Service and Outdoor Education
At Gordonstoun Japan, service and outdoor education are foundational curriculum pillars, not extracurricular boxes to tick. Built on Kurt Hahn's belief that young people thrive when needed and challenged, our pupils discover they can endure and achieve far more than they ever thought possible.
Our educational curriculum cultivates personal resilience, responsibility and deep mutual trust. Through our year-round sailing programme at the National Sailing Centre, pupils master seamanship and develop teamwork as crews unify to navigate and manage the Wakayama waters. Complementing this, pupils will undertake an annual Gordonstoun Expedition, an inspiring trek along the historic, World Heritage-listed Kumano Kodo pilgrimage route. Through shared experiences and the rising to the challenge of the natural environment, our students will find themselves in both success and failure.
"There are three ways of trying to win the young. There is persuasion, there is compulsion and there is attraction. You can preach at them: that is a hook without a worm. You can say 'you must volunteer' and that is of the devil. But you can tell them 'you are needed' and that approach hardly ever fails". Kurt Hahn
Duke of Edinburgh Award
The Duke of Edinburgh's award was established between the Duke of Edinburgh (Prince Philip) and Kurt Hahn. It has become an internationally recognised award, designed to challenge children between the ages of 13 and 26 to develop four components of physical, expedition, service and skill. We will be delighted to support our students with this award and we are honoured to work within a model which was designed with our curriculum in mind.
