Swag Mail

In 2007 Expedition Class was created to share adventures with classrooms. The goal back then was the same as it is now. We want every child to love going to school, and to love learning about the real world around them. Unlocking a sense of exploration and wonder is critical to this—and that’s exactly what our model of Adventure Learning does. Students start to see the world though an adventurous lens, where all questions are valued, making mistakes is okay, taking on difficult challenges is celebrated and starting something with an unknown outcome is downright expected! 

When real-life adventure is matched with a thoughtful curriculum, and a willing teacher, it sparks wonderful and unexpected learning opportunities. With your help, we’ve sown the seed for thousands of adventurous ideas within kids across Australia.

Since 2010, as part of the Bookend Trust, these have taken us on unlikely expeditions in fold up sea kayaks around the volcanic New Britain, left half starving for a month on a deserted island, searching—unsuccessfully—for the extinct thylacine, finding new caves hidden in the giant forests of Tasmania and camping forty meters in the canopy of those same forests.

The past decade and a bit has been an unlikely ride.

And then last week two enormous boxes arrived on our verandah…

We’re the Swag Family—Nicola, Andrew, Hope and Wilfy Hughes—and we’re tackling the biggest Adventure Learning project Australia has ever seen. This project will engage up to 15,000 students from across Australia in a 10 month real-life journey. We will explore the long human histories of Australia by learning directly from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples along the way. Other learning areas include Australian animals and plants, sustainability and healthy lifestyle choices. We will also undertake a Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) as part of our journey, and demonstrating how schools can take this step towards reconciliation themselves.

Our family will ride around the country on two tandem bicycles to visit remarkable and everyday Australians to document their stories of place, culture and environment through student-centered short videos, photos and written reports. If it all goes well, we’ll rack up 10,000 km of bitumen, gravel and grassy camps. 

Respected Tasmanian Aboriginal, Aunty Patsy Cameron will be setting the challenge and direction of our journey as we leave Tasmanian shores early in 2019. She will task us with reaching Lake Mungo and exploring the 50,000+ years of human occupation of Australia along the way. Instead of sailing across Bass Strait and heading straight there, Aunty Patsy will send us to meet another inspirational Australian to learn from. We will continue to be sent onwards from person to person for 11 months, connecting them all by a grand bicycle adventure before finally finishing at Lake Mungo. 

Students participating in the journey in their classrooms will also use specially written workbooks that align with the Australian Curriculum and turbo-charge motivation to learn. There will be a moderated forum that links adventurers, students, scientists and teachers all together. Students will not just feel like they are part of the adventure; they will be an important part of it.

Watch a video about the Swag Family on YouTube >>

Teachers can express early bird interest to be involved now >>

The new project will be ‘live and online’ for the entire 2019 school year. We will ride around Australia, documenting people, place and environment, in engaging student-friendly reports and videos. A major theme is learning about place directly from the people we meet; especially Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island peoples, who may bring different perspectives than our own as a family on the road. We’ll also be taking a special interest in the plants and animals we find along the way and inviting students to share investigations of their own corners of the world.

These themes will be explored in three specially written Australian Curriculum-aligned student workbooks for Years 1-2, Years 3-4 and Years 5-6. The content is designed to be flexibly delivered by teachers to classes at any time during the year. It will cover parts of most curriculum areas but we’re deep-diving into Science, HASS, HPE and Digital Technologies. 

The parts of the project that will always be freely available to teachers and students are the regular online multimedia reports. These reports will be presented under the headings:

1. Adventure (the ups and downs of the adventure from the family)

2. Stories (features interviews with people and documentation of places along the way)

3. Biology (special reports on interesting animals and plants that align with the ‘Explore Your Corner’ student work)

4. Challenge (special reports that align with the ‘Plan Your Own Adventure’ student workbook + pop up lesson suggestions)

5. Swag (gear explainers, random stuff, light relief, our family Reconciliation Action Plan updates)

The parts of the project that will turbo-charge student motivation and learning will only be available with a Classroom Subscription. This will include:

• A 30 minute class Skype/Zoom/WhatsApp live from the expedition itself.
• Downloadable Explore Your Corner integrated unit/ student workbook.
• Downloadable Plan Your Own Adventure inegrated unit/ student workbook.
• Downloadable Swag Family Official Journal (assorted expedition, STEM, fun activities)
• Participation in the moderated forums for students and teachers.

Classroom Subscriptions will be offered as follows:

• $275 (incl. GST) for the first class + $55 for each additional class at the same school. (e.g. for three classes at your school to participate: $385, or $128.33 per class).
• $55 (incl. GST) per home schooled family/student.

After many years of truly amazing Tasmanian and Australian Government and private support, we’ve gone down the partial user-pays road reluctantly, but for an important reason. We want to keep offering a quality and fully supported experience for students and teachers, and this is only possible with a reliable base income to cover the education-related costs of projects. Our other funding partners are still critical in keeping the cost to schools as low as possible.

Teachers can express early bird interest to be involved now >>

We know some teachers will struggle to justify a Class Subscription if it means one less excursion for the class or a punch-up with the Principal. We don’t want that to be a barrier to participate so we’re running a fundraiser to achieve three goals.

1. To fund the new website and curriculum design and development.
2. To buy the camera equipment that will take our video production and website interaction to a higher level.
3. To provide 100% Class Subscription subsidies to schools who need it.

Please consider supporting this with a direct contribution and by sharing it with your friends and family.

View our campaign on GoFundMe >>