Camps Programs for Years 3 to 12

Based on the original village layout, the Lady Northcote Recreation Camp offers cabin-style lodge accommodation, providing a unique level of comfort in a natural bush setting. The camp is located 16kms from Bacchus Marsh, and about 1 ¼ hours from Oakleigh. Students are accommodated in rooms for between 3 and 4 students with shared bathrooms. All meals are fully catered.

The camp provides an initial camp experience of spending a night away from home with their friends. The students are encouraged to develop independence and take responsibility in a different learning environment. During the time on camp the students will participate in a variety of activities including the giant swing, archery, low ropes, initiative games and raft building.

Just 60 minutes from Oakleigh, our Year 4s escape to a wonderful bayside camp. Whilst the camp has been in operation since 1945, recent refurbishments have created a modern campsite which comprises new dormitories, hall, a separate dining room and games rooms, all in a picturesque setting just 200m to the beach. The dormitories have individual rooms with double bunks that sleep between 4-8 people in each room. All dormitories have bathroom facilities under the same roof as well as heating and fans. Additionally, each dormitory has a separate room with ensuite facilities for teachers/leaders. All meals are fully catered.

During the time on camp the students will participate in a range of team building activities to promote initiative, challenge and leadership including a beach carnival, amazing race, enchanted adventure garden and the surfing school. Children will have opportunities to flourish in a camp environment as they develop greater independence away from parents.

Situated on 80 acres of landscaped grounds in the heart of Phillip Island, the Adventure Resort offers a fully programmed ‘tent camping’ experience for our Year 5s. This program allows students to safely engage in a hands-on bush camping and cooking experience, while studying good environmental practice in seeming isolation, while at all times being a short stroll away from the rest of the resort facilities. Students will sleep in 3-person tents, with all equipment and infrastructure supplied. During the time on camp the students will focus on a variety of fun bush camping activities as well as having opportunities to participate in things like initiative activities, raft building and beach exploration.

Situated in the beautiful Yarra Ranges, Camp Toolangi is located on 12 acres of natural bushland adjoining the Toolangi State Forest. The students are accommodated in cabins sleeping between 4 and 7 students with shared bathrooms. All meals are fully catered and shared together. There are many fun and challenging activities that the students are able to participate in, including flying fox, rafting, high and low ropes courses, initiative games, canoeing and cubby building. Throughout each of these activities students are guided to develop skills of independence, perseverance, leadership and collaborative problem solving. In the evenings the students undertake a number of activities including a night walk to view the city lights.

Year 7 camp is located at Merricks on the serene Mornington Peninsula. Positioned between farmland and near Westernport Bay, the camp offers a wide variety of activities to challenge and engage students. The students are accommodated in cabins sleeping 4 students with shared bathrooms. The students will each participate in a camp out in tents at the Point Leo camping ground. Other than on the evening of the campout, all meals are fully catered and shared together.

There are many fun and challenging activities that the students are able to participate in including surfing, mountain biking, coastal walks, camp cooking, orienteering, and tree climbing. Throughout each of these activities students are guided to develop skills of independence, perseverance, leadership and collaborative problem solving. The activities at Merricks are designed to fit in with our theme A.R.R.O. giving our Year 7 children opportunities to extend their growth in teamwork, resilience, respect as well as in personal growth.

Karoondah Park is situated on a working Hereford Stud farm surrounded by the Alpine and Snowy River National Parks, Wilderness Areas and State Forests. The camp provides a formative experience in the outdoors that challenges students in a holistic sense and is sensitive to each individual’s comfort zones and competence. There are many fun and challenging activities that the students are able to participate in including rafting, horse riding, abseiling, giant flying foxes and hiking. Students will also enjoy learning about the working farm and strolling freely around the farm in between activities and after dinner. Accommodation is in self-contained units sleeping 8 – 10 students. All meals are fully catered, are shared together and are beautiful home cooked meals!

The 9ways Summit Camp is the first experience taking students beyond the classroom in the 9Ways programme. Year 9 students will undergo a 3 day retreat in the picturesque Strezlecki Ranges with their Home Group and Pastoral teachers. This is a perfect setting for our students to experience learning through adventure and to build long lasting relationships with their teachers and peers. The camp is designed to complement the pastoral and academic program and has a strong emphasis on:

• Encouraging confidence while acknowledging and respecting acceptable boundaries;
• Encouraging resilience by teaching students to face their fears, believe in themselves and to use their initiative;
• To be positive, to feel inspired and to be motivated;

Students are accommodated in bunkrooms and all meals are fully catered. Facilities available and activities undertaken during the camp include: reptile enclosures, a 30m rip swing, 20m and 30 rock climbing walls, a 30m abseiling wall, a sky walk, a 20m water slide, a downhill mountain bike track, a reverse bungee and bungee trampolines.

