Confidence & Skill-Building
In 2005 Pete Humbert - Fireman, Primary School teacher and Corporal of the Australian Army Reserves, joined Dave to be the co creator of the Wilderness Trek.
From many camping trips with Dave out in the desert, Pete and Dave started talking about how this could be a great learning area for students.
The Trek is a camp over a week in a bush setting. Students are awarded 50 points a day and various tasks are assigned either individually or within a team. Points are deducted if objectives are not met.
The Trek is designed to teach students self-responsibility, strength, resilience and the ability to believe that they can do things beyond their imagination. It is also designed to help students understand that they need to think for themselves to keep ahead in this life we all lead.
Outcomes
Our Wilderness Trek Program is designed to assist students in building the following skills and competencies. While the program focuses on these outcomes it is not limited to them.
Community
Resilience
Team Work
Accountability
An understanding of actions and consequences
Knowledge of bushcraft and camp skills
Hiking and orienteering skills
Points-Based System
Each student is awarded 50 points at the commencement of each day. Students have the ability to lose and earn points.
If students are in a group their actions will affect each other’s points.
Points are affected by respect, communication, completion and time taken for set tasks.
Points received determines the level of luxury items they receive during the day. If a student receives zero points, they will receive only essential items.
A typical day on the Wilderness Trek involves:
- Students awake at 7am
- Students pack down camp
- Students selected for cooking breakfast meet with student mentor and start cooking at 7.30am
- Breakfast is served 9am
- Weather and safety briefing
- Preparation for walking
- Students commence walking with backpacks
- Every 3km of walking over the day there will be a hydration stop
- Students elected for cooking lunch meet with student mentor and start cooking at 12pm
- Lunch is served at 1pm
- Weather and safety briefing
- Students commence walking with backpacks
- Arrive at new camp spot at 6pm
- Students elected for cooking dinner meet with student mentor and start cooking at 6pm
- Whilst cooking students are making dinner, all other participants will engage in a bush skills activity
- Dinner is served at 7pm
- Camp is built after dinner
- Camp shut down 9pm
Interstate Hiking Trips
These have been running since 2015.
Sowilo’s students have hiked through many of Australia’s states and territories including Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT.
Obtaining a position on the Interstate or International trip is quite an undertaking for students as they need to meet certain criteria to be eligible.
Students are invited to attend training twice a week for six months and must exhibit:
- Good attendance
- Good behavior
- High academic effort
Over time, the initial large team is reduced to either four or six participants. The participants attend a camp whereby they demonstrate their teamwork, independent camping skills, theory-based knowledge and general ability.
The focus of this program is to assist students with their short, medium and long term goals and give them a ‘taste’ of travel.
Specialised Programs
Our specialised programs provide another side to learning other than academic learning.
Often coupled with academic styled programs, specialised programs offer opportunities for learning about yourself, life or other relevant skills that you may not otherwise learn at ‘mainstream schooling’.