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Connecting People To Natural Spaces: The Story of Skids

Shrouded in the mists of a Peruvian jungle, our very own Kylie “Skids” Skidmore took time from her travels to share her journey with Cire Community School. With her strong passion for connecting people to natural spaces, Skids believes that our kinship with the environment is an integral part of being a whole, balanced human being. Seeing the bush as a place of healing, restoration and reflection, she aims to create spaces where people who’ve felt like failures can excel and experience a sense of accomplishment, building communities based on trust and a lack of mainstream cultural or societal norms.

Skids became the first Australian to graduate from the University of New Hampshire‘s dual Master of Science/Master of Social Work in Adventure Therapy, a unique course only they offer. With three to six people selected to complete the qualification each year, it is a casual environment but also one of deeply significant and special connection. Their graduation ceremony looks nothing like the American stereotype of gowns and formality, with graduates dressed in jeans and awarded t-shirts before sharing a potluck dinner with their professors, families and friends.

 

 

The Australian Association for Bush Adventure Therapy Inc describes Adventure Therapy as “a diverse field of practice combining adventure and outdoor environments with the intention to achieve therapeutic outcomes for those involved”. Skids describes it as “getting alongside people, and spending time living life together; cooking around a fire, paddling down a river or watching a sunset together. It’s beautiful, it’s fun, and there aren’t the same rules or expectations that exist elsewhere”. She also sees it as an important tool for teaching immediate, natural consequences. “If you don’t set your tent up correctly, you get wet. If you eat all your snacks day one, they’re gone. It’s much easier to see that our choices have power and determine outcomes, which can be incredibly empowering”.

Skids has a background in P.E/Outdoor Ed teaching and student wellbeing. Before departing for America, she was working with pre-dominantly indigenous youth in NSW. “The schools I worked in were really trying to catering for these young people, but the end result was still often a hostile environment, which didn’t truly acknowledge the layers of trauma these adolescents, their families and communities had and were continuing to endure at the most profound level”, Skid writes. “I also felt like the school system, as it was, was not a healing or ‘rebuilding’ place. At the time I wanted to create an alternative outdoor space, connecting people to natural spaces, where these students might flourish and reconnect to culture and country”.

Returning home to undertake her internship, while completing the associated classes online, Skids successfully applied to work with Cire. She saw it as an opportunity to research and reflect upon work she truly cared about: work that is real, immediate and important. Skids describes Cire as a place that will “take risks and follow research which invites an ongoing commitment to examining evidence, reflection, and innovation for the sake of helping our young people access tools and resources to live freer, fuller lives”.

This year, Skids will be working with Cire Community School across Outdoor Education and Student Wellbeing.

But first, she has Patagonia to explore…

For more information on Cire Community School, or to book a campus tour, please visit our website at www.cire.org.au or contact our team on 1300 835 235.

Cire Community School Students Head To Tasmania!

Our senior class worked together to plan a camp to Tasmania for 7 nights in October.  We met a lot of the requirements of our VCAL Senior Certificate by planning all aspects of the camp such as the itinerary, budgets, fundraising, food, accommodation, and risk assessments.  We had to arrive at school at 4:30am to get the bus into the airport for our plane at 7:30. It was so exciting catching a plane with all our classmates!

Our first day there was pretty relaxed. Pippa, Mark and I picked up our shopping from Eastland then went to the gym. It was pretty cool that we could attend a gym in Tasmania. On our second day, we went exploring in Mt Field National Park to see some of the beautiful waterfalls we have read and heard about. It was such a beautiful place, I really enjoyed being out in the fresh air. In the afternoon we went to St. Vincent’s in Hobart where we had a guided tour of their facilities including their food van.  We all went into the kitchen and worked as a team to make soup and sandwiches. The food was later distributed by the food van to homeless people near Hobart.

The next day we visited Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary to feed some wombats and tawny frogmouths, which is an owl-like bird. In addition, we fed heaps of kangaroos. Feeding the kangaroos was a really unique thing to do. Some of the big kangaroos really scared me and kept following me for food. That night we went out to dinner in Hobart to a really lovely little Italian restaurant. The atmosphere was lively and the food was delicious.

The Port Arthur historic site was one of my favourite parts of the camp. I found it really interesting learning about the life of the conflicts and civilians. Seeing how the convicts lived, where they were punished, seeing the churches and hospitals were so much fun. I really had the best day at Port Arthur. We also had the opportunity to go on the boat tour. I’ve never been on a boat so I was very nervous but excited to jump on board. It was so cold and windy when the boat started to move. We were all on the top deck observing all the different islands away from Port Arthur.

That night we revisited Port Arthur to attend the ghost tour. Port Arthur looked very different in the night, you got a very spooky feeling. Some of us were handed lanterns so we could see the path. The tour guide took us to a few houses where apparently there are ghosts. He told us scary stories about the people that had died in the houses then we were able to go inside. While inside the house he told us more spooky stories and half way through a story he jump-scared us, it was pretty scary especially after hearing the stories. I really enjoyed the Port Arthur ghost tour but much preferred Port Arthur in the daytime, definitely a lot less spooky!

