Each year, a class of students from Lorien Novalis School in Dural has the opportunity to camp on North West Island, a coral cay on Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef.
Their visit to the island is a unique and special experience. As the island is so protected, untouched by tourism and with minimal interferences by people, the environment is one where each child immerses themselves in nature, in the living entity of the birdlife, the immense labour of the great green turtles coming onto land to lay their eggs, the colour and form of the magnificent reef life.
In class lessons earlier in the year, students learn about the ecology of the reef and cays, conservation and the role of National Parks, and work through the knowledge of the ‘Classification of Animals.’
These studies are strongly supported by the observations of and immersion with wildlife on the island. Embedded into their outward activities are opportunities for the students to reflect, search deeply and make expressions of their experiences creatively, in the form of artwork, writing and sharing, to encourage fine-tuning of the sense observations.
Such an immersion in this natural environment for a period of several days and nights, away from the modern world of industrial and electronic technology, allows the children to have the experience of breathing to the harmony of pure nature.
To find out more about Lorien Novalis School and the difference of Steiner Education, visitors are welcome to our next School Insight Day on Saturday, 23rd February 2019 from 10am to 12pm. You can register on our website http://www.lorien.nsw.edu.au/ (Events page) or call the office on 9658 0700.
