The WHSS is committed to integrating different virtues of learning identified as mastery, identity, and creativity. In this compelling learning environment, students and staff have opportunities to develop knowledge and skill (mastery), they come to see their core selves as vitally connected to what they are learning and doing (identity), and they have opportunities to enact their learning by producing something rather than simply receiving knowledge (creativity).

The goal is for learners to be apprenticed into expertise through inquiry where developed knowledge is generative and unconstrained. It is learning how to find and solve problems and design solutions by using the stances and strategies of expert practioners.