RISK Program

RISK Program

IN 2012, Comet Bay College introduced its RISK program for students wanting to develop resilience, tackle challenges and acquire new skills. It is an acronym for Resilience Impartation through Survival Knowledge. Originally offered to Year 7 students, the program proved popular among boys and girls, and has since been extended to our Year 8 students.

Experts stress the importance of resilience development during childhood and adolescence. Building resilience equips young individuals to navigate life’s hurdles and recover from traumatic events, ultimately fostering personal growth and success in their future endeavours.

The RISK program adopts a group or team-based approach to instil a sense of belonging and community understanding in students. Through well-designed challenges integrated into the curriculum, students enhance their self-confidence, communication skills, and resilience, gaining fresh, positive perspectives on tackling life’s adversities. The RISK program has three fundamental teaching objectives: enhancing students’ abilities to confront new challenges, imparting essential life skills, and fostering a sense of belonging for each participant.

Students receive comprehensive theoretical and practical instruction, engaging in a diverse range of survival skills such as establishing camps, building shelters, camp cooking, fire-lighting, first-aid awareness, bush craft, cross-country navigation, and using survival equipment. Moreover, the program emphasises crucial life skills such as problem-solving, effective communication, teamwork, and leadership, empowering students across their entire academic journey.

The RISK program also plays a significant role in the social and emotional development of students, equipping them with the valuable tools required to regulation their emotions, thus enabling them to better manage anger, anxiety and stress in safe and appropriate ways. It promotes:

• Emotional awareness
• Anger as a valid emotion
• Identifying, minimising and managing triggers
• Anger coping strategies
• Emotional wellbeing
• Self-confidence
• Positive self-talk
• Goal setting and positive choices

The RISK program is offered as an elective for students and includes a compulsory outdoor adventure excursion at the end of each semester. This is an essential element of the program and allows students to apply their acquired skills in real-life scenarios and learn those aspects that can only be experienced in the bush.

The effectiveness of the RISK program is measured by the Wisconsin University Resilience tool, used comparatively before and after the course. Additionally, anecdotal reports from participants also provide valuable insights. On average, 14 out of 15 participating students experienced improved resilience. Notably, students who initially exhibited lower resilience tend to demonstrate the most remarkable growth by the end of the semester.

Due to the program’s popularity and limited capacity, we recommend early registration for interested students. Priority is given to those candidates who will benefit most from the course.

Students may be required to complete a pre-enrolment interview with the course coordinator, and successful applicants will be notified via email.

Further information is available by emailing david.karcheski@education.wa.edu.au.

RISK Program 2025 – Expression of Interest OPEN

REGISTER HERE – 2025 RISK PROGRAM

RISK is an acronym for ‘Resilience Impartation through Survival Knowledge’ and is a program offered to Year 7 and 8 students (Boys AND Girls) enrolled at Comet Bay College.

When allocating places in the RISK program, priority is given to those students who will most benefit from the course. Your application will be reviewed, and candidates may be invited to an interview with the course coordinator.

Successful students will be notified by email.