Locking a group of teachers into a room and watching them frantically trying to escape might be a dream of students.
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Earlier this month deputy principals from State primary and high schools in the Mid Coast area voluntarily took the opportunity to be locked up with only their collective wits available to help them escape.
The escape rooms were set up at the University of Newcastle campus in Taree and used as a team building exercise for the deputy principal Collegiate Leadership Network (CLN).
Gloucester High School deputy, Mik Wisely and CLN co-ordinator came up with the idea to use the program.
"I heard about the escape room 12 months ago, and listening to what it was all about - building capacity in leaders, highlighting communication skills, being able to give effective feedback - they're all the sort of things that are really important in a school, particularly within leadership roles, and I just thought it was really translatable to the role of a deputy principal in a school," Mik said.
The deputy principals were split into two groups, with a room set up for each group.
As one group worked to escape the room, the other group would watch on through video screens.
The room is set up in scenarios (for example, the 'mad scientist's room', where somebody has swallowed poison and an antidote must be found) with hidden clues and puzzles that need to be solved in order to unlock a set of locks.
The participants are given 30 minutes to solve the clues and escape.
Mik found the experience exhilarating.
"I use that word because it's a bit like a ride," he said.
"It was a really unique experience."
The escape room program is run by the University of Newcastle Department of Rural Health at the Taree campus by nurse academic, Natasha Hawkins and lecturer, Kerry Wisely.
"We're working together as a team across Taree and Tamworth to develop the boxes (escape room kits) to start with," Natasha said.
"We developed portable boxes because we work across a lot of different rural sites," she said.
"For us at the the Department of Rural Health we're spread from here to Moree, to Tamworth, to Coffs, to Port.
"So our boxes, or these 'rooms' that we wanted to develop, had to be portable for us to get bang for our buck to get as many students through as we could and so there would be equity at all of our different sites.
"We ended up winning an innovation and teaching grant through the University of Newcastle for our program we started here."
Mik was full of praise for the University of Newcastle program and said it was very relatable for educators to take back into their school communities.
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"I really do hope that our region has a look at this model and says 'this is the sort of training particularly our leadership staff could get involved in. I encourage anybody to do it," he said.
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Julia Driscoll
Julia Driscoll has worked as a journalist for the Wingham Chronicle and Manning River Times for seven years. She values the deep connection with community that being a rural and regional journalist brings. Career highlights have involved environmental stories - bringing the plight of the little known endangered Manning River helmeted turtle to the attention of the public, resulting in wide-spread knowledge in the community and conservation action; and breaking the news of the Manning River ceasing to run for the first time in recorded history.
Julia Driscoll has worked as a journalist for the Wingham Chronicle and Manning River Times for seven years. She values the deep connection with community that being a rural and regional journalist brings. Career highlights have involved environmental stories - bringing the plight of the little known endangered Manning River helmeted turtle to the attention of the public, resulting in wide-spread knowledge in the community and conservation action; and breaking the news of the Manning River ceasing to run for the first time in recorded history.
