16 Oct Have you Booked your Church Camp or Retreat for 2022?
Re-building deeper community through church camps and retreats. As our communities look forward to post-pandemic life, churches are now working through how to best strengthen their communities. Many churches have experienced growth as they re-gather, whilst others have not. Some church communities have grown closer relationships as they walk and support each other through the challenges of the pandemic. Then there are other churches who report that they have not yet fully re-gathered their communities at...
QCCC’s Operational and Contractual policies are informed by the official, published Public Health Directions advice from Queensland Health regarding our operations as a “short-term accommodation provider”. Current status: Short-term accommodation providers are permitted to operate. Schedule 1 in the most recent Queensland Health Business Undertakings, Activities and Undertakings Direction #26 (25th August 2021) and Restrictions for Impacted Areas (Updated 20th August 2021) both allow short-term accommodation operators to continue to remain open, explicitly mentioning Outdoor Education providers within this category of open businesses. These advices are constantly monitored by QCCC staff to ensure venues are operating in compliance with the latest applicable directions. All Bookings after on and after 4pm Friday 20th August: The Queensland Public Health Direction suggests group bookings can take place at Short-term Accommodation Venues operating with a Covid-Safe Checklist, which is the case at all QCCC venues. If a booking is cancelled unilaterally by a school and/or group, and subsequently the QCCC venue is not in lockdown for the dates of the booking, QCCC's normal terms and conditions regarding cancellation will apply.
QCCC Expeditions offers journey-based and solo programs at unique locations, making the most of our facilities and their spectacular surrounds. Expeditions programs are a great choice to draw out leadership skills, develop team cohesion and maximise personal and spiritual formation in the outdoors. We work with schools, youth and corporate groups to tailor-make remarkable and unique expeditions-style programs to suit your needs and objectives.
It's hard to believe we are already halfway through Third Term. It's been five weeks since school camps recommenced at our venues and in that time we've been able to fine-tune our operations and Heath Management Plans, giving a safe and thoroughly enjoyable camp experience to thousands of students. Here's a selection of testimonials we've received about our Covid Safe operations showing schools camp are going ahead safely and well in Queensland, and being really appreciated by groups. We're grateful for Education Queensland's commitment to camping programs and Queensland Health who have worked with the industry to endorse our Industry Plan. We look forward to hosting all the camps who've booked with us this year, and beyond. We would like to say a massive thank you for a wonderful Camp this year. With the COVID Safe operations in place, incredible staff, amazing food and awesome activities, our students had a spectacular week! We are really looking forward to coming again next year! 
We recently had a school at one of our sites who had to bring some classroom work with them because there were some assessment deadlines they couldn’t shift for camp. They didn’t like doing it – the preference of many schools is to make camp a time away from the pressures of the classroom. That doesn’t mean however that schools, students and parents shouldn’t expect learning and educational outcomes from their Queensland school camp experience. A quality school camp should be what psychologists call a “liminal” experience. A liminal space is a place of transition, waiting, and growth. Liminality happens when you get removed from your everyday environment into a place of experience, learning and relational memory. When booking a camp it is important to understand the subtle distinctions operators make between their programs. Calling a camping program a “recreational” or “adventure” package means it’s probably a very different experience to an Outdoor Education program. There’s not anything wrong with any of these options, but it matters when you book to know that they have a different focus and outcomes.