By Elisa Catanzariti
Leader of Junior School
Earlier this term, the year 7 cohort attended the Year 7 Camp located at Anglesea Valley Lodge. This was a great opportunity for students to get to know their teachers and cohort better, develop leadership skills, work collaboratively and step outside of their comfort zone. Our Year 11 VET Sport and Rec students attended the camp as part of their assessment, helped facilitate activities and supported staff with keeping the students engaged. Students enjoyed the valuable experience and formed stronger connections. Below are some reflections from two year 7 students of their camp experience. A big thank you to all the staff that helped by attending the camp and immersing themselves in the experience for the benefit of our students.
I was in the first camp group, and I can say I doubt the second one was much better! All the activities left no one out and we never felt like there was nothing to do as we were allowed outside to do whatever we wanted whenever there wasn’t an activity or nighttime. The grounds were very big and easy to have a lot of fun on and year 11s held nightly activities that were very engaging and required your whole group to do. Overall, the day activities were fast paced and never boring as you never had to wait that long to do rock climbing, to have a go at archery, to challenge yourself on the low ropes, to canoe using teamwork and more! Again, the camp was great and can’t believe the second one could be much better than ours was.
On the second half of the week, Wednesday to Friday the classes 7C, 7D and 7E - which are the best classes - went to the camp. Everyone had fun getting to know each other more whether it was being in groups with people you haven’t met or just having conversations with each other. The activities that we got to do were canoeing, which was so fun, racing to the end and splashing each other with water. The bush walk was tiring for many but it was worth it when we saw the kangaroos around. Archery was inclusive, letting everyone get a turn, whether you were trying to get the furthest arrow or hitting the target. Everyone had a good go at trying the rock climbing and was patient while waiting for their turn. Low ropes was all about teamwork, trying to get the fastest time with your group around the obstacles or getting to help everyone get through the net. We also did teamwork games with our group and lastly the night activities, playing games including musical chairs, giant Jenga, puzzles and way more. They were organised by the year 11 VET students who were also our group leaders for the day activities. But even with the amount of amazing activities we did, we got free time to do whatever: some were just talking with their friends, some did volleyball, soccer or the favourite on our camp was table tennis which got pretty competitive but overall it was the best camp to meet each in our first year of high school.
