Outwit, Outplay, Have FUN!!

The Year 9 "Great Aussie Bush Camp"

On Wednesday 22 November, 43 very excited students boarded the Cowra Buses coach at 8am bound for the Central Coast.  Our destination was the "Great Aussie Bush Camp" at Kincumber.  The students were in for three days of outdoor activities designed to build team work and resilience, as they faced personal challenges by participating in the activities.

On arrival the students were assigned to one of two activity groups.  Over the three days students engaged in Initiative activities - The Leap of Faith, Raft Building, The Giant Swing, Abseiling, High Ropes Course, Mud run (Lost Island) and Survivor challenge.  There were also night activities including Commando, where students had to try to outwit the teachers by taking hostages before the teachers could ‘spotlight’ them.  Of course the teachers out smarted the students, with no hostages being taken!  The students also enjoyed having a campfire each night.  It was a good opportunity for storytelling and bonding.

I was very proud of the group of students, who were excellent in their behaviour and attitude towards 'having a go'.  Many students stepped outside their comfort zone in taking risks with various activities and were pleasantly surprised that they could in fact, succeed.

The instructors provided at the camp were excellent.  They were knowledgeable, skilled and all had a great rapport with the students in their charge.  The food was great! Lots of it and a good variety.  This also applied to the teacher’s meals!

The feedback from the camp instructors was that our group of students was one of the best that they have had at the camp, and that they were all respectful and well behaved.

I was also fortunate to have Megan Mackenzie and Angus Bates as staff on the camp.  Both of these teachers were committed to the students having the best possible time at camp, while ensuring that they represented Cowra High School in a positive manner on all occasions.

I have been on many school camps and excursions in my time as a teacher and this one rates as one of the best in terms of cooperative learning and a positive, respectful group of students.   It was a pleasure to be involved and to be their Year Adviser.

Di St Clair

Year 9 Adviser

Kincumber by Sean Smith

1.  Camp is far away.

2.  Very, very far away

3.  We had to get a bus there.  We were supposed to leave at 7.30, but we really left at about 8.

4.  We had morning tea in Mt Victoria, where all the kids had fun on the park’s equipment.   We left again and arrived for lunch at Kincumber a few hours later.

5.  At camp we ate food, then were segregated into two activity groups.  Group Two did ‘some muddy puddle plank thing’ and Group One did ‘high ropes’.  Then we swapped.  Everyone enjoyed themselves and a few people got really dirty.

6.  We then had dinner and learned the overly generous food giving habits of the instructors.

7.  Then we blundered to a room where we would end the night with group activities.  Marcus circumnavigated a table.  Luke beat Miss MacKenzie in a contest to pick up paper off the ground with their mouths.  Sean gave Marcus a close shave… with Death.  Riley used balls to knock over all the cups and some interesting drawings were produced.

8.  Everyone ‘went to bed’.

9.  We began the second day with an early wake up from the birds.  Breakfast was good and there was lots of it.   The two starting activities were Leap of Faith (Death) and Initiatives.  When the two groups had finished their activities, we swapped.

10.  The activities were followed by more snow cones, which were mostly flicked around by the instructors, and occasionally flicked back.

11.  After that was abseiling and the mud run.  The instructors were good, but you didn’t want to be on their bad side while they were holding you up 11 metres off the ground!

12.  There was more food and we began the night activity, ‘Commando’.  There were hostages that everyone else had to find, without being caught by the teachers.  We lost.…… hard.

13. There was supper (lots of chocky milk, cookies, sausage rolls and party pies) and Ray, the instructor, told us some really scary stories.  And then we all went to bed.

14.  The giant swing greeted us in the morning, it sent feelings of awe and fear through us.  From our perch, suspended 15 metres above the ground, we could tell that it was a very big swing.  The middle person had to pull the pin (rip cord) and drop the trio into oblivion.  Many a curse word were released that day.  As well as that was raft building, which was really just a swim for the few brave enough to face the cold water.

15.  After an early lunch and the group photo, we all rocked off for the long trip home back to Cowra.