OUTDOOR EDUCATION
| Outdoor Education
From Year 2 when students sleep overnight at the School, adventures outside the classroom challenge young people socially, physically and emotionally. The very process of meeting these challenges, in secure environments will stay with them, helping to navigate all that life may bring. Melbourne Grammar's camps and excursions have been designed for age, physical and emotional needs as students progress through the School, with trips all over Australia by the senior years. Primary aged girls and boys spend time at Camp Rumbug near Foster and our Robert Knox Camp in the Wombat State Forest near Woodend. Activities like orienteering, pitching tents, outdoor games, bushwalking, camp cooking and fire lighting foster self reliance, cooperation in groups, curiosity, courage to try something new and the excitement of being in a natural bush environment. Years 7 and 8 students extend their challenges at Woodend and groups of older students hike out by themselves to camp overnight. Our camps program is most extensive in Years 9 and 10. Boys have two camps during each year. Each trip is a week-long expedition supervised by expert staff and qualified assistants. Choices include sea kayaking in Queensland or Victoria, bushwalking in Victoria or Tasmania, gaining a SCUBA diving qualification, a Surf Lifesaving Bronze Medallion, diving on shipwrecks in Queensland, exploring central Australia, crewing a square-rigged sailing ship off Western Australia, rock climbing at Mount Arapiles, surfing the New South Wales coast, cycling, canoeing the Snowy River and more. Many of our students take up optional adventure trips during holidays, travelling with staff to places like New Zealand, New Caledonia, Tasmania's Cradle Mountain and the Italian Dolomites. The LG Robertson Society, established in 1959, is the School's voluntary bush walking club. It operates in the Alpine National Park near Licola with Senior School boys undertaking rigorous five to ten day walks with trained, experienced student leaders. In Years 11 and 12, selected students are invited on a four-week trip with World Challenge to a developing country where the emphasis is on community service. Outdoor Education aims to enhance personal skills and qualities beyond what may be possible in school - qualities like self reliance, courage to take risks and responsibility for themselves and others. From the mountains to the sea, young people experience spectacular natural environments and gain a real appreciation of the outdoors. |
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