Camps & Excursions

Year 10 Snow Camp

The year 10's had the amazing opportunity to go visit the snow and ski in Mount Bogong, Falls Creek. It was both a very surreal and educational experience, especially for those who had never had the chance to see the snow before or ski. We went with 'Outdoor School' which is an educational camp designed to help and teach the students that visit both about the alpine environment and the impacts human activity has on it, as well as the basics of skiing. It was a 5-day trip consisting of 18 hours of skiing spread out over three days. We got the chance to try both cross-country and downhill skiing with Outdoor school ski instructors. The gear required to participate was provided for us. Each night, we would learn how to use the skis and other pieces of equipment in preparation for the next day so we could just pick it up in the morning and head off to the slopes.

It was not only a great learning experience to learn and understand the skills needed for skiing like turning and stopping using the 'Snow plough' but we also went with another school, Saint Helena. Being able to talk and get to know other people while learning a skill was very rewarding for many of us and allowed us to build new relationships and connections with people or strengthen pre-existing ones. I think everyone was able to make new memories and learn many new things, for me and my friends there are some memories we made we will never forget like falling off or struggling to get off the ski lift and laughing in our cabins.

Thank you so much Elisa for making this opportunity happen as well as Aaron for tagging along and helping us.

Sienna F 10C

Year 9 Camp

What a ride!

After a couple of years hiatus, Tasmania Camp is back! 162 intrepid students and 16 staff boated, bussed and flew their way around one of the most picturesque spots in the world.

Itinerary highlights included Russell Falls at Mount Field National Park, Cataract Gorge, Seahorse World, MONA, the Port Arthur Historic Site and the tessellated pavement.

Staff highlights were the overall fantastic behaviour and attitude of the groups throughout the five days. It’s always a little nerve-wracking when a member of the public wants to know which school you are from - but when it happened at Hobart airport for Group A (while patiently managing a delayed flight), and on the boat for Group B (while watching footy finals with members of the public), each time it was because people wanted to praise the group’s behaviour.

It’s undoubtedly a tiring time of year and some have come back from Tassie with non-COVID sniffles but the spirit amongst the cohort has been a pleasure to see. We truly hope students saw camp as an opportunity to build their resilience and social skills - meeting new people, challenging themselves with new experiences, trying things that don’t immediately sound like fun but can be unexpectedly engaging (sorting grains of rice at MONA or whinging at Shane for making them walk up a hill and all the way down some stairs to see a creek are two examples that come to mind!)

We hope students came home and shared their positive experiences with families and loved ones. Sincere thank you as well to students and parents who came up to us to thank us or took the time to write us a lovely email. Tassie Camp is a long week and a great commitment and those were a lovely extra boost heading into the last two weeks of the term!

Melanie Buscema-Moore

Year 9 Sub School Leader - On behalf of all camp staff

Group A: Justin, Samara, Hannah, Ricelli, Olivia S x 2, Chris B, Chris S

Group B: Melanie, Eve, Angela, Shane, Liam, Emily-Rose, Jillian, April

Student highlights

Justice: “Port Arthur was my highlight and being able to explore the grounds. I found the history of the place interesting and I really liked the architecture.”
Isaac M: “I’m never getting on a boat again but this pales into the shadows of a great camp.”
Aston: Me, Clifford, Ethan and Toby explored Hobart, and loved racing on the pier.”
Henry: “The ghost tour was incredibly fun and terrifying.”
Youssef: My favourite memory was when we went to the tessellated pavement. It looked good and it was funny when we slipped.”
Tristan: “My favourite memory was Seahorse World. It was interesting.”
Lila: “Cataract Gorge was beautiful except for the surprise hike part.”
Eve” I liked spending time with my friends outside of school. I really liked Tamar Valley, the cabins we stayed in were great for hanging out with friends.”
Romany:” I loved MONA because it was so interesting and a once in a lifetime experience.

Year 11 Camp

This term the year eleven of Coburg High School had the opportunity to go to camp as part of CHS step up program into year 12. It was a wonderful opportunity for the year as we have had to endure many cancellations and delays in the past two years that saw the iconic Tasmania camp that CHS offers to year nine students canceled. But as the easing of restrictions continued the year eleven students were offered to go to Lakewood Park Camp based out of Gippsland which offered a chance for year eleven students to come together as a collective as they go into their final year of high school. On the four hour bus ride to Lakewood camp we stopped by a small town called Yarragon where the year eleven students got to move their legs and get some fresh air as well as go in to see the small local stores. From Yarragon we had arrived at Lakewood camp which had a pristine view of the waterside and beaches. After the brief the year elevens were split into activity groups that gave students a chance to experience each activity that the camp had too offer those of which included, mountain biking were we rode our bikes at sunset scaling up and speeding down hills, some even choose to go through the mud which was exciting to see. The second activity was the environmental walk where we went out with our Gippsland nature encyclopaedias with a guide, who taught us what to look out for on our walk. The third activity that we did was the boat ride into the local town which we saw a little bit of Paynesville which was the town close to the camp and once we had landed we went through to the koala walk in hopes of seeing them, and see them we did, I personally counted about 14 koalas. After the walk we returned to the boat where we returned to camp to go on our fourth and final activity. Which is my personal favourite being that of sea kayaking were we went back on the lake in pairs of two with paddle boards and kayaks where we followed the instructor who after teaching us the proper way of rowing, we were off and deeper into the lake we got, we saw dolphins swimming under and around us which left me and i’m sure many year elevens star struck. Though we had an a amazing time all good things had to come to end and after the final campfire we all went to bed at camp Lakewood for the final time, as the year elevens were saddened to leave such a beautiful environment we said our goodbyes and thanked all the stuff for helping us and accommodating 180 students as well as giving us an opportunity and a memory the year elevens won’t soon forget.

Ezzat G

The Summit

The year sevens recently visited the summit, an outdoor adventure camp and enjoyed a range of fun activities including, the leap of faith, a bungee jump from a tower and the giant swing. For some people the summit was very influential because they had a fear of heights and the summit helped them face those fears and develop their resilience. It was obvious that the year sevens enjoyed the atmosphere of facing their fears and pushing themselves with the music in the background. Going forward from the summit we can use that experience by reminding ourselves of the time that we tried something new, and a mindset that we can adopt in the future and in school.

Ivy P

Year 9 Spanish

On Monday the 5th of September, the year 9 Spanish class walked up to Newlands Primary School to present to the grade 2/3s their stories they had been working on during our unit on 'Leyendas'. Both the Year 9s and the 2/3s were excited and nervous, and the students and teachers from Newlands were really welcoming. The Spanish Teacher from Newlands placed the students in small groups and the Year 9s moved around to each group and read their story. The 2/3w were thoroughly enthralled and loved asking questions afterwards. The Year 9s were so impressed with the amount of Spanish the Newlands students could understand and could be overheard stating they wished they'd started when they were that age. A lovely connection was shared and we left the books for the classes to enjoy and add to their class library, which they were thrilled about. The day was fantástico!

Angela Smith