Teacher Feature
The Scotch Community welcomes back Dr. Duncan Picknoll, Head of Outdoor Learning and Adventures
Tell us about your journey to now.
When I was young and asked what I wanted to do when I was older, I never really knew. But I always loved playing and learning in the outdoors. I grew up near bushland and the ocean, and I would leave home in the morning and return in the afternoon after a day full of adventure. I started my career as a Health and Physical Education and Design Technology teacher before completing a postgraduate degree in Outdoor Pursuits. For a while, I worked as a freelance Outdoor Educator and lived out of my backpack for 200 field days a year, which became unsustainable when my wife and I had twins. I was fortunate to be offered an Outdoor Education Teacher role at Scotch and stayed for nine years including as the Head of Outdoor Education. I then moved to Notre Dame University, where I spent 14 years building their Outdoor Education programme and growing our future Outdoor Education teachers. When this role came up, I’d recently met up with Head of Senior School Peter Burt and Director of Co-Curricular Richard Foster and it reminded me of what a special place Scotch is, so I decided to apply. Scotch has an excellent Outdoor Education programme with great staff and wider school community involvement, so I can’t wait to continue strengthening it. Why is outdoor learning such a critical part of education?
Outdoor Education is a curriculum subject area. Outdoor Learning is a teaching pedagogy and methodology which can support other subject areas and contributes to a greater part of the vision of school education. Learning outdoors enables us to incorporate cultural learning, put lessons into practice and explore environments. It creates space to experiment, grow and get feedback in a supportive environment. Outdoor Learning can teach resilience in ways that classroom learning can’t. It puts students in group settings in challenging roles where students learn to solve problems, develop respect and care for one another, take on leadership opportunities and learn about the environment. Wellbeing continues to be a major focus in schools, and outdoor
experiences, particularly expedition based programmes are an excellent way of taking students away from their usual routine to build these skills. We provide Outdoor Learning experiences to all our students, from Kindergarten to Year 12. How do the focuses change from our youngest to oldest students?
Some excellent learning opportunities are happening at Scotch, for instance, our Junior School’s Nature School programme. Creating space and allowing nature to be the teacher is important for students of any age, but the lessons must respond to students’ needs and life stages. Risk-taking is key to self-discovery and a focus across all year groups. We must provide opportunities for our students to take measured risks and learn to fail. We know that young people will always take risks, some good and some bad, but the outcomes can be profound if you balance risk with the necessary skills to combat the situation. Carefully sequenced Outdoor Learning provides opportunities to safely explore risk and use these outcomes in everyday life. We live in a noisy, non-stop world and so have become unaccustomed to pause, reflect and experience silence, even though we know it’s vital for our wellbeing. In Outdoor Learning, we teach reflection in a structured way, with guided questions, journalling and solo experiences to promote productive thinking. What has been one of your greatest adventures? What did you learn from it?
After finishing the Outdoor Pursuits course, I spent 16 days on a mountaineering course in New Zealand with only a guide beside me. I climbed Mount Aspiring and learned a lot about resilience – one day, we walked for 18 hours from the bottom of the mountain through crevasses, summited and returned to a cave against horrible weather conditions. It taught me much about weather interpretation, how quickly weather can change and the importance of decisive decision-making. That expedition led me to explore mountains in the UK and abroad. I considered this time of my life as a rite of passage and kickstarted my transition into Outdoor Education teaching.
Head of Outdoor Learning and Adventures, Dr. Duncan Picknoll
The best adventures happen because of the people. Places are important, but it’s the group of people with whom you have a shared experience that we can never recreate. You may not all be there the next time, the weather is not the same, and you won’t be the person you were before. What’s next for Outdoor Learning at Scotch?
Great things are happening already, allowing me to develop our programmes further. I’m passionate about journeys and am looking for ways to bring our excellent programmes together to create a whole-school journey with staggered milestones. From a solid base we know that our students in the later years of their education have skills, so there’s an opportunity to offer higher-end adventure-based expeditions beyond the current Year 10 Expedition programmes, possibly including climbing more challenging mountains and exploring other remote environments. I’m currently working with our Head of Middle School Brad Gill, to identify how we can enhance the formative transition from Year 8 to Year 9 with Outdoor Learning. I’m also exploring how we can create more wellbeing opportunities with outdoor activities to include service learning and reflection.
