OUTDOOR EDUCATION @ CLAREMONT
GROWING AND AFFIRMING THE CHARACTER, LEADERSHIP AND A SENSE OF PURPOSE FOR EACH INDIVIDUAL CHILD
ENGAGING LEARNING THROUGH QUALITY TEACHING ACROSS THE CURRICULUM WITH INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY
This week, our Year 5 and Year 6 students have had a brilliant time at their respective camps. Year 6 attended a three-day camp at Lake Macquarie, the campsite that many dads would be familiar with because of the Dads’ and Kids’ Camp. Our Year 5 students stayed in relative luxury at Stanwell Tops for their three days. Today Year 2 enjoyed a day of outdoor activities at La Perouse to be followed by their classroom sleepover back at school tonight. For many of our Year 2 students, the sleep-over is the highlight of their school year.
Next week our Year 3 students will head to Winmalee in the lower Blue Mountains and Year 4 will stay at Galston near Hornsby.
Our Outdoor Education Program is designed to supplement our school program. The opportunity to experience nature and discover the outdoors is a fabulous in itself, but our Outdoor Education Program goes way beyond just this. Activities which obviously cannot be done at school include bushcraft, water sports, abseiling, high ropes and other activities that incorporate initiative and team-work. Our camps are also designed to incorporate a social skills element where children help each other, share meals and live and work together in community.
The development of learning dispositions such as resilience, risk-taking, leadership, courage, self-confidence, collaboration, creativity, humour, initiative and independence are also a significant aspect of the camp experience.
As the years progress from Year 2 to 6, the activities on each camp are designed to become more diverse and increasingly challenging, as the children grow and develop. As these dispositions grow within each child, we have confidence that each child develops in character, and we know that this ultimately impacts their academic learning back at school.
The children always enjoy the camps (even those who may be a little nervous at first) and although the educational content and learning cannot be formally measured, we know that the outcomes, both at an individual and group level, are incredibly beneficial.
Our teachers and support staff always come back from camp thoroughly exhausted but saying that the experience provided wonderful opportunities for the children to shine in ways that they would not usually see back at school and in the classroom. Our staff work hard on the camps and certainly demonstrate care, energy, commitment and dedication to the students by working long days, without additional remuneration. We would like to commend the staff for their amazing dedication.
In addition to the Claremont staff, each of the campsites have their own trained staff team employed by the Crusader Union. This team have the specific skills and training that is required for leading the outdoor education activities. The Cru team also deliver the Christian Education program that involves singing, drama, a Bible talk and a short Bible Study. This is the same team that also lead the activities and program at the Dad’s and Kids’ Camp. These energetic and passionate leaders are another highlight of camp for many of our students.
As well as all of this busyness, our Kindy and Year 1 students have made a great start to their two-week intensive swimming program.
Mrs Janelle Ford
Deputy Principal
