A group of Thames High School students got to put their outdoor education skills to the test during a set of challenges held in Cambridge on August 2.
The mixed team of eight students competed in the Get2Go Regional Challenge, which involved a combination of outdoor adventure activities such as orienteering, kayaking, mountain biking, stand-up paddleboarding and a bit of problem solving – but there’s a catch.
Students needed to undertake each challenge in under 60 minutes and were required to work together as a team and use skills such as communication, problem solving, planning and decision making.
Thames High physical education teacher Rod Edwards told The Profile even though he was the teacher in charge, his job was to just transport the students there and allow them to solve the challenges and lead themselves through it.
Mr Edwards said there were between 10 and 12 teams in total but “we were just interested in how many mixed teams we were competing against”.
Thames High came fourth out of the five groups that entered the mixed category, he said, but were supportive of the Whangamatā Area School team who came first overall.
“That’s fantastic for such an incredibly small school, but also [for] an area school to win something like this is huge. And they’re now going to the nationals,” he said.
“We’re putting a lot of support in behind them and a lot of encouragement.
“We hope they win the Nationals.”
Mr Edwards said the students planned to head over and train with the Whangamatā Area School team while they build towards nationals.
Meanwhile, Thames High year 10 student Jodie Louden said she was looking forward to taking some of the knowledge from the Whangamatā team and to build on her team’s abilities.
Jodie said the Get2Go Challenge was a great experience with a lot of team bonding and challenging obstacles that “pushed me and my team mates”.
Her team worked around their challenges by splitting into two groups and problem-solving, she said.
It was “quite stressful” in the last six minutes of their mountain bike race, Jodie said.
“We had to get as many laps as we could before the timer went off.”
But one thing that stood out to Jodie was her team’s positive attitude, she said.
Between challenges, Jodie said the team members reflected on the last activity and ways they could have improved.
One memorable moment for Jodie was orienteering and “getting lost in the bush”, she said.
Jodie’s advice for students who were interested in taking part in the challenge next year was to “give it a go, and go hard”.
