PAC 2018 Trip to Wellington

Hillcrest High School Physical Assistance Centre (HHS PAC)

We have a group of 15 students with a variety of physical disabilities, some that are life limiting, ten of our students are full time wheelchair users. It has recently come to my attention that these students have never had the opportunity to attend a school camp.

Last year, the new Teaching and Therapy Team consisting of two teachers, an Occupational Therapist and a Physiotherapist decided to take on the challenge of providing these students with a school camp. We decided to be ambitious and we are planning to go to Wellington Dec 3 - 6 2018.

As this may be the only trip some of these students attend it is important to us that it provides them with all the usual experiences that able bodied students gain from attending school trips. That is travelling as a group, organising group meals, participating in organised excursions and of course having fun.

To ensure that the camp is accessible to all involved we have chosen to use a mobility bus transport us to and from Wellington. We will need to have access to specialised equipment such as commode chairs, accessible toilets and full sling hoists to ensure safe transfers of our students from chair to bathroom. Over and above this we will also require Carer support to assist our students with toileting, eating and drinking.

I am sure you can appreciate the cost of providing a trip with the specialised transport and equipment needs, along with the extra Carer support hours well surpasses the usual cost to parents for a standard school trip. There are already so many barriers to overcome when organising this camp, we can’t afford for finances to impact on a student’s ability to participate.

We have the full backing of the Inclusive Learning Faculty and also Hillcrest High School as we fundraise in order to provide these students a school trip experience that in reality may actually be once in a lifetime for them.

We thank you in advance for your consideration.