A beautiful week this week at The Great Aussie Bush Camp, the sun is shining and the teachers and students are having an amazing time.

Both Tea Gardens and Kincumber are busy with excited and nervous Year 7 students who are getting to know their new friends, while participating in some of the coolest activities you can find.

Our Tea Gardens camp has a new High Ropes Course which was completed over the Christmas holidays and with 2 Flying Fox dismounts, it's been an instant sucess.  Keep an eye out on our website for photos and video updates!!

The Aussie Bush Camp Kincumber has also seen a few changes since the last blog. We have constructed new cabin accommodation for the students and have added another 3 person Giant Swing plus a Leap of Faith. The fun just keeps on getting better... if that's possible!!

The Great Aussie Bush Camp are also proud supporters of the Make -A- Wish Foundation. Wishday is on Friday March 22nd and the team at The Great Aussie Bush Camp will be wearing what they wish on that day. All the money raised goes towards making wishes come true for seriously ill Aussie children.

Well another year has come and gone and what a wonderful year it’s been.

We have welcomed more than 400 schools from across NSW this year and their students have enjoyed an experience that they will cherish for years to come.

The Great Aussie Bush Camp team prides itself on delivering the best possible outdoor recreation experiences for our clients, through programs that are Fun, Challenging, Diverse, Relevant and Memorable. At the completion of 2012 we finished the year with an astonishing customer satisfaction rating of 9.7/10. Truly remarkable and something we are all very proud of.

Our new camp at Kincumber has enjoyed an amazing first year. A big thanks must go to our new schools that have had their first Aussie Bush Camp experience, the hype was true and the 9.7/10 satisfaction rating says it all.Good on you all for making the change and trying something new. Many feedback comments from our new schools have the common theme :

“This is our first Aussie Bush Camp excursion, we had been going to the same camp for 25 years, I wish we had made the change earlier. Thank you Bush Camp for the best camp we have ever been on”.

From the whole team here at The Great Aussie Bush Camp we would like to send out a Huge Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all the teachers and students who have enjoyed a memorable and fun camp with us this year. We look forward to welcoming you back next year and thank you all very much for helping to make The Great Aussie Bush Camp the best camp in Australia.

Welcome back. We hope you’ve all had a great holiday and feel refreshed and ready for an exciting term. It’s Education Week and because it’s overlapping with the London 2012 Olympic Games, there’s bound to be plenty of attention on all things sporting and cultural in schools right across Australia.

Events like the Olympic Games can understandably leave a lasting impression on students as they’re inspired by the feats of athletes from around the globe. But many people might not be aware that according to several studies, participating in outdoor education and the humble school camp can be just as memorable for students.

Research in the UK, New Zealand and Australia found that for large numbers of students, their outdoor education or camping experience is considered the highlight of their year, leaving more permanent memories than other weeks spent at school.

It’s not just the novelty of spending time away from the classroom that students and their accompanying teachers find valuable and memorable. As anyone who follows the reality TV series ‘Survivor’ would know, many contestants cite the experience of overcoming the challenges associated with the outdoors, living and competing as a team with others as the things they enjoy most about their experience. For many, the de-skilling and relative ease that comes from living in a largely ‘built’ environment and increasingly a ‘virtual world’, the reality of facing the outdoor or natural environment places demands on the individual to develop new physical, social and emotional skill sets.

For those of us working at the Great Aussie Bush Camp, these are not surprising findings. Following every school camp, our team members receive literally dozens of thank you emails from students thanking them for helping them to overcome their various fears such as heights, being placed on the spot in a leadership position or a host of other challenges.

In 2011 a New Zealand, study found that outdoor education differs from other subjects in its ability to provide greater opportunities for the development of the key competencies of managing self, relating to others, and participating and contributing. (Bilcliff, G 2011 New Zealand Physical Educator 44. 2)

However, the studies also show that simply getting away from it all to a school camp is not enough. School camps need to take into account learning styles and preferences, fears and phobias, prior knowledge and experience, ethnic and cultural identity, physical disabilities and the actual setting. At the Great Aussie Bush Camp, these considerations are the cornerstone of everything that we do. Our challenge by choice philosophy, sequential learning and variety of curriculum based programs offered at two different locations, Tea Gardens and Kincumber, gives teachers and students a wide variety of opportunities to achieve the outcomes most appropriate for their needs.

We look forward to seeing you soon for a learning experience that really is way too much fun and one that you will remember for many years to come.

If you haven't already booked your school camp for 2012, don't panic!

Now that the Great Aussie Bush Camp has two great locations, one at Tea Gardens and another one at our new site at Kincumber, we have extra spaces available. So if you're looking to arrange a tailor-made primary or secondary school camp that will help your students achieve outcomes across a wide range of curriculum areas, you've come to the right place.

Every year for the past three years, approximately 35,000 students visited our site at Tea Gardens. Now that there's 'One great Aussie, two Great locations' this means even more students have the opportunity to have a Great Aussie Bush Camp experience.  We consitently receive a 9.5 out of 10 customer satisfaction rating, so we're sure your school will have way too much fun, just like all of our other regular visitors.

So why not call us now or make an enquiry through our online booking form to see if your preferred date and location is still available. But you'd better hurry, these spaces will fill up fast.

We know every time you visit the Great Aussie Bush Camp at Tea Gardens, your school has ‘way too much fun’, but we wanted to give you even more.

But since we already had the widest choice of onsite activities than any other outdoor education provider in Australia, as well as a fantastic team who make every moment fun, we decided there was only one solution.

One great Aussie, two great locations!

So we’re excited to announce our new facility at Kincumber, just an hour’s drive from the Sydney CBD, on the beautiful Central Coast. So now you can experience everything that’s great about an Aussie Bush Camp experience in two completely different locations.

One great Aussie, two great locations, means now there’s even more reasons to make your next outdoor education experience a Great Aussie Bush Camp experience.

Whether you need a quiet, retreat style environment suitable for Year 11 study skills camps or an action packed centre with activities to suit all ages, The Great Aussie Bush Camp at Kincumber is "way too much fun" for both primary and secondary schools.

We think it ticks all the right boxes.

For students:

• the latest and greatest outdoor education activities including two new activities that are exclusive to the Great Aussie Bush Camp in Australia
• accommodation in comfortable cabins
• a super friendly and experienced team who make every activity a winner and the whole experience memorable

For teachers:

• separate dining facilities for quiet, enjoyable and tasty meals
• assisted night time supervision for a great night’s rest
• peace of mind from working with the most professional outdoor education team in Australia (we’ consistently rate a 9.5/10 in teacher satisfaction surveys)

If you’d like to find out more about how our exciting new facility at Kincumber can assist you to meet your students’ curriculum needs we’d love to hear from you. So please contact us today and we’d be glad to help.

See you soon.

The Great Aussie Bush Camp Team