Education Outside the Classroom
Real-life experiences outside the classroom
Every Dio student has the opportunity to take part in real-life experiences that extend their learning through our Outdoor Education programme. Designed to involve every year group, the programme ensures all students are included.
Each year, students engage in a week-long programme. The programme covers a diverse range of activities, educational experiences, and hands-on learning outside the classroom. These experiences are designed to build confidence, resilience, and self-esteem.
The programme is different for each Year group. For Years 7 and 9, students attend camps located outside of Auckland, while in Years 8 and 10, students take part in regionally based programmes within the Auckland area.
The level of challenge increases with each year level, aligning with the students ‘age and stage’ to ensure the programme is age-appropriate, engaging, and rewarding.
- Include all students and provide a programme that offers different challenges for different year levels
- Encourage personal development and awareness by building self-esteem and confidence.
- Develop students’ social skills by co-operating within small groups of their peers.
- Develop sound ecological attitudes based on respect, knowledge and understanding.
- Develop outdoor skills in camp craft, bush walking, canoeing and rock climbing.
- Enrich and integrate other academic disciplines.
The theme for the Year 7 Programme is “Getting to Know and Having a Go”, which is designed to help our students
- Participate in a range of outdoor sports and activities with energy and enthusiasm
- Be challenged to work in teams and develop strategies to include everyone
- Develop awareness of others’ needs
- Form new friendships
While this week long programme does vary over time, recently this our Year 7 students went to a beautiful setting, nestled at the foot of the mountain ranges in Matamata. With over 90 acres of land, native bush and streams, it was the perfect backdrop for outdoor learning. Students took part in a range of physical and water-based activities including a very popular water slide!
The theme for the Year 8 Programme is “Stepping outside your comfort zone”. It is centred around the William Pike Challenge and is designed to help our students
- Build confidence, resilience, life skills and development of personality and character
- Discover strengths and passions by trying new skills
- Build an awareness of the environment and sustainability
- Be active participants in the community
While this week long programme does vary over time, recently this has involved trips to Goat Island and the Waitakere Ranges. The William Pike Challenge is a way of fostering a passion for the New Zealand environment. Students enjoyed a wide variety of land and water based activities such as snorkelling, stand up paddling, sailing, hiking and kayaking.
The theme for the Year 9 Programme is “Stretching our capabilities to contribute to the team” it is designed to help our students
- Show determination when facing a challenge
- Support their peers to overcome their challenges, showing compassion and empathy
- Be inclusive of others, recognising the strengths they can bring to a team
- Make new friends in the year group and strengthen the year level bond.
While this week long programme does vary over time, recently our students travelled to Raglan. They stayed in a camp which was close to the beach which was the perfect environment for our students to learn to surf and experience canyoning and caving. They also spent time learning about the local area.
The theme for the Year 10 Programme is “Knowing me and Knowing you” and is designed to help our students
- Recognise their own strengths to enable them to make a positive difference for others
- Communicate effectively in group situations
- Build resilience when faced with a challenge
- Recognise their own skills and how they contribute to participating in a team
- Develop positive relationships which enable effective teamwork.
While this week long programme does vary over time, recently our Year 10 students went on trips to Action Matakana, Browns Island, and Rangitoto. Activities included hiking up Rangitoto, kayaking to Browns Island and go through the tough (and muddy and extremely challenging) confidence course at Matakana.
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