Work Experience at Berry Sport and Recreation Camp

High ropes course provides students with a challenge to overcome

Doing work experience at Berry Sport and Recreation Camp was something I had wanted to do for years. I love being in any outdoor environment and working in a physically challenging setting. Working with kids in year 5 and 6 was also a very interesting, energetic and fun experience. We started by getting to know all the students, working with two very different primary schools; Shoalhaven Heads Primary School and Canterbury Primary School. We could already see the differences in the students from the very beginning. Playing tennis with the students I was given the nickname of Roger (Roger Federer) by the imaginative minds of the Shoalhaven Heads kids. We began the first day with ice-breaking games, much like those explored within our initiative games assessment task. This allowed the students’ time to get to know each other much better and form more comfortable bonds. This proved to be extremely important, especially considering team-work was a major aim and necessity in all of the activities the students would be taking part in over the course of the week. I was placed with a group of students from Canterbury Primary School. I had never really worked with ‘city’ kids and their attitude, up-bringing and diversity was extremely different to the type of kids I had been accustomed to working with. The students were all from low socio-economic backgrounds, many having to wear the same clothes every day. They had never really worked in outdoor settings such as the ones they were about to be in and challenged in such settings. Many of the students found a lot of seemingly easy tasks extremely difficult and were placed out of their comfort zones all throughout the trip. This helped me to develop skills in active listening. Making sure that I listened to how students were feeling about the task at hand and taking an empathetic approach allowed me to encourage them and build their self-confidence in overcoming obstacles or fears.

One example that sticks in my mind was a young year 6 boy. He had never really been exposed to anything like he was being challenged with, his confidence was therefore extremely low and he had fear of the unknown things he was about to be involved with. He had a major fear of heights and was adamant on not becoming involved in activities such as; rock-climbing, abseiling, high-ropes courses and the giant swing. All of these activities very much took him out of his comfort zone and into the unknown. Trying to encourage him to become involved and push himself outside of this zone was extremely difficult. After discussing the activity with him and walking him through the procedures as well as what a great experience it would be he decided to become involved. After having his go on the giant swing he said that it was an amazing experience like no other that he had ever had. He explained that he was dramatically afraid of the height at which he was dropped, but that the experience was amazingly fun and would make him more confident for future pursuits. It gave him an overwhelming sense of self-belief and trust. 

The giant swing experience

The thrill of the experience mixed with the adrenaline rush he had almost made him feel invisible and he was much more confident and enthusiastic about the remainder of the trip. It is risky experiences such as this which have such a great reward. Even though I was not the child having the feelings of success, seeing how excited, happy, and proud the young boy was to overcome his fear brought me a feeling of success. Working with all students in outdoor settings proved to be very rewarding. Simply seeing how happy and what an amazing time the students were having without technology, and the close friendships and skills they were building was incredible. Seeing how fear and challenges can bring people together is amazing. This is why working in the outdoors with children is a major aim of mine, whether it is working in outdoor education camps, running duke of Edinburgh or teaching outdoor education within a high school. I cannot wait to finish university and start exploring the vast opportunities open in outdoor education within Australia.

Evaluation of the use of blogging: 

-Blogs are a great tool to allow students to reflect on experiences they have. The option of implementing photos, videos and other forms of media allows the students to be creative in writing down their thoughts on any issue or subject they see fit. Blogs could potentially be used as an assessment task when I complete my course and am a qualified Physical and Health educator. A definite positive of a blog is the potential to put it on private and only allow certain people to read what you are writing. I know that I had trouble with the settings and allowing others to view what I had written as well as getting my images in the correct position. To be completely honest I am still a little bit confused with how to confidently use the tool. If I wanted to implement blogging into my physical health and education lessons, or even into outdoor education lessons I would need to become much more proficient at using a blog. This increased knowledge would allow me to help students set up and get their blogs started as well as assisting with any issues they may encounter along the way, making this tool much more effective and useful within the class setting.