Adventure Camps

HANDS ON LEARNING

Whilst academic learning, subject scores, grades, and ATAR are important, so too is playing in a sports team with teammates, singing in a choir with your friends or learning how to pitch a tent on the shore of a beautiful lagoon in a World Heritage area.

Our co-curricular offerings at St Catherine’s, and the range of experiential programs available ensure we provide the essential balance of learning experiences so vital to becoming a well-rounded person.

In 2022, our Year 9 students travelled in groups to Far North Queensland and north-western Western Australia as part of St Catherine’s Her Signature Adventure Camps. Our group travelling to Western Australia were able to discover first-hand the secrets of the beautiful land of Monkey Mia, and to understand the deep spiritual connection to land the Nhanda and Malgana people have. This was an enriching experience of First Australians’ cultures, history, and traditions, discovered in an outdoor classroom.

Our Queensland group travelled to Cairns and onto the Atherton Tablelands. They joined the Mandingalbay Yidinji people where they learnt about their culture and their connection to Country. Following this the girls travelled to the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage area, where they learnt about the conservation programs in place in the Daintree Rainforest and travelled to the Daintree and Cape Tribulation National Park. The Adventure Camps exposed our Year 9 students to some genuinely remote and different environments to anything experienced in Victoria. The girls also gained valuable insights and a deeper understanding of the First Australians and their custodianship of this land.

Undoubtedly, our Year 9 Cohort have endured a disrupted start to their senior schooling with pressing COVID lockdowns across both their Years 7 and 8 journeys. However, despite this disruption, the Cohort embraced every opportunity during the Adventure Camps, finding joy, fun and laughter by simply being together.