In Semester 1 the Year 10 Outdoor Education students learnt about a range of environmental issues, navigation skills and other activities including rock climbing through the semester. This learning culminated in two excursions over the past few weeks, firstly to HardRock Climbing Centre to gain basic knowledge and climbing competencies before heading to the Cathedral Ranges to test these in a ‘real life’ setting, in sometimes challenging weather conditions. In addition to these skills and knowledge, the students also built terrific relationships with classmates that are much more difficult to develop within the four walls of a classroom.
Here are some student reflections of their experiences:
On 18 May we attended indoor rock climbing as part of our curriculum. We were given instructions to keep us safe. Once we understood these and demonstrated our skills we were allowed onto the walls to start exploring the ways of top-rope climbing. We had to put our trust in each other as well as encouraging each other. We had to have a climber and belayer. The belayer had to hold the rope and make sure their partner was safe. On 20 May we were taken to the Cathedral Ranges to either abseil down or rock climb up. My group got to abseil down. This task required us to be put into harnesses and be tied up to another rock while letting ourselves down. We had to put trust into ourselves as well as encouraging others to trust themselves.
— Alanah Jary (Year 10 Jade)
It was fun to do these activities with my friends. It was very hard for me to walk up the mountain to get to the abseiling, but my friends in the class always supported me, waited for me and we walked up together. The abseiling was a great challenge too.
— Will Toopchan (Year 10 Jade)
