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“…landscape shapes mindscape”
“…mindscape shapes landscape”
In order to understand the Outdoor Education Programme at Sophia
Mundi it is necessary to go beyond the sense of terms like ‘camping’
and ‘bushwalking’. Being an inner city school, it is imperative
that children remain in contact with the natural forces of the Australian
bush and nurture their own “inner wildness.”
The children need to feel connected to places and gain a sense
of the real and underlying Australia that is much more obvious in
the wild places we journey to.
The Outdoor Education programme is sequentially designed to suit
the child’s developmental stage and build upon the learning from
previous camps. The programme begins in Class 3 with a short, simple
and comfortable camp close to Melbourne. As the child grows, they
are challenged by more distant and longer trips. During the Primary
classes, the children will experience two camps each year, one being
strongly linked to classroom curriculum and the other to outdoor
education curriculum.
Helping make lunch, Class 3
Greeting the day Class 4
When the child enters the High School, they take on this extra
responsibility by preparing and cooking their own meals. The camps
in the High School will often revisit places that the child has
been to in their Primary years, experiencing these areas with new
perspectives and by engaging different faculties.
A shady rest with a spectacular view, Class 9
By the time a child enters Class 9 they have already experienced
journeying through a landscape, breathing in the beauty of the natural
world, observing and experiencing its many rhythms. During this
year, the children will observe and reflect on both this natural
world and the human world by experiencing the Australian bush on
nine trips for a cumulative total of forty days.
After the experience of Class 9 Outdoor Education, students are
in a position to grasp more complex ways of seeing and knowing places,
and the Class 10 and 11 camps ensure that this learning continues
to develop. These older children, almost adults, are in a position
of fully interacting with the world. The learning from Outdoor Education
aims at ensuring this interaction is positive, for both the Child
and the outer world.
Sunrise on Ninety Mile Beach, Class 11
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Breakfast at sunrise, Class 9
(Ali) Murray sunset, Class 9
Jounalling, Nungatta, Class 9
Candlelit dinner at Nungatta, Class 9
(Antione with guitar) Reflection time
River Sculpture
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