RAP boys

In the final week of term 3, the boys involved in the RAP program went on an excursion to Blacktown Area Community Centers' (BACC) Marayong and Doonside venues to partake in many life skill activities and learnt about the importance of such organisations. 

Students started off at Doonside packing meals for community members and learnt how this gesture helps the less fortunate and those who have difficulties in affording healthy food options. The boys even turned this into a team-building activity by working together and coming up with a more efficient way to pack the meals, which worked tremendously. Students were then greeted with morning tea, a discussion of how such actions are so beneficial to us all and further fun activities.

In the second half of the day, the boys travelled to BACC's main center at Marayong where they took part in a budgeting activity and cooked a dish in groups. Each group were given a certain dish to focus on and the dishes were spaghetti bolognese, egg fried rice, chicken wraps and jam drops. Students learnt the importance of understanding how much each of the meals cost, how to calculate it and the quantities needed for each recipe. Even though students did struggle at first, they were able to figure out the cost of their recipe in the end and saw the importance of this task in an everyday context. After the budgeting activity, students cooked their recipes and it was then distributed to all the students and staff. It is once again safe to say that this was the main highlight of the day with the boys enjoying this activity the most even though they were exhausted in the end.

Overall, students demonstrated exemplary behaviour on the day and this excursion was a great way to end the term for the boys rewarding them for their efforts throughout this program alongside learning many invaluable skills.

A big thank you also goes to BACC for organising this wonderful and enjoyable day for the boys, Hanife Bilgin for supporting this program and helping out with the sessions as well as the excursion and Andrew Sondaar for driving the boys to each venue and back to school via bus.