St Raphael’s school teacher Cherie MacCabe, accompanied by students Samantha MacCabe, Brian MacCabe and Grace Gallagher were guest speakers recently and were introduced by chairman Richard Campbell.
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They spoke about the Outward Bound programme at Tharwa, in the ACT.
Each year the school participates in the programme, sending students to the 7 day course.
In this particular course, 18 students are provided the opportunity to build self-confidence, self-awareness and resilience, not just physical fitness.
It uses the outdoors as the classroom to allow each participant to reach their potential in a safe and managed environment.
Cherie and Grace spoke of the challenging experiences of the Outward Bound programme, having participated and what they had gained from the experience, and Samantha and Brian are looking forward to participating in the programme in November. Grace and Cherie gave a powerpoint presentation and spoke of the many activities that are provided.
Since its founding in 1956, Outward Bound Australia has made outdoor education courses available to the community with the aim of developing teamwork skills and raising environmental awareness Australia wide.
Outward Bound's focus on personal and leadership development through outdoor adventure activities, has made it popular amongst a diverse array of groups and individuals within the community, with over 250,000 Australians aged between 13 and 75 have completed a course.
Public, Catholic and Independent schools across Australia use Outward Bound programmes to support curricula.
Founded in 1941 in the UK, Outward Bound has since spread to 6 continents with nearly 2 million people worldwide having completed an Outward Bound Course.
Outward Bound’s outdoor education courses are based on the principles learnt from training young British seamen to survive in the North Atlantic Ocean during the Second World War.
It was discovered that the survival rate of young sailors in lifeboats was dramatically worse than that of the older and presumably less fit men.
It was recognised that the young men had not yet developed an understanding of their own physical, emotional and psychological resources.
The older men were able to draw on their life experiences and inner resources to survive the hardships of the Atlantic in an open lifeboat.
To address this tragic problem, Outward Bound School’s were founded to educate young sailors to better handle the hardships they might face.
Wood Raffle winner for this week: Lance Lamond.