What we focused learning on and why:

Bridget Janse at Paraparaumu College operates a Year 11 Outdoor Education programme that enables students to obtain unit standards in skills like rock climbing, abseiling, kayaking, mountain biking and orienteering.

Most of the learning experiences are school-based and are taught as a sequence that builds students’ capability.

The school has a rock climbing wall where students can also abseil. The final experience may be an off-site experience.

The unit standards:

  • 20210 (v1) Experience rock climbing (L1 – 1 credit), Skills Active assessment guideline
  • 20152 (v1) Experience and complete abseiling sessions (L1 – 1 credit), Skills Active assessment guideline.

These are taught in conjunction with the achievement standard:

  • 90968 Demonstrate safe behaviours during outdoor pursuits (L1- 3 credits). This unit is partially assessed

during the rock climbing and abseiling experiences.

The theory and practical learning for the three unit standards takes 10 - 12 hours.

What we planned (focusing inquiry):

Objectives

Identified objectives for learners were:

  • Learn rock climbing and abseiling skills.
  • Build self and group responsibility for safety during outdoor education experiences.
  • Set and meet an appropriate personal goal.

Challenge by choice

Individual goal setting allowed the students to set the challenge for themselves. For some students obtaining the unit standard was the challenge but other students, for example a student who was afraid of heights, set their own personal goals.

Classroom preparation

Prior to any time on the rock climbing wall students spent classroom time:

  • Recognising their personal capability and setting personal goals.
  • Learning relevant theory about rock climbing.
  • Understanding the value of warm ups and establishing the type of warm ups that would be useful preparation for rock climbing.
  • Developing an understanding of physical and emotional safety and personal and group responsibility.
  • Making a risk assessment of rock climbing on the rock wall in the gym and off-site on a different constructed rock wall.

Safety Considerations

Risk management assessment

A RAMS form for both the on-site and off-site rock climbing experiences was completed.

The students were involved in risk management assessment for rock climbing and abseiling and the completion of a RAMS form to meet with school policy. This was led by a sub-group of students and then discussed and revised with the teacher. Over the duration of the course all students participated in this process.

Parents or caregivers completed student health forms and consent form for on school-based activities at the beginning of the course. Consent forms collected for the off-site visit asked parents / caregivers to indicate if there were any changes in the student’s health that the teachers and school should be aware of.

Experience of staff involved in running the rock climbing

Bridget and the other teacher who supervised the rock climbing experiences had appropriate qualifications and were familiar with teaching rock climbing and abseiling in the gym and at the alternative venue.

The rock climb in the Wellington venue was conducted under the supervision and safety standards of the outdoor education provider. Bridget and her staff member discussed specific roles and responsibilities of the instructors and the provider’s staff before the activity commenced.

Involving the students in taking responsibility for safety

The students received training in assessing and taking responsibility for their group’s safety. All students had opportunities to take responsibility for their group’s safety under the guidance and monitoring of a teacher.

Site and equipment check in the gym

The two staff checked the climbing wall and gear in the gym prior to every practical experience.

Check the requirements of your own school policies when planning such learning experiences. See the EOTC Guidelines, 2009 for further information.

What we did (teaching inquiry):

The class was introduced to the safety procedures in operation during the session.

A belay team was established with one staff member acting as belayer and students acting as anchor person and back up belayer.

The two staff members discussed and demonstrated how the team functions when someone comes off the wall.

A staff member demonstrated the new rock climbing skill.

The staff demonstrated the skill again and explained the how and why of what they were doing.

Students then directed the staff member to complete the skill using the correct technique and explained why the climber used that technique.

The task for the students was outlined, safety procedures repeated and the students set up to operate in groups.

The students completed the activity with teacher support available.

The students were in teams of four or five students. Each student had a turn as:

  • Climber
  • Belayer
  • Anchor person
  • Back up belayer with the designated role to observe overall safety and take appropriate actions if required.
  • If a fifth person was in the group they acted as rope manager and assumed the role to observe overall safety and take appropriate actions if required.

Four groups of students climbed the wall at any one time so each teacher had responsibility for two teams.

The students had to work together and develop confidence and trust in each other as they each completed the climbing tasks they set themselves.

Students had at least two opportunities to climb the wall during each session in the gym.

What happened (learning inquiry):

Recording achievement and reflecting on the experience

Each gym session every student completed two log book entries.

Students completed the rock climb log before leaving the gym and had their entry signed off as accurate by a team member and the teacher. See the Rock climbing log.

The log entry about safe behaviours was completed by the student in the own time. See the “Safe as …” behaviour log.

Skills progression

Students completed a number of rock climbing sessions where they learnt and practised new skills and extended their capability.

Final rock climbing experience

The final experience was a rock climb at a large rock wall in Wellington.

Final reflection

Students were photographed and videoed on their final climb and they used these photographs in their own assessment of what they learnt rock climbing and what they learnt when they practised responsible and safe behaviour during an outdoor education activity.

Using the same process of building skills throughout the course

The process of:

  • Demonstrating safe behaviours.
  • Building individual and group supportive behaviour.
  • Learning a skill.
  • Progressing to using the skill in a more challenging environment

was the process used with a number of activities on the year-long course, including:

  • Kayaking with a progression from learning to kayak in a pool to flat water kayaking in a lagoon.
  • Survival swimming with a progression from survival swimming in a pool to survival swimming in a river with a PFD (personal flotation device) then survival swimming in a river without a PFD.
  • Mountain biking with appropriate local challenges set.
  • Orienteering with appropriate local challenges set.

This gave structure to the learning and assisted students to take responsibility for setting personal goals, monitoring their own skill development and reflecting on their progress and achievement of the goals they set.

Students on the course commented:

“You can see how you are achieving things when you have to reflect after each climbing session. It makes me push myself more and set bigger goals.”

“Working out what did not go well makes you think how you can do it better. I did spend a lot of time planning how to get over the overhang in another very boring class and then next session I did it quite easily.”

“Every time we focus on group safety. Now I think about safety a bit more when we do things on the weekend and, even though my friends carry on at me, I make us plan a bit more.”

“I kinda understand better about top people taking calculated risks when they do stuff like kayak over waterfalls and other people just taking risks because they don’t think it through.”