Learning PathwayS

The purpose of the Climbing Programme is to:

Develop climbers skills to reach their full potential
Enable opportunities to appropriate levels of competition
Build student character and leadership skills
Instil the importance of teamwork, service and community

The UWCSEA Climbing programme is extensive and inclusive, catering to all ages and abilities from K2 to G12. Climbers have the opportunity to learn the physical skills, techniques and strategies of climbing, how to keep themselves safe in a dangerous environment and, how to take responsibility for the safety of others.

Climbing at UWCSEA offers a range of pathways to provide opportunities based on student interest and abilities. Climbers may join the accessible "Active for Life" development programmes that require a weekly and seasonal commitment. Alternatively, suitable students may also specialize in competitive Climbing at a high performance level and represent the College in both local and international individual and team competition. Competitive climbing for the College team involves a training commitment of multiple times per week throughout the year.

Types of Classes

The Phoenix Climbing Programme offers two general types of classes:

"Active for Life" - Development and Intermediate classes that are perfect or new learners and beginners.
- - These classes provide a gently progressive learning platform with a focus on learning by exploration. They are also often described as "Development" classes.
  - New skills are introduced at a slower pace and games are often used to provide learners with plenty of opportunities to repeatedly apply them in a climbing environment.
  - Performance outcomes are presented in the form of challenges instead of goals.
  - Most of our weekday classes, Community Activity Programmes (CAP) and Holiday Activities (HAP) fall within this category.

"Competitive & High Performance" - focused classes recommended for repeat learners, experienced and advance climbers.
- - These classes encourage learners to deepen their skill mastery by offering a range of progressive challenges across diverse situations. Examples include our competitive climbing teams, training squads and specialised classes.
  - Learners can expect to spend most of their time focusing on sport climbing skills and challenges. Games may still be played during class time, but they will have a greater focus on sport-specific skills.
  - Coaches will help learners to establish, focus on and work towards their first climbing goals.
  - Our U-19A, U-19B, U-16 and Pre-Competition Teams would belong to this category of classes.

To ensure age-appropriate interactions, foster healthy collaboration between students and provide suitably moderated challenges that match their physical abilities, our learners are grouped into developmental peer-age brackets based on their school grade years.

Infant School classes are offered to students from K2 to Grade 1.
Junior School (JS) classes are offered to students from Grade 2 to Grade 5.
Middle School (MS) and High School (HS) students from Grade 6 and up are offered the same range of classes.

High Performance - Climbing Teams

Competition climbing is an optional pursuit in the Phoenix Climbing programme, but it is also prized as a mark of achievement among students. Particularly, the U-19A Team wears their colours with pride given the extraordinary amount of dedication and hard work required to earn and maintain a place on that roster.

Our competitive climbing team are structured as follows:

U-16 Team (Training Team, up to about G9 or 16 years of age),
U-19B Team (Junior Team, up to about G12)
U-19A Team (Senior Team or official UWCSEA Team, up to about G12)

Nevertheless, membership into and remains open to every student with some climbing experience. Membership in the Climbing Teams is often prized as a mark of achievement among students, worn with pride through hard work and dedication.

Learners have an opportunity to join the Phoenix Climbing Teams by attending their respective Selection Trials. Two Trials are organised every year:

Pre-Season Trial (week 1, Season 1),
Mid-year Trial (week 25, Season 3).

For more information on the selection policy, recommended pre-requisites and performance expectations, please refer to our dedicated page on our Climbing Teams.

Service

The Phoenix Climbing programme also aims to inspire and empower students to discover Climbing as a source of lifelong personal development through the formation of positive interpersonal relationships and rendering of sporting service to others.

Current Climbing Sport Services are offered for the following programmes:

Climbing Development (Junior School)
Tuesday (3:05 pm - 4:20 pm)
Season 1 and 2

For a school term, eligible Grade 9 will encounter and support other young learners who are receptive to their contributions. They are also presented with tangible opportunities to hone their skills as communicators, grow their commitment to care, and develop themselves as change-makers with agency and the ability to enact meaningful positive change in the world.

FLow Chart - Which Class Should I Choose?

Check out our next section: Pedagogy, to learn more about how we design and deliver our classes.

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If you have a question about one of our classes, or would like to get more details about a specific topic, please Contact Us. We would love to hear from you!

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