The comfort zone

The Outdoor Education program is a highly valued component of our curriculum that contributes to the holistic approach to the student experience at Fraser Coast Anglican College. In the Secondary School, a whole week is dedicated to camp, ensuring our students have the richest opportunity to build upon relationships with peers and teachers and develop important lifelong skills. The benefits of outdoor education for secondary students are invaluable. A plethora of research suggests benefits such as greater self-confidence, independence and resilience from high-quality outdoor education programs. Thanks to our partners, Total Adventures, who provide the engaging programs for Years 7 to 11, our students walk away from camp equipped with improved social competencies, leadership skills and experience in extending beyond their comfort zones (Bowers, et al., 2019). It is this space beyond their comfort zones where they push through fear, develop new skills, learn to overcome obstacles, build resilience, grow and achieve great success.

At the core of these competencies is the concept of courage. In Term Two, the College value of ‘Courage’ was the focus of the pastoral program, and camp provided the ideal gateway for students to demonstrate this key value. It takes courage to attend outdoor education camps, abseil, sleep outdoors, overcome fears, explore the unknown, and step well beyond your comfort zone. The structure of the outdoor education camps in the secondary school allows for students to develop the essential skills and build on these sequentially each year. Similarly, the camps are also designed to be accessed by new students who may not have had much camping experience, therefore providing an accessible experience for all students.

In Year 7, camp aims to orient students to outdoor education and provide them with basic skills they can use in future expeditions. They spend one night camping out in tents which helps prepare them for the following year. In Year 8, students participate in the Wilderness Camp designed to extend their skills and engage in outdoor educational activities such as mountain biking, canoeing, abseiling, navigating the bush and rock climbing.

Article by Mr Remy Melia Director of Senior Years

In Year 9, the students challenge themselves with the skills developed in previous years by participating in the Survival Camp. This camp develops students’ ability to survive in the outdoors by learning about building shelters, fire lighting and maintenance, water trapping and filtration, food and cooking, crossing rivers and conducting rescues; all whilst hiking to each location. Unfortunately, due to the weather this year, this camp was moved to another location and provider at short notice. Although some aspects of the survival camp were minimised as a result, students were still able to participate in a range of activities to replicate the survival skills and activities they would have experienced in the original camp.

In Year 10, these skills are further strengthened in the Eco Challenge Camp where students’ hike, canoe or mountain bike to and from each of the camp locations. During the week, they also abseil, develop teamwork skills and demonstrate an array of survival skills.

The focus in Year 11 is on leadership and students participate in a range of activities to test and develop their leadership skills, communication skills, relationship attributes and resilience, in preparation for their final year of schooling.

Finally in Year 12, the students experience navigating Southeast Queensland by visiting various tertiary education providers on the Sunshine Coast and in Brisbane preparing them for what the future holds. The students travel around in groups using various public transport to demonstrate initiative, leadership and independence under the guidance of teachers.

All of our camps are designed to challenge students, to encourage personal growth and build relationships. Ultimately though, it’s the memories, stories and experiences shared on camp, that will be remembered by our students, well beyond their schooling years.