Mary MacKillop Centre Outdoor Learning Program (Sacred Heart College, Australia, 2022) offers a warm, observant portrayal of an outdoor learning program. The film explores group activities and practical skill development, highlighting achievement and everyday moments of teenagers with intellectual and congenital disability. It celebrates social connection, learning and inclusion without sensationalism. As part of the Focus on Ability International Short Film Festival, it contributes an honest and hopeful perspective on how schools and community programs support young people with disability. Recommended for educators, families and festival audiences interested in inclusive practice.
Just seeing students grow over the few days and some of these students have done it for the past couple of years, so seeing them develop their skills in the different areas, have some more self-confidence in trying new things and challenging themselves is probably the best thing to come out of it from my end. G'day mate. You know our students get a lot of extra help with different things and it's a great opportunity for them to kind of fend for themselves in a way, in a supported environment and to challenge themselves with activities they wouldn't normally have the opportunity to do. I am a great believer in that people have to challenge themselves to grow and learn and I have seen all of our mainstream students benefiting from that over the years and now to see students who are living with disabilities being able to access the same sort of programs where they realise that challenges are just there to grow us has been wonderful. So the benefits to me for the students are that they come back with a renewed sense of self-esteem, they feel more confident and they've actually learnt some skills. Oh, battleships! Alright, what have we got here girls? Pizza! The last few days, fun, we had some campfire sing-alongs which they all were involved in. The activities on my end, I love getting out into nature, into the bush, giving them some new experiences, just a really fun few days. Alright, so who's had a good time? Yeah! I've enjoyed the campfire sing and then I was just mate with Michaela and Tom-Tom. How would you rate the camp this year? One hundred out of ten. Ten out of ten. Ten out of ten. Alright! It went really well because last year they came as well and they learnt a whole new set of skills and this year they actually used a lot of the skills that they had learnt last year and then extended on it from there. It helps them to use their initiative and work as a team and it's become quite like a nice family, so everyone's looking out for everyone and it really works well. I love coming on this program, I like the idea that it's a shared experience for us all so Mr S helps put it together, we're well supported by the school all the way through to Mr Bothy supporting us and I think it gives these guys a really good opportunity to work together in their small little groups that they work in. They're fantastic, they all understand each other's little strengths and weaknesses and they help each other and some of the skills that they get to develop in terms of independence are quite special. Who started this? Me! Even though others may not realise it, they are capable of the independent learning skills that they do when we cook, when we're cleaning up, when we're setting up tents, when we're packing away, all those different things. When we're looking after each other up the climbing wall, how caring and compassionate they are for each other, how encouraging they are, but also how resilient they are in actually freaking out maybe, you know, and then looking like they don't want to do it again but then five minutes later they're back wanting to do it again and go a little bit higher. Every time I've been on an after ed program I have seen every student grow in some way, you know, whether they've liked it at the time, at the end, they've all grown so I think it's sensational that we offer those programs.
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Mary MacKillop Centre Outdoor Learning Program by Sacred Heart College (2022)
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Mary MacKillop Centre Outdoor Learning Program
by Sacred Heart College - SCHOOL DOCUMENTARIES
