The Foundation Areas
Two foundation areas provide the key content of the St Joan's Guild program: Outdoor Knowledge and Skills and Home Arts and Sciences. They are each broken up into 8 incremental stages and all girls - regardless of their age when they join St Joan's - must work through all the stages in order to complete the program and earn the peak awards.
The OKAS stream seeks to teach girls to appreciate and thrive in Australia’s varied landscapes. Girls will finish the program with an advanced knowledge of Australia’s ecology, the natural environment, and the creatures and plants that live in it. They will also learn skills necessary to develop a healthy relationship with the outdoors, including how to be self-sufficient and safe in the bush. As they work through the stages, girls will practice and grow in the virtues of patience, joy, gentleness, self-control and generosity, and develop the life skills of courage, resilience and perseverance.
Outdoor Knowledge and Skills (OKAS)
Home Arts and Sciences (HAAS)
The HAAS foundation area covers all the various arts and sciences required for a young woman to thrive in the home and as part of her wider community. It includes almost everything a girl needs to know to manage a home and family. Girls will finish the program with a strong knowledge of old and new arts, the most recent updates on the different sciences that relate to home life and an understanding of several subjects that can be turned into home businesses. The HAAS also covers home life as it is lived in a community, and girls are encouraged to bring their new skills to wherever they are needed through various service projects. The HAAS area seeks to cultivate the virtues of joy, gentleness, kindness, patience, fortitude and charity.
The Program in Practice
The Foundation Areas are laid out in 'I' statements, for example part of the OKAS Little Flowers section:
I can help cook a snack such as marshmallows on an outdoor fire.
I can tie and explain how to use a Square Knot.
I know my five senses and can demonstrate using them on a bushwalk.
I know what endangered species means and can list two local endangered species.
When a girl completes a task, she ticks it off in the Program Booklet and makes a note of the activity in her journal. Her parent either takes a photo of the activity showing proficiency eg. photo of the square knot, or signs the Program Booklet eg. explaining the five senses. Photos and evidence (photos of completed sections in the Program Booklet and Journal entries) are uploaded to the family account in the members section of this website and Guild Headquarters awards the appropriate badges or Skill Cards at the end of the term. Completion of one stage is required before a girl can move up to the next stage. All tasks in the Foundation areas are compulsory but dispensation forms are available for parents who cannot facilitate a particular activity.