From the Head of the Junior School

And we are off and running!

It’s as if we had an Athletics starter gun at the start line of this term and we have begun a race – we’ve had excursions, carnivals, bushwalks and celebrations galore in the last week and a half. There is lots more to come and I hope you found the communications sent last week – with some key dates of events – helpful for your planning. Remember that there will be other things on too and we will let you know as the term rolls along.

There is a significant body of research that explores the area of outdoor education and its affects on learning and well being. Playing, exploring and learning outdoors is known to impact the cognitive, physical, emotional and social development of children (and adults). Recent research in Canada has shown that this is even more significant post-COVID. This underpins our school’s practice with outdoor education, which of course we call ‘Wild Ed’.

Our Early Years students undertake an afternoon of Wild Ed every week on both campuses – this happens on Thursdays at Wentworth Falls and on Fridays at Springwood. Pre K – Year 2 children spend time playing and learning outside together and this session is highly valued by staff and students. Early Years teachers know that young children learn best when given large blocks of times to play in an open-ended way. We very deliberately follow the students as the leaders of their learning for much of this time. Teachers closely observe, facilitate and lead the children to communicate on the learning that takes place.

Certainly the teachers also use this time to explicitly connect learning to Geography, Science, Maths, English and Health. Knowledge about our world and each other is best learned in action and outcomes across many areas of the curriculum are achieved during Wild Ed. Staff are also teaching skills particular to this area – whittling wood, tying knots, lighting a campfire with a flint, putting a fire out safely, and much more – are upskilling our students to be capable and confident in our environment.

Mr Luke Carr and Mrs Laura Fox have spearheaded this learning in the Junior School. With much advice from the outstanding Senior School Wild Ed staff, and with extensive ‘Forrest School’ training, they are making a huge difference to our students and how they learn here at Grammar. These teachers have shared their knowledge across both campuses and it’s wonderful to see all of our students taking part in Wild Ed. We are also very grateful for our P and F communities who have resourced this new programme with all the practical tools we need.

Our Primary Years students move into a different kind of Wild Ed experience. This is the time to experience some more adventurous activities in our environment and to learn skills and knowledge in a deeper way. Every week in Term 3, students from Stage 2 and Stage 3 are partaking in a variety of Wild Ed activities. These include:

Bushwalking at Wentworth Falls and at Springwood
Canoeing on Wentworth Falls Lake
Orienteering
Rock Climbing
Initiative games and team building
Wild Ed skills – fire lighting, knots, shelter building, tent pitching, camp preparation
Class projects connected to Wild Ed are included too

Many of these activities are run with our Senior School students and their teachers Mr Parrish Robbins and Mrs Adele Stubenrauch. The expertise of these teachers, and the impressive leadership of our Senior School students, makes these rich experiences possible. Students return from these experiences very grateful and in wonder – either of the incredible natural environment that we get to learn in, or by the things they were able to achieve.

Our Wild Ed programme takes lots of organizing. It involves careful management of risk and safety. It takes resources and lots of effort from our staff. It involves collaboration across three separate campuses. It requires students to step out with an open mind and a spirit of resilience. There’s sometimes bruises and tired legs – but it is worth all of that.

We are already seeing leadership amongst our students, social skills being better developed, appreciation of the environment and time to consider our own well being while in nature, physical skills growing and new knowledge growing in our children.

Blue Mountains Grammar School is definitely ‘The Wilderness Experience’ – and the Junior School students are loving it.

Kind regards,

Rachael J Newton

Head of Junior School

Nattai National Park – Sacred Sites

On Thursday 25th of July, Stage 2 from Wentworth Falls and Springwood campuses journeyed to Nattai National Park to meet up with longtime Gundungurra Aboriginal friend Jim Halls, who works in the National Park and who has a deep connection to the land. He shared with us the history behind the Burragorang Lookout and how it was turned into a dam. This meant that the existing groups of people who were in the valley had to move.

Jim also shared a site where there were grinding grooves and how the grooves were made with an Aboriginal axe head. We then headed out of the park and did a steep bushwalk to a rock shelter that had an ochre hand mark and an outline of a kangaroo. We all felt really lucky to be shown these Aboriginal sites.

In Term 3 the Stage 2 students will be looking at the First Fleet and the impact this had on the Aboriginal population.

Lori Gerrard

Stage 2 Teacher