Advance

RUBICON OUTDOOR CENTRE – LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT CAMP

Leadership, decision making and collaboration; these were the themes that the 2018 ADVANCE class explored during their recent week at the Rubicon Outdoor Centre. This enthusiastic and motivated band of Year 10 students subjected themselves to the rigours of a three-day hike and camp-out, white-water kayaking, rock climbing, abseiling and rogaining as they worked on developing their confidence in managing a range of leadership roles in their teams.

The Rubicon experience continues to be unique as a school camp. The students participated in a pre-camp visit in class with their program facilitators to design their experience and set goals for the team. They then completed daily debriefs where they self and peer-assessed their performance against the goals they had established.

This year, our program involved a three-day camp-out and challenging hike in the Cathedral Range, where the group were able to learn and practise the skills required for the Adventurous Journey component their Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. A week without mobile phones was also a challenge for some…

Through exploring the importance of communication, trust, mutual respect, encouragement, doing your best and celebrating success, the students discovered their strengths and how best to capitalise on these to improve the overall performance of their teams.

It was amazing to see the students develop and come together as a group after the week’s activities. They now have a much better understanding of their own character strengths, some surprised at just what they personally managed to achieve. This experience will help focus them in continuing to build their leadership capacity over the duration of this year’s program as they commence their CFA Cadet training and work towards their goals for their Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.

Funding for this program is provided by an annual grant from the Victorian Government through the Department of Human Services. We thank them for their continued support of the Advance program.

Randall Jones – ADVANCE Coordinator.