Year 11

2020 Year 11 Leadership Retreat

On Monday the 3rd and Tuesday the 4th of August, Year 11 attended their Leadership retreat. A company from Brisbane called Character Builders came down to lead the day sessions with various activities planned. The night session was hosted by several teachers and was primarily religious in orientation. The focus of the retreat was to empower students to understand that as you serve others, you develop a greater depth of character and sense of personal achievement. Activities students participated in were designed to develop skills required for senior leadership – including, team building, building morale, peer organisation, and during the night session preparing students for their leadership roles as modeled by the ultimate servant leader, Jesus Christ. 

Day 1 was all about exploring team leadership skills. The first activity was a domino game, the key being to set up 5000 dominos around the hall, allowing a continuous fall once completed. With pizza as the incentive, a little extra time and a lot of encouragement from peers, Year 11 completed the activity (with a few exceptions of a break in the topple of their loop) and then gathered as a group to evaluate the effort, enthusiasm, and teamwork that lead to success. A key point that the Character Builders gave was the idea to step up, or to step back, which is relevant to all aspects of our final years, and that we can take with us after school. The second activity, similar to the dominos, was called the Amazing Race, which valued the effort of all group members, and encouraged us to work effectively as a team. Each group was given a set of tasks to complete including “egg head, carrots and potatoes, keep it up, cups, and the travelling ball”. We were scored on our teamwork and completion of the tasks. Being mixed in a group with people that weren’t known friends or even acquaintances, the communication and support of each other’s brilliant ideas enabled us to form new bonds within the year. The final activity of the day session was known as “Big-Up”, in which we singled out a particular person in front of the year group for their qualities and actions that have positively impacted an individual or the group as a whole. As tears were shed, new friends were made and respect was shown throughout this activity, Year 11 became not just a cohort, but a family. 

The evening session brought peace and calm, with some aspects of religious activities and group bonding. From working through a Labyrinth to elements of prayer, students formed a connection with each other and God through the communal spirit of the school. Meditation, songs of prayer, and group storytelling filled the evening with respect and care for each other. The evening included the creation of our year banner that will be displayed whenever we come together. After the first day, students were left empowered to make a change to their individual leadership and behavior as well as looking out for their newly formed family. 

The second day of the retreat had us excited and eager to move forward on our journey to becoming the cohort and leaders we are ready to be. The day began with an activity called “Pipeline Construction Zone”, where we all merged into groups with people we hadn’t spoken to before or knew little about. This activity was extremely effective in breaking the ice between peers and demonstrated how much can come from taking a small part of your day to strike up a conversation with someone new. The second half of the day was spent far outside of most of our comfort zones, with the activity “My Story”. Again we were separated into random groups of 6 and this time allocated a teacher or Challenge Builder team leader to guide us through the process. This part of the retreat was, to many, the most transformative part of the entire two days. Many people felt able and ready to open up about the tough times, good times, and most treacherous challenges. Many tears were shed in the midst of this as we grew an overwhelming relatability and understanding for our peers- in turn bringing us much closer as a family. Finishing the two days as a stronger cohort with the celebration of a year group mass and special blessings from Fr Chris.

Heading into the retreat, the majority of the year was hesitant to come and believed the next two days wouldn’t be useful and there wouldn’t be any gain from it. However, Mrs. Lees’ eager behaviour and encouragement convinced Year 11 to “have a go”, and they are now greatly appreciative and thankful for that. On the final day of the retreat, surprisingly everyone was overcome with enjoyment, they had gained useful leadership skills and the confidence it brought with it, pulling the year closer together. Year 11 was tired but excited to move forward and implement their new leadership skills inside and outside of the classroom. Everyone contributed to the activities and stepped outside of their comfort zone making the two days worthwhile. Todd from Character Builders had said, “you can't grow and improve if you're comfortable”. This made students who are normally loud and first to do things to ‘step back’ and those who are normally shy and uncomfortable were asked to ‘step up’ out of their comfort zone to improve. Every person in Year 11 has the ability to be leaders with or without a badge and can take these new leadership skills into workplaces, sporting teams, and future endeavours. Thank you to the Character Builders team for coming down and teaching Year 11 new leadership skills and bringing their cohort closer together, ready for year 12 and the future. Furthermore, a big thanks to our Year 11 Leader of Student Care Mrs Lees for the huge dedication and organisation of the two-day retreat. Without you, the retreat would have never had happened and year 11 would not be as close as we are now. Thank you to the staff that volunteered to help out at the night session, we thoroughly enjoyed it. 

Written by Year 11 SLC  - Daisy George, Nathaniel Thrift, Sarah Klasen and Zac Refalo

“I knew we got our value when I saw the dominos activity.” - Mrs. Lees