New outdoor education programmes are being put together for students when they return to campus.

Our experienced outdoors educators are busy designing and planning a diverse range of learning opportunities.

Experiential Educator Reese Cameron has joined the team, and is working with Dave Addis and Arthur Wong, alongside Director of Out of Class and Experiential Education Douglas Kidd.

Over the past few days, they have been brushing up on their bushcraft skills, practising how to cook on campfires, use dutch ovens and make different types of shelters.

The aim is for bushcraft style activities to be included in the outdoor learning programme, with links to Human Technologies classes, when government restrictions allow.

Discussions are also underway about Bioblitz fieldwork days at Starling Inlet. These would include students collecting data on soil and water quality from the streams that feed into Starling Inlet, biodiversity of flora and fauna in the area, amounts of coastal litter and migrating birds. The hope is to gather real data for our area that can be used in science lessons and over the years to use it to action change if needed.

In recent years our innovative outdoor education programme has been firmly established as one of the central pillars of our school.

As well as providing unique learning experiences, opportunities like those discussed introduce students to the ICHK Secondary philosophy, helping to develop the key skills of confidence and resilience which are central to our approaches.