they enjoyed and what challenged them during the week:
Amazing Race
The most enjoyable part was getting to know Hong Kong better. I got to explore sights that I might not have been to before even though I’ve lived here for most of my life.
Baiwan
The various times spent with the people who also chose Baiwan, it was great to spend time and contemplate about life with various individuals of the same age.
Cambodia
All the service activities, like building the village house, school and teaching the children. I really enjoyed that because I have gained a lot of valuable insight and the smiles on the villagers made everything worth it.
Community Service
The Act of Kindness on Thursday, when my group volunteered at Crossroads. This is because I was doing some indirect that I knew would actually help people, and not just learning about how an organisation tackles an issue. It was very hands-on.
Maekok
The activities I enjoyed the most during my trip were high ropes and abseiling, rock climbing, doing the confidence course above water, biking, water activities and night games. I also particularly enjoyed going to the school to interact with the local kids – they were super sweet!
Mongolia
The whole trip was really fun and I get to talk to a lot more people from Island School and know my friends even better. I really enjoyed learning more about the history of Chinggis Khaan and also Mongolia in general, getting to communicate with the locals in the ger district and near the ger camp and to know how they live.
In summary Quest Week 2019 was a successful and positive week for students and staff alike. We continue to adapt and assess all aspects of Quest Week to insure it runs smoothly and provides an invaluable experiential learning opportunity to our students in a safe and secure environment. We are confident that the range of trips we offer to the students cover the best opportunities for experiential learning and will continue with the broad selection that we offer.
Paul Bentham
VP
