Whether you’re starting the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award or have been running it for years, we can ease the burden of the Adventurous Journey on your school.
We understand there are severe time and safety constraints on teachers and schools with regard to outdoor education. We reduce these barriers to enable you and your students to gain the full benefit of participating in the Duke of Ed award.
For students taking part in the Gold level, we also offer Residential Projects.
Similarly, we run a program for senior PDHPE students tying in with the Lifelong Physical Activity strand. We introduce PDHPE students to low-impact hiking, basic navigation and bushcraft skills in the form of an overnight hike and camp. This helps students formulate goals and apply strategies to enhance participation in lifelong physical activities, as defined in learning outcome 5.9.
If you or your Principal are a bit nervous about taking students into the bush, leave it to us. Outward Bound Australia has been providing outdoor education since 1953, adding specific programs for the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award in 2019. Your school doesn’t need Bear Grylls as a teacher to run Duke of Ed.
You can provide your Principal with a document detailing all assessed risks and the lengths we’ve gone to alleviate them. This gives you peace of mind that we run our programs as safely as possible.
Whatever happens your school is covered.
Your students are in the bush with trustworthy, competent, knowledgable and friendly supervisors. They are in safe hands and will love the experience.
Your students are not only in safe hands, with these ratios they will be well-supervised and looked after. We endeavour to supply both male and female supervisors for co-ed schools.
* 24/7 all location emergency communications if required
* You and parents can track students journey via the Spot Tracker GPS on the supervisor’s pack
* Supervisors/teachers in constant contact on the track
We take care of all logistics around the actual hike enabling you to focus on the students, parents and school.
Your school does not need to send teachers. If school policy dictates teachers must accompany students we do this at no cost to your school.
Nominate your preferred date and award level and we’ll look after the rest. We can also manage online registrations and share participant information with you as we receive it.
“Just finished a section of the Great North Walk for our school’s Duke of Ed. What a beautiful walk! A little challenging. I just wanted to say thank you for choosing John and Leonie to guide our group. They immediately built a positive rapport with the students and staff. They are passionate, compassionate and show endless patience. Just wanted to show my huge appreciation for all they did, above and beyond just guiding the walk.”
Ruth Doyle, Teacher, Rouse Hill Anglican College
“Just a quick note to say that we completed a very successful gold hike this week. I wanted to say how fabulous our guide, Amanda, was – she is like a teenager-whisperer! By the end of a few days’ hike, she had the students communicating openly, making group navigation and general hiking decisions, and acting supportively, respectfully and responsibly toward each other and the environment. She gave students the space to make mistakes whilst encouraging them to make good choices throughout with both the boundaries and flexibility teenagers need.”
Jonas Lemmon, Teacher, Northern Beaches Secondary College
If you don’t have enough participants for your own exclusive school hike, students can join our open hikes. Silver and Gold open hikes typically run during the school holidays, with Bronze open hikes offered on weekends during term.
Contact us for information and to book.