The next day we went to MONA. MONA was nothing like what I expected! I expected a normal old art museum with boring pictures all over the walls but MONA was completely the opposite. They had all these cool exhibits with heaps of interactive activities. They had such a weird variety of things but it made it such a fun experience. My favourite bit of that day was a room with random people on the wall singing songs, Chloe and I started dancing around in there. I also really enjoyed playing chess outside with Eric. Half of the pieces were missing so we had to improvise with our jackets, shoes, drink bottles and sticks. It was pretty funny to play with such weird game pieces.

On the next day we left Hobart and drove north to Cataract Gorge and Launceston.  We walked alongside the inner side of the gorge, it was really nice to see the beautiful views. We were able to ride the chairlift across the gorge and visit the other side of the gorge where we saw some beautiful peacocks and wallabies up close. Hayley was even able to feed a wallaby a leaf.

Cradle Mountain was such a challenge for all of us. It was very cold when we arrived, we had to jump on a special bus to get to the top of the mountain. We walked the track, which was a massive 6km hike. Walking along the track, it was amazing to see how different the landscapes were. One minute it would feel like you’re walking through a rainforest, then a rocky mountain and then it would feel like you were walking on a sandy beach. I’m so proud of everyone for pushing through that hike.

On our final day, we went to Gunns Plains caves and had the funniest tour guide ever. His name was Jeff and he made jokes about the crystals in the cave looking like different types of food because he loves food so much. Walking down into the cave was really scary because it was so dark and the pathway was wet. Some parts of the track you had to crawl through because large crystals and rocks were coving the path. I’ve never been able to walk around a cave before, so this experience was amazing.

A few of us were really nervous and excited for the boat ride home. I was really nervous because I’ve never been on a big boat. When we first got on the boat we were all so excited to explore around. We went to an all you can eat buffet and it was the best food ever. I tasted this feta cheese and it melted in your mouth it was so delicious, plus all the salads and mains packed so much flavour. Eric, Chloe and I watched a movie in the cinema later on in the night and it was so weird watching a movie while the whole room kept swaying. When we woke the next day in Melbourne the sun rise was so beautiful to see from the boat and we were all glad we had made it home.

I honestly had the best time in Tasmania. I really felt like our class became so much stronger and we all learned a lot about each other. Some of the things we did really challenged us but we had the resilience to push through and still complete all the activities. I’m so very proud of us. It was such a great experience and I would love to do it all again!

This blog piece was written by Issy Kennedy, a Senior student from Cire Community School. Thank you for sharing your Tasmanian experience with us!

A popular tune sparks imagination

Over the last few weeks, we have had a growing interest in catching the bus and buses in general. When my friends began singing “The Wheels On the Bus” on a daily basis with no prompting, having lengthy discussions of themselves and siblings catching the bus, I knew we were on a path of genuine interest and limitless learning potential!

During a sing-along one afternoon I sat down on a chair and begun the motion of the song, immediately everyone in the group quickly mimicked my actions by grabbing their own chairs and lining them up along mine. Before I knew it we had a bus made simply from chairs and imagination!
Inspired by the enthusiasm and creativity of the 3 year old children I located a large table which we safely upturned and placed the chairs in, the sheer attraction and response to the somewhat basic bus were overwhelming!

A popular tune sparks imaginationThe children were delighted with this simple bus, but discussions quickly followed on how to extend the functionality and appearance of the bus with many ideas being shared. We decided the best way to start would be to find a way to attach a roof. We did not have any suitable materials to build a roof so we wandered over to the kinder room to see if we could find something that might work. I spied some long cardboard tubes and asked if we could borrow them, so the children and myself carried them back and erected the tubes over the legs of the upturned table thus creating a structure for lay the roof! We placed material over the tubes and fastened them with pegs. The children were so proud of their construction efforts, knowing they had collaborated and problem solved using their innately clever brains.

“It needs a roof” – William

“How can we make doors?” – Lilly

“I’m going to drive the bus” – Josh

“Can I help do lights?” – Sophie

“I’m going to the shops” – Parker

“I need to take baby” – Heidi

Over the next few days, there were many play episodes involving our bus,including trips with babies and going to the shops with handbags. Not long after the discussion of bus improvements came up and the children suggested doors and walls on the bus so a call out to parents asking for recycled materials such as cardboard and plastics was in order. We received a big donation of cardboard from a parent and we began the process of painting and attaching. The children decided that they wanted a yellow bu

A popular tune sparks imagination

s like the ones they saw on television so we used roller brushes to paint the many sheets of cardboard. Once they had dried we attached them to the upturned legs of the bus using lots of sticky tape thanks to the help from the children. We cut out windows and doors and over the next couple of days, we attached a windscreen, headlights, steering wheel and windscreen wipers! It didn’t stop there, every bus needs a bus stop so we created one using fake grass, traffic lights and a stop sign.

We have decided to continue our work and play on the bus as an ongoing project and on Friday we upgraded the roof and added scenery around the bus to create a lovely view for our little travellers.

This project has provided us with numerous learning opportunities such as social development from negotiating and understanding roles, gross motor and spacial development from navigating the space, literacy from the songs sang involving the bus, counting passengers, creative expression and sense of self and community from valuing the children’s input and ideas. I can’t wait to see where this learning journey takes us!

If you would like to know more about our children’s services or seek information on early childhood education and care training courses call 1300 835 235.