Grammar Gazette- Issue 1, 2023

MS KIM WOOD DIRECTOR OF OUTDOOR EDUCATION

Understanding HUM A NITY;

understanding OUR WORLD THE IMPORTANCE OF OUTDOOR EDUCATION

F or the vast majority of human history, people have understood they were part of something bigger: we are part of an interconnected network of plants, animals, insects, birds, and fungi; and we are just one element in the web upon which we are entirely dependent for sustenance and survival. This understanding was the foundation for the development of all human wisdom, technology, artistic endeavour, spirituality, and meaning. Some worry that over the past few generations, we have lost that connection to nature, that sense of dependence on the non-human world, that understanding of our place and role in the ecosystem.

For young people to spend time in a natural environment—away from the distractions of screens, the artificial noises of the city, the hard environment of straight lines built by humans— is profoundly meaningful. It enables them to consider their place in the world and in their community, to become familiar with other creatures and the plants upon which our very ability to breathe depends, and to connect with, and be moved by, the rhythm of the days and the seasons. For young women to do this in an environment where they are taking responsibility for their decisions, assessing risks and making choices, without judgement or censure, is even more profound. This is why at Girls Grammar the Outdoor Education program has been an essential element of our education of young women for more than four decades. The program provides our students with the opportunity to slow down, engage meaningfully with the people around them, immerse themselves in new pursuits, develop confidence in their decision-making and emotional regulation, and ascribe their own meaning to their experiences.

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The Outdoor Education Program is based at Marrapatta Memorial Outdoor Education Centre, on Kabi Kabi country in the Mary Valley, on the banks of Yabba creek before it joins Numabulla, the Mary River. At Marrapatta, students can marvel at the bunya trees, listen to the yellow tailed black cockatoos and blue-faced honeyeaters, explore the creek and look for platypus, lungfish, and Krefft’s turtles. They eat native fruit planted by other Grammar Girls from the orchard, eat eggs from the chickens to whom they have fed their cooking scraps, and peek into the letterbox to observe the microbats. More observant students might see koalas, sugar-gliders, and wedge-tailed eagles. The resident native and introduced animals help students to understand the relationship between different elements of the ecosystem, to see their place in it, and their relationship to the land and other living beings. By gathering in community, and depending on each other for food, shelter, safety, entertainment, and companionship, students are able to see strengths and skills in themselves and others which may not be apparent in the classroom. They have time to get to know themselves, their peers and the staff in a different setting—a setting which encourages exploration, curiosity, critical thinking, reflection and awe. This is why the Outdoor Education Program is such a fundamental aspect of the broad, liberal education Girls Grammar seeks to provide to young women.

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CAPTIONS 1 STUDENT AT MARRAPATTA ON THEIR YEAR 8 PROGRAM, NAVIGATE 2 OLIVIA MITCHELL (9G) AND ANNA GOSLIN (9H) AT MARRAPATTA IN 2022 3 YEAR 8 STUDENTS AT MARRAPATTA IN 2022 4 ANNA GOSLIN (9H) MOUNTAIN BIKE RIDING AT MARRAPATTA IN 2022

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BRISBANE GIRLS GRAMMAR SCHOOL

GAZETTE • ISSUE 1, 2023 ISSUE 1, 2023