Year 9 students left the college yesterday for the Adventure Alternatives camping site at Woodford, on a quiet country road not far from the famous Woodfordia site of the Woodford Folk Festival.

Marist College business manager Stephen Porter said headmaster Peter McLoughlin was with the boy’s parents.

“We’ve asked the camp be stopped and the boys are coming home,” Mr Porter said.

The teenager was airlifted to Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital this morning in a critical condition, after paramedics were called to the site just before 10.30am.

A Queensland Ambulance Service spokeswoman said the boy, in his early teens, became injured when he became entangled in the rope.

He suffered neck and head injuries.

Adventure Alternatives is an award-winning camp facility. Its website says the camp aims to “inspire individuals to drive their own learning, to challenge their concept of the norm, their comfort zone, their beliefs of other’s and their own ability” through outdoor education.

It says the outdoor ed “allows individuals to explore and discover aspects of their personal development through adventure based activities in a natural environment”.