QCCC Tamborine / 19.09.2019
QCCC Tamborine Open Day
QCCC Tamborine is holding a free Open Day for educators and their families on 9th November so they can sample the best of what our Gold Coast Outdoor Education and Recreation Centre has to offer. Please register your interest (for catering purposes) or contact us for more information. (07) 5545 1417 or bookings@tamborine.qccc.org.au. Teachers, Heads of Department, Principals and their families are encouraged to attend to meet our staff, sample our food...
One of the things Queensland’s Gold Coast is most famous for is its Theme Parks. As the Gold Coast’s largest school campsite QCCC Tamborine is a great destination for school groups and tours looking for an affordable accommodation package for their Theme Park Camp. It’s just a short drive down the mountain to Dreamworld, MovieWorld, Wet n’ Wild and the Outback Spectacular. SeaWorld is not too much further. Offering modern and comfortable accommodation QCCC Tamborine can provide a fully catered camp package from groups as small as 20 to the full capacity of the precinct, 450 people!
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.
QCCC’s Outdoor Education programs commenced in 1994 with the employment of Neil Robinson – one of the pioneers of Outdoor Education in Queensland, and a finalist in the Queensland Outdoor Education Federation Awards last year. Applying exacting standards to QCCC’s Outdoor Education programs, Neil has been instrumental in developing QCCC’s reputation as one of Queensland’s leading providers of innovative and best-practice programs. Some of the things said about Neil and QCCC’s Outdoor Education programs in the QORF Awards last year include: “Two decades after he commenced Neil trains and operates his Outdoor Education to an exacting standard, never being satisfied with anything less than industry best-practice. Many instructors who work for him have been with the organisation for ten years or more, an extraordinary statistic in an industry with significant turnover.”