Schools

“We learn 10% of what we read, 15% of what we hear, but 80% of what we experience…” Rafting Australia has been offering rafting and canoeing adventure programs to schools since 1982.

Packages and Pricing

  • 1 day rafting from $125 per person
  • 2 or more days rafting from $115 per person per day
  • 2 day white water canoeing tuition from $199 per person
  • 4-7 day introductory raft guiding course from $115 per person per day
    Note: One staff member per group, rafts free of charge

Packages Inclusions

  • An introduction to fundamental white water skills and safety
  • Environmental information
  • All rafting equipment supplied
  • A photographic DVD
  • A public liability insurance certificate
  • A what-to-do check list

Educational Outcomes

We offer tailor-made packages to suit your outdoor education curriculum needs. Our professional guides can provide information on the following:

  • Bushfire ecology
  • Water management
  • Forest regeneration
  • River management and human impact
  • High country history
  • Teamwork and Leadership
  • Risk management
  • Personal, social and communication skills
  • Conflict resolution

Written References are Available from the Following Schools

  • Scotch College, Melbourne
  • Mill Park Secondary College, Melbourne
  • Wanganui Park Secondary College, Shepparton
  • Sebastopol Secondary College, Ballarat
  • Kerang High School
  • Prince Alfred College, Adelaide
  • Pembroke College, Adelaide
  • Sydneham College, Melbourne
  • Ashwood College, Melbourne
  • St Kevins College, Melbourne

Experiential Learning

Adventure Based Outdoor Experiential Learning is a learning process that draws upon experiences encountered during an outdoor journey. River Journeys and in particular whitewater provide one of the best mediums for the learner.   We equip students with the foundation skills of rafting and decision-making and then presented students with opportunities to utilise these primary skills during a challenging experience.

Students apply their foundation skills during the river Journey and bear the consequence of their actions in a constructive and affirming manner and then use reflection to determine how they might approach a similar situation again. Thus the final element is the “transfer” of learning into everyday contexts. Students are not only challenged physically but socially, emotionally and intellectually during their Journey.

For example, a team of rafters fail to plan a route down a rapid.  The raft and crew become stuck in the rapid and tension builds within the team. A student then moves to the up-steam side of the raft and it begins to fill quickly with water.  The raft capsizes and the crew floats into the pool below the rapid.   They are wet, cold and stressed, yet they are able to understand immediately that failing to plan a route had a consequence and they need work constructively to plan for the next rapid.

Later that day, students are encouraged to make a connection between their learning behavior in such situations and in their daily life. Having shouldered and owned the consequence of, in this case inaction and poor planning, the student is better equipped to both recognise similar situations and to take more useful action in future.

Whitewater environments make a unique contribution in this sphere of learning as they are:

  • Isolated from other people, traditional support mechanisms, family and friends
  • A continuous experience – issues cannot be avoided or left until the next session
  • Holistic – involving a range of challenges, and involving self, others and the environment
Email us on tracey.lonard@raftingaustralia.com