… from the newsletter notes of Head Teacher John Boyce
Retreats at Camp
For any Outdoor Education programme to be truly successful it should encompass all areas of the curriculum and develop key relationships between staff, pupils and the environment.
Garin College’s Journey programme is an holistic five year programme, containing elements from all of the school’s curriculum areas—but with a special partnership between the challenges of the natural environment—and the challenges of the spiritual environment. The programme combines the physical challenges of outdoor education with the spiritual challenges of a retreat programme.
Basing in the amazing outdoor environment of the “top of the South”, using the expertise of our staff in running youth retreats and in outdoor education, and incorporating the safety standards of local outdoors company Vertical Limits—we have developed a very special five year programme:
- Year 13: The Summit
- Year 12: The Ascent
- Year 11: Expedition
- Year 10: Navigator
- Year 9: Base camp
From a 2004 newsletter
What’s this Journey all about anyway?
This week year 13 have been away at French Pass with the first of this year’s Journey programmes.
The Journey at Garin has evolved into a very strong curriculum—starting in year 9 on a challenging physical programme with elements of spiritual development meeting the students where they are—and culminating with the year 13 experience that has very strong spiritual challenges with elements of physical experience.
By the end of their time at Garin a student has grown through adolescence to adulthood—and the Journey has kept pace with that growth in self-awareness and spiritual consciousness. This week we have seen students able to sit comfortably in silence, able to meditate, pray in many different ways, and discuss the real spiritual and personal issues they need to face in their lives. They participated in the experience as young adults aware of their whole selves, and keen to be self-critical, and responsible for their own growth.
This growth has happened as a result of a planned programme in our RE classrooms, a graduated set of experiences and skill development on their Journey programme for the last three years, and as a result of constant exposure to the Catholic and Christian culture of the College.
They have been lucky—as students in a new College they have had to be even more thoughtful and aware of the culture they have helped us develop, and have not been able to take that for granted as students might be able to do in a longer established Catholic school.
So this week—after three years of exposure to all this—it was no surprise to see our students able to see and appreciate our Creator in the environment at French Pass, in themselves and in their community.