Booking Process

BOOKING APPLICATION PROCESS

As a statewide service of the Department for Education, Arbury Park Outdoor School aims to provide equitable access to all department schools. To enable this, we use an application process with selection criteria to secure camp bookings. Selection criteria include recency of participation, group size, and schooling sector.

You can submit your booking application at any time.  It will be placed in one of two application pools each year, a semester 1 pool and a semester 2 pool.  Applications for semester 1 camps close at the end of August. Applications for semester 2 camps close early February (end of Week 2 in Term 1).

A booking application does not guarantee a booking, nor does it secure your favourite weeks of the year. We do our best to place schools as close to their preferred dates as possible.

We can only accept one application per school per year. .

SELECTION CRITERIA

We use the criteria below to prioritise applications and offer dates to schools.

1. ESTIMATED NUMBERS ATTENDING

• Booking applications must be for 50 to 90 students overnight. That is the number we are resourced to provide for. Exceptions to this criterion are:
  Small schools with enrolments below 50 (small schools can either lodge a joint application with another small school or apply for a booking during the nominated Small Schools Week each term).
  Other applications of less than 50 from schools must share their booking with another small group (these bookings may not be possible if we cannot find a suitable small group to share with).

• If your expected numbers are below 60, you may be required to share the site with another small group.

2. SCHOOL SECTOR

We accept applications from government and non-government schools. Priority is given to government schools.

3. RECENCY OF  PARTICIPATION

Schools with recent participation are prioritised lower.

4. CONNECTIONS WITH THE VISITING SCHOOL’S CURRICULUM

We encourage applications from schools that link their Arbury Park camp to existing or developing programs at their school.