Sixteen students have travelled 11 hours from Brisbane to central Queensland to spend six days immersed in nature — and it is part of their school curriculum.

An annual educational bush camp gives Year 9 and 10 students from the Murri School in Brisbane a chance to experience life outside the city.

Around 200 students from prep to Year 12 attend the Aboriginal and Islander independent community school based in Acacia Ridge.

Teacher Patrick McHugh has been at the school for seven years and has accompanied students on educational camps to Carnarvon Gorge for the past six years.

Having grown up in the bush, the non-Indigenous teacher has a passion for outdoor education and has taken hundreds of kids on similar trips around Australia.

He said the Humanities and Social Science (HASS) camp is part of the school’s outdoor education program, which falls under their holistic education philosophy.

“It gives the kids an opportunity to come out somewhere incredible and experience a different way of living in a different environment,” Mr McHugh said.

“We see immense changes … and great social and emotional benefits for the kids

Key points:

• Brisbane’s Murri School has a holistic education policy that includes an outdoor education program
• Each year groups of students spend six days immersed in nature at bush camps where they engage with local Traditional Custodians
• The students’ wellbeing increases significantly, particularly when engaged with Traditional Custodians

“It’s something maybe other schools should be picking up a little bit more because some kids don’t respond to just sitting in front of a teacher and learning in such an unloving or an un-nurturing sort of environment.

Source
Erin Semmler
ABC News