Students Earn Their Skipper’s Ticket
What other school subject allows you to enjoy the great outdoors while boating on the beautiful Swan River while earning a qualification you’ll have for life?
Students in Year 10 Outdoor Education have been busy working towards obtaining their Recreational Skipper’s Ticket.Â
Outdoor Education
Outdoor Education students learn new skills, gain an understanding of our impact on the environment, build resilience and work with others. They also have the opportunity to gain qualifications such as the Bronze Medallion and Recreational Skipper’s Ticket (RST).
Skipper’s Ticket
Students spend several lessons learning the theory content and revising before sitting the challenging theory test. During this multiple-choice test, students must achieve at least 34 out of 40 correct, before being able to move on to the practical element.
The practical element includes 11 tasks, focusing on skills such as:
- departing and coming alongside a jetty
- securing a vessel
- safety briefings
- logging on and off
- motor checking and starting
- retrieving a simulated man overboard
- using navigational marks
Students use class time to learn and practise these skills to ensure they have mastered each one before the final assessment.
Some of the girls have already completed their practical assessment and are now proud holders of an RST. Others will be completing this final part of the assessment this week or next term.
Student Reflections
I enjoyed this experience as it is not something you do every day. It was a great joy to be able to go down to the Marine Education Boatshed and learn about boating between classes and to also be given the option of obtaining our RST. I am hopefully working towards a marine biology career and getting my RST means I have a supportive and complementary skill that can help me achieve this career path. Freya Allen
I enjoyed the experience because it was fun to have recreation during exams and to do something with our friends in the outdoors. I feel great about having an RST; I feel like it’s an accomplishment and I was very excited after passing my practical. Giselle Paganoni
While getting my RST this year, I really enjoyed how we learnt the theory and then were able to take it out to the water in a real-life scenario. I know my RST will be useful to me as I love doing water activities, so having my RST enables me to get more involved and to have a wider range of skills. Saoirse Carter Â
I loved being able to have some freedom while driving as this was my first time going for any sort of license. I am so happy I got my RST because this means I will be able to drive the boat when we go on holidays now. Emmi Duff Â
- ConnectingLearning2Life, Featured, Initiative
Author: Santa Maria College
Santa Maria College is a vibrant girls school with a growing local presence and reputation. Our Mission is to educate young Mercy women who act with courage and compassion to enrich our world. Santa Maria College is located in Attadale in Western Australia, 16 km from the Perth CBD. We offer a Catholic education for girls in Years 5 – 12 and have 1300 students, including 152 boarders.