Redlands Case Study

Redlands is a co-educational school in Sydney, New South Wales, founded in 1884. Their vision is to inspire girls and boys to achieve life readiness and to let their light shine. Redlands believes education should prepare young people for the next stage of their life by inspiring them to recognise and develop their unique potential and use their abilities for the good of others.

Outdoor education has always been a vital part of the school curriculum at Redlands; it enhances students’ self-confidence and develops essential life skills, supporting the School’s vision of preparing students for their future. Redlands first offered camp experiences in the 1920s, and the 1980s saw major growth with camps offered across many year groups.

For many years, Redlands worked with several outdoor education providers across different year levels to deliver a sequential suite of programs. In working with multiple providers, ensuring connected learning was more challenging than with one provider. There was scope to improve the student experience, challenge level and delivery method. The expectations of students and school staff were forced to shift in some years as logistics, preparation and experiences differed. Managing multiple providers, each with unique processes, approaches and varying risk management policies, can be challenging.

Redlands was confident The Outdoor Education Group had a comprehensive understanding of the School’s vision, values, culture, and what they wanted to achieve, having worked with them for over 20 years. The Outdoor Education Group provided a sequential program design fulfilling the school’s three overarching objectives:

• To deliver broad life experiences, promoting the School’s vision of letting your light shine and life-readiness and associated values.
• Experiences in varied and dynamic natural learning environments.
• Opportunities for personal development and growth, including social and emotional learning, building resilience, understanding risk and experiences outside of students’ comfort zones.

Furthermore, The Outdoor Education Group’s proposal of sequential programming from years 2 – 11 (excluding Year 9, where students undertake a cultural immersion in Arnhem Land) met the school’s expectations of progressive learning and challenge, varied experiences and created clear pathways for student growth. A dedicated client liaison manager ensures The Outdoor Education Group remains responsive to feedback from camps and the school’s needs.

The Outdoor Education Group had the scale, capacity and flexibility to offer camp locations and experiences to build in variety and development from year to year.

The Outdoor Education Group has enabled Redlands to provide a meaningful sequential experience for their students, providing new challenges to further develop student capabilities from one year to the next. The Outdoor Education Group understands the culture of the school, enabling camp programs to reflect and enhance the learning experience taking place on campus.

Student satisfaction has remained very positive. Redlands continues to receive excellent feedback from students and staff. Students report their experiences with The Outdoor Education Group are challenging and fun, while teachers find their students take away lessons about themselves and the world.

Senior students benefit greatly, building on expectations set during junior years when they develop an understanding of The Outdoor Education Group’s facilitation and delivery; this familiarity breaks down the barriers some students may have to access camp and promotes the enjoyment and benefits of the experience.

The Outdoor Education Group’s sequential suite culminates in presenting the Year 11 students with a selection of activities to choose from for their final journey, all featuring varying challenge levels. School leaders note students choose the most appropriate program for themselves because they have had extensive and varied experience. Students display self-awareness, confidence and feel prepared for the adventure ahead of them.

Working with a single provider across multiple year levels ensures consistency, builds a solid understanding of processes and, importantly, affords transparency around what is being delivered to their students. This transparency extends to The Outdoor Education Group’s dynamic and reactive risk management procedures ensuring student outcomes are achieved. In this way, Redlands has improved staff, students and parent preparedness for camp, for example through The Outdoor Education Group’s website which provides resources and information for camps across the school.

With The Outdoor Education Group, Redlands can offer their students a thoroughly considered, sequential outdoor education program delivering an appropriate level of challenge, a diverse range of experiences and learning aligned with the School’s values.