In the second last week of Term 1 the Year 7 cohort visited Valley Homestead in Myrtleford in the high country who hosted both camps from Nazareth College.

Camp 1 – Mannix, McAuley and MacKillop, Monday 18 - Wednesday 20 March.

Camp 2 - Chisholm, McCormack and Knox, Wednesday 20 - Friday 22 March.

We had pretty good weather all week. The sun was out most of the week with only a tiny amount rain and cloud.

The students participated in the following activities - Vertical challenge, Free-Fall slide, Aerial Obstacle course, Dual Flying Fox, Bush Skills, Camp fire, Singing and games by the campfire, Trivia night and Night Reflector trails.

I am very proud of the students who found some of the activities challenging and yet gave them a go anyway and for many others who overcame their fears of heights too. I witnessed leadership, kindness, teamwork, new friendships, bravery and courage over the course of the week from both group of students. For some students, just being away from home was a challenge that was overcome too. The venue hosts great activities and all the cabins have an ensuite in each room. It is certainly worth the drive to get there.

I would like to thank the following staff who gave up their time, classes and their families to support the camp and myself as Camp Coordinator:

Camp 1- Mr Brendan Hermon, Mr Josh Cowan, Mr Peter Nathan, Ms Andrea Smith, Ms Joy Singh, Mrs Gabby Spano, Mr Brendan Newcomb, Ms Roshni Shakeeb, and Mr Mark Sidoti.

Camp 2 - Ms Tracey Blake, Ms Romy Bilu, Ms Ziping Long Ms Hayley McMillan, Ms Jackie Kol, Mr Jason Robert, Mr Sam Indge, and Mr AdamCooper.

A big thank you to both Miss Caitlin Trustum and Mr Paull Ziegeler who, like myself, were on both camps.

Miss Trustum was there as the LSO support, and I am most grateful for her commitment for both camps once again. Paull volunteered once again as our very capable, calm, and qualified First Aider.

Over the week I asked the Staff leaders of each group for both camps to nominate students who, for different reasons, deserved a certificate/award.

Camp 1

Brooke Appleyard - enthusiasm and having a serous go at all the activities

Leo Flynn - good manners and being courteous

Aaron Cao - exemplary initiative on the vertical challenge and trivia

Abbey Norman - enthusiast participation

LJ Roussety - his amazing bush skills and giving everything a go

Vincent Nguyen - his determination and bravery on camp

Kasiana Odwazny - positive attitude and enthusiasm on camp

Camp 2

John Audy - Approaching every activity with enthusiasm and being a great team player in the vertical challenge

Meerna Alaridi - being supportive and encouraging of her peers

Nenad Vukosavljevic - being caring and encouraging towards peers and a freefall slide record holder

James Li - kindness service and teamwork

Shyla Buggy - participation and teamwork

Gerald Ung - participation, teamwork and respect

Edwina Luong – supporting friends to participate

Jiwoo Kim - participation and enthusiasm

Sophia Lim - encouragement and commitment in participation

I asked the house leaders to write a reflection of their time at camp, here are their responses:

The Year 7 camp near Myrtleford was a great success. It was a fun, exciting time where people made friends and knew more about people. Me, Jiwoo Kim, in Chisholm, had a great time with my friends and experienced activities I would never even consider to doing. My favourite activity goes to the tall slide that went up to 7m. It was so fun that I rode on the slide approximately 8 times! Overall, the Year 7 camp was incredibly special to my memories. I wish I had experienced it again.

Jiwoo Kim - Chisholm

Year 7 camp was a brilliant experience! With tons of fun activities and great food, it just made the trip so much fun and I am going to list the highlights of this camp.

To start, the first activity that my group did was the drop slide. The drop slide was a steep slide that was made from metal. The activity was that you would hang on the bar and when the instructor said go, you would let go of the bar and slide down. This activity was one of my favourites because in a short period of time, it gave you a huge amount of adrenaline.

The next activity was the dual flying fox. You pick a partner to go on the flying fox with and when the supervisor tells you to go, you would run off and do super cool moves while riding. Some people were going upside down! After that it was dinner time, the food was amazing!

The next day was a whole unique experience. We were starting fires to cook our afternoon tea and our lunch. We first started with a billabong competition. It was to see who could boil their water first. Unfortunately, my team lost but we came in 3rd place, which was quite magnificent for our first experience. Next up was cooking our food, that was a questionable experience because we were exploring for dried grass, branches/sticks, and big-thick sticks. When we finished lighting the campfire and getting it controlled, we started to cook our afternoon tea and our lunch. It was cooked dough and nachos. After that was free time. Other camp students and I played 15 games of gaga ball. This was my favourite moment at camp. Mr. Newcomb was the referee, and let me say, he is great at it.

