Perth Waldorf School

Outdoors WA Innovative Program Award

The 2022 Western Australian Outdoor Recreation Sector Awards were held on Friday night. The awards recognise and celebrate those who have contributed to providing a quality service to help improve or encourage people to participate in outdoor recreational activities. 

Perth Waldorf School was announced Winner of the 2022 Innovative Program Award that Outdoor Education Coordinator, Paddy Hocking designed and created combining Rock Climbing with Rope Access. This was the first time an Australian school had taken part in an IRATA training program and it was an inspiration to see how well the year 11 & 12 Outdoor Education students adapted to this industrial training environment.

Rope access and rock climbing are both close to Paddy’s heart, having spent many years rock climbing growing up and abseiling down buildings for work prior to teaching. This was an awesome opportunity to combine traditional outdoor education with an industrial setting. 

Acknowledgement and thanks must also go out to Radu Nicola, Operations Manager from Vertical Services who worked with Paddy to design this introductory course for students, taking them through basic rigging, ascending, descending, rope transfers, diversions and a range of other rope access manoeuvres. 

This award is a milestone moment for Outdoor Education and Paddy Hocking at Perth Waldorf School, recognised as an outstanding program amongst industry leaders within the Outdoor Sector in Western Australia. 

Paddy Hocking
Outdoor Education Coordinator