Perth high school learns mountain biking in Pemberton on outdoor education camp in Nannup

A group of Perth students headed to the South West to embrace outdoor adventure and learn new life skills while camping with school mates. Students from the Hillside Christian College got to experience mountain biking in Pemberton as well as canoeing and hiking. It is part of an outdoor education program which teacher Sean Murphy said encompassed learning new skills, cooking, adventurous sports and focused on emotional connection — skills which can sometimes get lost. “Unfortunately we’re becoming more and more and averse to doing things in the outdoors and also challenging ourselves,” Mr Murphy said. “Challenges are a really important part of growth development and unfortunately, one that we’re seeing less people take up these days, which is a little bit sad. “If things are always easy, there’s no room for growth.” To help encourage that growth, a group of 13 Year 10 students spent three days in Nannup learning about mountain bike riding, canoeing, hiking and camping. Mr Murphy said Hillside Christian College was a small school of about 200 students with a vision for positive transformation in Jesus’ name for the lives of people in the community. “That plays into how we got to go about our camps,” he said. “The students learn anything from communication and teamwork, through to how to cook dinner, or how to do the logistics for a major event — there’s a lot of different elements to it.” He said the purpose of the camp was to give students the opportunity to be challenged physically as well as learn problem solving and emotional development. The program has been running since 2016 for students from Year 8 to Year 12. Hiring bikes from the Pemberton general store, the students rode the Rainbow Trail to Big Brook Dam — which was a favourite challenge among the students. Student Jason Brown said the skills he learnt at the camp would stick with him and he thoroughly enjoyed a spur of the moment run around Big Brook Dam. On his fourth camping experience focused on outdoor education, he said camping with his classmates was “hectic”. “I did get to know them better though, and sitting around the campfire was an excellent part of that experience,” Jason said. “My challenge was the mountain biking — it’s not something I would normally do. The canoeing trial was difficult, but I really did enjoy the challenge of carrying the 37kg canoe over the evil treacherous 2km.” Student Talitha Francis said her highlights included the mountain biking — and beating her classmates up each of the hills. She said there was an obstacle course for the canoeing activity which was a “tiring” physical challenge, but she enjoyed the experience of trying to go under and over big logs while also trying to stay dry.