After that was our obstacle activity. This activity was amazing because you chose a partner as your spotter to help you through the entire course. My favourite part was the 2 flying foxes. It was a great activity and we had so much fun.

The last day of camp, we were disappointed that it ended so quickly but also happy that we could see our family again. There was one more activity before that. It was a climbing activity. We had 4 people that were holding us up while one of us were the climbers. We had a motto. It is “On climb.” the climber would say then the spotter would say “Spotter ready.” In order. Then “Climb when ready.” After the climber would say “Climbing.” and begin their journey. It was fascinating to see the climber race competitively but also have fun at the same time. You could see the genuine joy on their face as this activity was fun while being the last. After this activity and eating the afternoon tea it was sadly time to go home.

We all could say we enjoyed all these activities; we hope to have camps like this again.

Gian Le Mercier-Guanzon - McAuley

My camp experience was amazing, despite the long drive & walking up and down the hills, we still had lots of fun.

In that three-day time span, I found that we all had really bonded, we had encouraged each other and stepped out of our comfort zone, which was an amazing thing to see from everybody.

My biggest achievement on camp was giving everything a go, even if I was scared, like the drop slide. I hung there but didn’t go down, but for me it was like a step, so for the next time I go on a drop slide, I’ll take another step, and that’s what its about, taking a step.

Camp was a wonderful experience for everybody, we had the trivia night, the bushwalk/campfire night and of course the activities, it was nice to see everybody’s smile, laughter and happiness.

A big thank you to all the teachers who came and organised this amazing trip and to Inika & Brook for running the activities.

Kasiana Odwazny - MacKillop

As a Year 7, this is a memorable experience for me. Camp is a fantastic way to go out of your comfort zone and not be with just the people you know but also to make more new friends. The camp was remarkable and fun because the teachers made jokes and did activities with us. Also being with friends makes it a hundred times better.

Annabelle Khuong - MacKillop

My camp highlight had to be making friends and getting to know the people that I will

be surrounded by for the rest of high school, and the bush night walk because Mr Cowan

took us the wrong way.

Amalia Dell'Aquila - MacKillop

Year 7 camp was definitely one to remember, Plenty of connections were made, and it was a great way to spend more time with our cohort. We traveled 4 hours to camp which led us to a beautiful destination up in the mountains. Valley Homestead had a variety of fun activities that included bush walks, obstacles, and trivia. During our camp, we participated in 4 thrilling activities, including a giant slide, a flying fox, obstacle courses, and bush skills. The flying fox allowed us to experience the sensation of flying at high speed through trees. The flying fox was a partner activity so there were 2 zip lines next to each other, you and your partner could jump off backwards and fly through the trees together. Two obstacle courses put our physical abilities to the test by pushing ourselves to keep going. The giant slide involved hanging onto a bar and dropping straight down and curving flat. Another activity was Bush skills which tested our survival skills. We challenged ourselves to build a fire as quickly as possible, cooked our dinner over an open flame, and even attempted to make damp shelters to protect ourselves from the elements. It was a lot of fun working together and learning new skills in the great outdoors. Camp has taught us many life lessons that we might need in the future, such as lighting up a fire and which resources we’ll need to start a fire. Cooking ourselves a basic meal, we also learned about wildlife and what to do if we got stranded. Overall camp was a great experience and a time to remember.

Angelina Cacic and Elcie McAleer - Mannix

Camp is about making new friendships, helping others, meeting new people and mostly having fun. At this year’s camp I saw all of that. All the activities brought the Houses together. My peak for camp was the Drop slide. I volunteered to go first and nervously headed up the stairs. When I made it to the top, I gripped the bar and let go, I zoomed to the end and landed perfectly. That is when I knew I was going on it again. The next few turns were like a piece of cake. The slide tempted me to go on more and more until we had to finish up.

Luka Vidackovic - McCormack

My name is Siana and Year 7 camp has been incredible! I made so many new friends and had a wonderful time. We did so many activities like, bush walking at night, learn how to create a fire and cook food, played trivia, sitting around the campfire and play games and sing songs, climb obstacle courses and gliding down the flying fox which was one of my favourites. I really enjoyed and had an adventurous time at camp and I cant wait for Year 9 camp!

Siana Suntah - Knox

On our Year 7 camp I had a really great time as I had most of my friends in my cabin. It was also good to spend time during the day in my House colour, as I had even more of more friends old and new with me. The activities like the zip line and the drop slide were super fun! We learnt to make a camp fire that we cooked our morning tea and lunch on which was an experience I had never done.

The most enjoyable activity for me on camp was the trivia night. We selected our own groups, group name and everyone in my group had a fun time.

Diesel Mancuso - McAuley

NCCA