Bushwalking Expedition

The Wilson’s Prom Walk is a 3 day/2 night Bushwalking Expedition. Students are accompanied by staff and professional guides who support them in this challenging and rewarding self-catered experiences. Students carry their own food and tents and prepare their own meals. All equipment is supplied and students undertake training sessions before departing. The routes are achievable for novice bushwalkers, very scenic and water is available at each campsite.

The Prom is an iconic site and a famous National and Marine National Park. Located at the southernmost tip of mainland Australia, approximately a 3 hour drive from Melbourne, it offers spectacular scenery of huge granite mountains, open forest, rainforest, sweeping beaches and coastlines. It provides wonderful bushwalking opportunities.

The Year 9 City Experience is designed to give students the confidence to independently explore the Melbourne CBD, giving them a taste of university life and exposing them to the many cultural delights, problems and experiences of this wonderful world city.

Students begin with a 2 day orientation experience in which students will travel from school into Melbourne’s CBD with their teachers. They attend the ACMI screen world exhibition and a professional theatre production, and participate in an amazing race style activity run by Urban Quest.

During the full week program that follows, students travel independently and meet their teachers at a pre-organised point in Federation Square. From there, students participate in organised extra-curricular activities that support their academic studies. These include:

• Culture: visit the Hellenic Museum and take part in an Ancient Greek walking tour around the city looking at the Hellenic influence on Melbourne’s culture, architecture and design
• Art: admire and learn about Melbourne’s renowned street art and create a canvas of their own to take home
• Health and Wellbeing: challenge themselves at indoor rock climbing, followed by a tour and museum entry at the MCG.
• Empathy and Resilience: learn about Melbourne’s homeless by participating in a tour and empathy workshop
• History and Geography: go on a scenic and historical boat cruise and have lunch in Williamstown

Students are dismissed in town at the end of each day and travel home independently.

Wombat Corner is a refurbished historic guesthouse located in Emerald in the Dandenong Ranges only 50km from Melbourne. It is surrounded by Emerald Lake Park and Wright Forest. The surrounding area and the camp provide scope for a number of activities including water activities, abseiling, tree climbing and low ropes. Students are accommodated in shared bedrooms sleeping from 5 to 18 students, each with shared bathrooms. All meals are fully catered and shared together. Students develop awareness of their surrounding environment and their impact on it through participation in activities. Presentations provide strategies to develop an awareness of others and to develop the skills necessary to present an accurate overview of their abilities and interests for future studies.

The beautiful Camp Rumbug is located in the majestic hills of South Gippsland, two hours from Melbourne’s CBD and set in 200 acres of glorious temperate rainforest overlooking Wilsons Promontory National Park. Students are accommodated in shared bedrooms each with shared bathrooms. All meals are fully catered and shared together. Activities at the camp include crate climbing, canoeing, hiking and horse riding. Students develop confidence and character through these activities which also encourages leadership qualities. Presentations about healthy life styles and careers help students to establish strategies to enable them to make informed decisions about their future life choices and risk-taking activities.

Whitehall Guesthouse is an historic guesthouse situated in the seaside town of Queenscliff. The property has large common areas that can be used for presentations and group activities, including a sheltered balcony and BBQ area. Students are accommodated in shared bedrooms sleeping between 2 to 10 students with shared bathrooms. Staff and students work together in the property’s large commercial kitchen and BBQ area to prepare and cook meals as the camp is self-catered.

The experience allows pastoral staff and students to develop relationships that will support students during their final year of secondary schooling and completion of the VCE. Activities throughout the camp guide students to develop a sound understanding of the VCE and its demands. Presentations assist students to establish and develop the organisational and time management skills required to make effective and efficient use of time and address strategies to develop healthy life styles and make informed decisions about risk taking activities. In addition, students participate in team building and collaborative problem solving by competing in group activities in the evening. The highlight for many is the ferry ride across the bay for lunch in Sorrento on the final day.