A message from the Principal

I have had the privilege last week to start term 4 by getting away from SKiPPS with the Year 5/6 students on our school camp to Camp Rumbug in South Gippsland.

We had planned to travel to Canberra for our senior school camp in March of this year but, sadly, the COVID restrictions in place at the start of the year made such interstate travel almost impossible and Education Department rules prevented us from travelling.

We were lucky to be able to change our plans and instead visit Rumbug, an adventure camp located on the doorstep to Wilson's Prom instead. The camp is in a beautiful location - surrounded by temperate rainforest and incredibly steep hills which tested our fitness levels and endurance on a daily basis!

As with all camps, Rumbug was a full-on experience for students and staff alike with very little downtime involved. Many of our students had not been away from home for such a long period before and so the week presented a large challenge for them - emotionally and physically.

I believe attending camps is an invaluable opportunity for our students to face these many and varied challenges and to learn and grow as learners and people.

Spending a week with such a great group, I was lucky enough to see students face up to challenges, work together, take risks, have a lot of fun and work well outside their comfort zone. 

There are lots of different ways this looked;

• Deciding how high to go on the giant swing 
• Dealing with the realities of sharing a cabin with their classmates
• Coping with those moments of homesickness that are a natural part of camp
• Braving the cold water of the lake on a raft built as a team
• Negotiating the 'mud-run' - a truly challenging and messy experience!
• Dealing with setbacks, tiredness and disagreements with friends

Watching this has reminded me that our job as a school is so much more than teaching academic content in the classroom.  

The learners that we are so proud of as they travel through the school, are those that take on these different opportunities and become resilient, kind, supportive, courageous and good-humoured people. 

Camp both develops and tests these qualities in abundance and we are proud to offer these opportunities to all of our students and to see them take these challenges on with such enthusiasm and resilience. 

Bring on the Year 3/4 camp later this term!

Neil Scott

Principal