Concordian International School, Grade 7 - Week Without Walls

Concordian International School, Grade 7 came to our outdoor education centre for their Week Without Walls. Their programme was designed to be as active as possible and full to the brim with adventure!

To start we week off, the students took part in the popular 'Cup Challenge' on the Jungle Gym, our low ropes course set in the trees. In small groups, the students must get a beaker of water from one end of the low ropes course to the other while spilling as little water as possible. The students used various strategies including one group who figured that carrying the water in their mouths around the course was a good idea! Unfortunately the other students made them laugh by telling jokes, forcing the water to squirt out of their mouths (and noses)! Other groups used close collaboration and team work to reduce water losses while negotiating the course elements. In the end, we had a winning team who managed to finish the course with only 20-25% losses which is undoubtedly an impressive result!

In addition, the Grade 7 students designed and built survival shelters in groups. The challenge was to build a shelter which was sturdy, could sleep the tallest member of each team comfortably and was waterproof. Each group came up with a design and got to work on their shelters. Once completed, the judges (the teachers) assessed their shelters for sturdiness, comfort and water resistance. To test if they could withstand the rain, a member of each team was asked to lie down inside the shelter while a bucket of water was sprayed over the top! Suffice to say, there were some very wet students, however some of the shelters fared well for combating the elements!

The highlight for many of the students was kayaking down an 8km section of the Pasak River and rock climbing. The scenery was awesome with limestone cliffs and local fisherman (and birds, see below) patiently waiting for a catch. The students rose to the challenge particularly during the rock climbing as several students had a fear of heights which they had to overcome to get to the top of the crag!