Eastside Lutheran College, (ELC or the College) originally named St Peter’s Lutheran Primary School, was established in 1982 by St Peters Lutheran Church Hobart, as part of the Lutheran Church of Australia outreach program.

The College is a co-educational facility catering for students from Prep to Year 10. This family focused College attracts many highly capable students whilst at the same time lovingly includes students with additional needs. Small class sizes and the Christian philosophy provide a safe environment for students to excel.  ELC is characterised by: caring support for each individual; relationships of the highest quality; high quality educational programs and teaching practices; striving for personal, social and academic excellence; a caring, supportive and safe environment.

Set on 7 hectares of bush land overlooking Hobart, the Derwent River and Mt Wellington, students enjoy abundant room to move, play, explore and learn in an idyllic setting.  As one of the few independent schools located on the eastern shore, the College draws its student cohort from many areas of south-eastern Tasmania.

We currently have regular outdoor play-based learning throughout the primary school and often high school classes can be seen taking their classwork outside and interacting with the schools outdoor environment.  We also have one session of primary Outdoor Education each term per class, a term of Outdoor Education for Year 7s and 8s and a year long Outdoor Education elective class for the Year 9 and 10 students.  We also have a sequenced camps program beginning in Year 1.

For our school Outdoor Classroom Day is designed to encourage and support Teachers to take their student outside for the day (and hopefully more frequently) to benefit from all the fantastic outcomes of outdoor learning and play.  It is a great day to celebrate the students and staff that are already getting into the outdoor classroom and to encourage and support the students and staff that are just starting on their journey of outdoor learning and play.

We find that some students are more attentive and engaged when learning outside. This can the follow on to classroom discussions later about the same topic.  At times, the very loud students are more relaxed and quiet in the bush and the shy students may become more active in the group work or discussions.  Many times we have seen students who are generally quiet and sit back will jump in with problem-solving activities when outdoors and really be listened to by their peers.

We are expanding our primary Outdoor Education classes and working with high school teachers to undertake more excursions to enrich their curriculum.

The Outdoor Classroom Day Team would like to thank Eastside Lutheran College for sharing their story with us.  

WANT TO SHARE YOUR OUTDOOR CLASSROOM DAY STORY WITH THE WORLD?

If you’ve previously taken part in Outdoor Classroom Day, you’ve probably got some great stories to share – and we’d love to hear them!
To be featured in our Outdoor Classroom Story section on our website, please tell us a bit more about your school, and your participation in previous Outdoor Classroom Day campaigns.

SHARE YOUR STORY

IS YOUR SCHOOL OR EARLY LEARNING CENTRE SIGNED UP?  REGISTER TODAY TO SHOW YOUR COMMITMENT TO OUTDOOR PLAY AND LEARNING!