Junior School News
Natalie VALENTINE
Head of Junior School
Lord Somers Camp
163 eager students and 18 teachers headed to Lord Somers Camp on 15th March for their Year 7 orientation camp.
Students engaged in a range of activities including, Stand Up Paddleboarding, Kayaking, Raft building, T-shirt printing, Pizza Making, a Disco and Trivia night.
The year 7’s were a pleasure to be with and consistently demonstrated our school values while away.
Below are some reflections from our students……
Kayaking at Lord Somers Camp - Adam B
Year 7 did a lot of fun things on camp, but most people liked kayaking because we saw and did so many fun things. When we started kayaking the teacher taught us how to use the paddle, how to get in the boat and etc. We kayaked a bit in Merricks Creek (our kayaks covered in seaweed) then dragged our kayaks to Somers Beach after ten painstaking minutes. Before all of that, we changed into our bathers (I’m glad we did, most of us got drenched.) Once we got to the beach we went in our kayaks for a bit, a lot of people capsized and got wet. After getting soaked, we swam around for a bit in the shallow water and saw some dolphins. We could see their fins and tails. After that we carried our kayaks back to the creek and kayaked back to the shore. This experience made us have lots of fun and we are very grateful we got to go to this camp.
Disco Ball! By Amber, Natalie, Joanna, Umaima and Zara
My heart was pounding, the music was blasting in my ears. The conga line was circling me and my friends, suddenly the beat dropped! “I’m a barbie girl in a barbie world”, me and my friends sang our hearts off. Instantly a circle formed with everyone in our friend group. My jaw dropped when boys a liar came on... all the girls started screaming to the beat. Glow sticks were dropping like flies, I saw some girls picking them up and using them like guitars, it was wild!! It was so good watching the boys dance and have fun for once. The teachers were also dancing their hearts out. The actual group dances were outstanding, watching the teachers do the time warp was excellent and I will never forget it. When the music changed to macarena everyone started dancing and it was awesome to see so many people have a fun time with their friends!! If only we could re-live this whole night!!
Raft building and beach games By Finn B, Finn S, Sam and Joey
At Lord Somers Camp an activity we had was raft building and beach games. For raft building we each had 5 pieces of wood and 5 pipes. We tied the pieces of wood and pipe together with the rope that was provided.
Some students weren’t great at building rafts, so they had the option to express their creativity by creating a flag for their team. We took seashells and bits of seaweed of the shore and placed it onto our flag to create the design.
Once our rafts were completed, we tested to see if they float. A group of 3 students per each team were chosen to test the raft. Once all 3 people were on the raft they had to manage to stay afloat for 10 seconds.
