The Year 7 Outdoor Education Experience took place at Tallong in early 2025. It was a new style of program with half the cohort attending for three days each. The program was aimed at creating lifelong memories at Tallong and for students to build new friendships amongst their new peers. The students will be with each other for the next six years and the strong bonds that are formed will build the foundation for their time at school.
Outdoor Education is aimed at learning about the self, others and the environment in a new context outside of the classroom. Students engage with new challenges and experiences to enhance their wellbeing, challenge themselves, build teamwork skills and to have fun! This program delivered on these learning outcomes as students participated in canoeing, low ropes, group challenges and mountain biking skills. The students were engaged in all these activities and they often talked about how much they enjoyed mountain biking!
As the students progress through the Outdoor Education Experience program at Santa Sabina, they are developing new outdoors skills each time. In Year 7, the students kit up and put on a hiking pack to participate in the camping expedition at Tallong. It is a great introduction for the students as they hike to their campsites, setup tents, cook on trangias and (best of all!) have a campfire with their friends. These simple adventures in the outdoors are important for students to simply enjoy the beauty around them and what Tallong has to offer.
New this year was the House Adventure Race. There was a set of activities that each House participated in and each group selected students that best suited that skills set. There were problem solving, mountain biking, stick tower building and navigating challenges. At each challenge, the group was collecting items for a campsite to set up for their teacher to have a cup of tea!
