Outdoor Education
See Also - Duke Of Edinburgh Award

Outdoor Education Objectives

Outdoor Education provides an opportunity for students to experience a large range of natural environments around Victoria and to participate and develop skills in a variety of outdoor activities. The program makes a valuable contribution to the broader College goal, which is of personal development of students.

Students involved in the program meet a wide range of challenges during the camps and activities and through experimental learning are able to develop many valuable skills and attributes for young people. Whether it is an overnight snow skiing trip at Lake Mountain, rock climbing the cliffs in the Grampians, surfing the waves at Lorne or one of the other multi day camps, we aim to challenge the students in a positive manner and foster the development of these skills.

Skills specifically targeted include:

• Teamwork – working in small groups on camps to achieve common goals
• Leadership – taking on leadership roles during the various activities
• Responsibility – taking responsibility for their own food, equipment and safety
• Interpersonal skills – communicating and understanding others
• Meeting Challenges – whether it be personal boundaries or group challenges
• Building Confidence and Self Esteem – through positive reinforcement of achievements
• Fun – Enjoying their time at the college and develop strong friendships with their peers

Outdoor Education Program Year 10

Students have the opportunity to choose Outdoor Education as an elective in years 9-10. The goal of the program being to give the students positive and challenging experiences in a variety of natural environments completing a range of different outdoor activities.

As part of this program students are introduced to the Bronze Level of the Duke of Edinburgh Award and participate in a Life Saving Program. Students complete a range of activities and training during class time covering safety in the outdoors, pool swimming, open water swimming, snorkeling, open water rescue techniques, indoor rock-climbing, orienteering, first aid training, resuscitation training, initiative challenges and canoeing.

Students also complete a number of overnight camps as part of the program, which include activities overnight bush walks, surfing, kayaking, cross country skiing, mountain bike riding and outdoor rock climbing.

Outdoor & Environmental Studies VCE

As part of the VCE program the College offers the subject Outdoor and Environmental Studies. The subject specifically investigates the relationships that humans have with the outdoor environment. It covers a wide range of issues including humans perception and use of the environment, impacts on the environment and conflicts over use of the environment.

This subject requires students to experience a range of natural environments during their camps and outdoor activities. It is these experiences that become the basis for the classroom tasks and assessment tasks through the year. In our current program students complete a number of overnight camps covering surfing, rock climbing, bush walking, kayaking, mountain bike riding and canoeing.

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