Vision Valley
Operations Manager at Vision Valley, Rebecca Pearce (Scobie 1988) gives an update from our outdoor education campus
In December 2020 Pymble purchased the beautiful Vision Valley campus in Arcadia. The site is set on 100 acres of native bushland and backs on to the spectacular Berowra Valley National Park; it’s located north-west of the Sydney CBD and is around 45 minutes from the main Pymble campus.
When this second College campus opened, I was working as the Pymble Enrolments Manager 7-12 but the thought of a tree-change and the chance to work as the Operations Manager on a new venture in the great outdoors was too enticing to pass up.
For those alumni who remember Camp Knox, Vision Valley is a similar set-up. We specialise in adventurous Outdoor Education and Experiential Learning Programs for Pymble and other schools. Since opening the gates in January 2021, we have welcomed over 12,000 students to the campus.
The campus has four lodges with quad-share bunk bed accommodation, a main function centre with dining room, auditorium and classrooms, an outdoor stage and amphitheatre, and a central campsite as well as bush camping sites for solo expeditions.
There is a small dam for canoeing and raft building, natural abseiling and rock-climbing sites, a high-ropes course, archery, two pools and a waterslide, mountain bike trails and more.
The Outdoor Education programs are designed to allow students to extend themselves alongside their peers, build their resilience and courage, while working as a team and honing their leadership skills. We have a team of specialist outdoor educators guiding them along the way as they jump off 12-metre towers, scale up and down cliff faces or work as a team to solve the challenges of the initiatives course.
But the highlight of Vision Valley is our flagship program, the Year 9 Residential Program (RP) where Pymble girls ‘board’ at Vision Valley for four weeks. We ran two highly successful pilot programs in 2022 – the first was in August and the 56 Pymble students shared this trailblazing program with 40 boys from St Ignatius College Riverview. The second program in October last year was for Pymble students only.
The four-week RP is a tech-free (yep – no mobile phones or devices!) blend of off-site overnight expeditions, Vision Valley outdoor education activities and life skills training (think how to change a tyre or wield a power tool, forage for bush tucker or try permaculture gardening), academic learning, and the firm favourite which is rest and relaxation – lots of downtime in the great outdoors, time for the girls to be with friends, make new friends, write letters home, reflect and recharge. The RP culminates in The Great Return – a five-day hike from the Valley back to Pymble. Students map out the route, devise their meal plans and manage the packing so supplies are shared. At the end, parent, teachers and friends are waiting on Gloucester Lawn to welcome them back after this life-changing journey. There are tears aplenty!
2023 saw three back-to-back Residential Programs in Semester 1 – the first was for Pymble students only and the next two were co-educational programs with Riverview. We also rolled out our new Holiday Camp programs for Pymble Junior School students and their siblings. In addition, we designed curriculum excursions with practical and fun outdoor lessons which complemented the NESA K-6 curriculum.
The small and mighty Vision Valley team has worked hard over the past two years to create an environment where students will thrive and flourish outside the classroom. The scope of works is massive – from maintenance and extensive landscaping, to planning for the future – bespoke outdoor classrooms and camp shelters were built in 2023 and the lodges will be upgraded over the next few years. The site offers enormous possibilities, and we are dreaming big in the experiential learning space.
To learn more about Vision Valley visit our website here.
