The Year 9 Rite Journey program is an exciting and innovative program for all Year 9 students at Trinity Anglican College. It combines the Health and Personal Development and the Religious and Values Education courses which comprises of four lessons per fortnight for the year.
The program has been created to complement your role as parents in guiding your child into young adulthood. The Rite Journey was developed in South Australia and is now being used by many schools across Australia and internationally.
It provides the opportunity for students to participate in a year-long rite of passage experience in separate boys’ and girls’ classes. Many cultures have their own version of a rite of passage designed specifically for this age group.
Learning how to be an adult male or female in any society requires guidance, mentoring and a great many conversations. In our society today, young people often turn to their peers, the internet and the media to source their knowledge and guidance. During The Rite Journey program, students will be required to have important conversations about what it is to be a respectful and responsible man or woman in our society.
As students journey through the year, they will explore four main themes: Relationship with Self, Relationship with Others, Relationship with Spirit and Relationship with the World. We hope that the discussions they are having at school may also stimulate conversation in your homes.
A unique feature of The Rite Journey program is ‘The Rite Journey Challenges.’ As part of this year’s Rite Journey program, Year 9 students will be involved in a number of challenges. The challenges that they face are not about competing with others, defeating someone or even necessarily succeeding. The primary purpose is for students to learn about how they deal with challenge, what they learn from it and how they respond to success or failure. Meeting challenges builds self-confidence, teaches new skills, helps to reveal strengths, helps students to discover the areas in which they can develop more skill and stretches students beyond what they thought was possible.
The challenges will be presented to the students across activities being held during periods 4 & 5 on each Friday ‘A’ Week. Students will spend three sessions in each activity across the duration of the year. The activities include mountain biking, outdoor skills, physical and adventure challenges, environmental service, mindfulness, community involvement and volunteering. The community involvement activities give the students opportunity to undertake volunteer work at a range of local organisations, including; Wewak Special School, Borella House Albury, CSU Murray Childcare and Trinity Anglican College Junior School.
As part of the Rite Journey program, we are challenging students to a 24 hour solo camping experience. Our aim in this challenge is to develop in students coping skills and encourage resilience as they navigate their time in isolation.