Year 5/6 Camp Pics

Years 5/6 Camp at “Sovereign Hill” - 2018

The Year 5/6 Camp was held at “Sovereign Hill”, Ballarat, on 9th, 10th and 11th May, 2018.

The purpose of attending this camp was to provide the students with a worthwhile educational, living and learning experience.

Part of our History curriculum this year provides the Year 5/6 students with a study of colonial Australia in the 1800s. This study includes a look at the founding of British colonies and learning about what life was like for different groups in the colonial period.

By attending our camp this year at Sovereign Hill, Victoria’s 1850s gold rush heritage was brought alive to our students through a number of exciting, creative and interactive experiences.

The St Fidelis students experienced Sovereign Hill indoors, outdoors, above-ground, below-ground, during the day and the night.

Amongst other things, the students participated in the following programs/activities:

• Gold panning in the creek
• Dressing up as characters in the Eureka story and by using Museum exhibits created pictures of the key events of Eureka
• Experiencing ‘Gold Fever’, role-playing the varied experiences of the diggers, gold buyers and troopers to understand the frustrations that led to Eureka.
• Experiencing aspects of 19th century Chinese culture and discussing the discrimination faced by the Chinese Diggers who came to Victoria.
• Experiencing ‘Blood on the Southern Cross’, the explosive multi-million dollar sound-and-light show
• Mine Tour
• A gold smelting demonstration producing a $140,000 gold ingot
• Visiting the Gold Museum
• Experiencing the Chinese camp
• Viewing a Demonstration of traditional candle-making
• Visiting cottages and shops and buying some souvenirs
• Visiting the heritage steam engines and boilers
• Watching the parade of Redcoats

Congratulations must go to the Year 5 and 6 students on the way they participated and

co-operated with both staff and each other. I hope that the students had a great educational learning experience.

To make the Year 5/6 Camp possible, many people provided their support. Thanks, therefore, must go to the following people:

• The camp staff – including Leanne Daquino, Tania Fragopoulos, Alice Burton, Michelle Casamento, Daniela Caruana, Leanne Wenckowski, Kevin Gleeson and Michele Hedley.
• The Grade 5/6 students’ parents for allowing their students to live away from home for 3 days to participate in this educational program.
• The staff and students back at school for modifying programs for the week.

Michael Jennings

Camp Coordinator