Middle Years Experience 

Year 8 Camp Experience 

By Ava Verrier, Year 8, Ridgeway Campus

Year 8 Camp is probably my favourite memory for this year. I was very nervous to start with, as I didn’t have any of my close friends in the camp group, however that soon resolved itself as the two other girls that were in my group welcomed me and we soon became good friends.

We started the camp in tents, which meant we had the 3-day hike first. We would have to walk to our camp site (which was roughly around 3 hours) before we could settle down and set up our tents. There was a lot of grumbling and growing, and most of the cohort was not happy about a long walk. However, the complaints soon died away as people started to get into a rhythm and enjoy the views and nature around them.

When we finally got to the campsite, we had to make our own dinner, which is probably the only bad thing about camp, as the food seemed quite questionable.  However, the desert was fantastic!

The next two days of camping were amazing, as we went on a long walk exploring the nature around us and finding walking sticks in the bush. The days seemed to go slower, and we had no clue what the time was, and without realising it, and to the teacher's delight, we went to bed relatively early at 9. This is not to say that there was not the odd person running around tents after lights out!

After the hiking we all felt grotty, as we had not had a shower for three days. We were very pleased to finally see the boat that would take us to our cabins. The cabins were amazing, the beds were soft, and the food was delicious. We did many activities like sailing, stand up paddle boarding, and a trivia night. Each day was something new. Everyone forgot about the worries of school and just had fun.

My favourite activity was sailing as we got to go in mini sale boats and race each other. Many boats even tipped over. I would rate my camp experience a 10/10 and can easily say that the next Year 8 group will have a lot of fun, and probably say it’s one of their favourite memories of Year 8.

Middle Years Music Camp

By Alex Baldwin, Year 8, Ridgeway Campus

One of the benefits of being a Middle Years musical student at Ivanhoe Grammar School is attending the annual Junior Music Camp in Term 2.  Taking place near Daylesford, the camp allows students to take a break from busy school life and daily homework to practice playing select pieces of music in preparation for the mid-year concert which is always scheduled on return.  The drive up to the country is relaxed and chilled with kids playing music on their devices or singing acapella and everyone is in a happy mood.  Making a change to your weekly routine, even if it is for just a few days away from school would do that to you.  Accompanying students on camp are always the multi- talented music staff of The Ridgeway Campus, led by the most musical Ms Burke. 

When I attended music camp last year, I was skeptical at first as to how the schedule would run and whether we had to continue to do homework while we were away from school.  Well, we did get time allocated for homework at the end of each day, but it was a relatively relaxed way to do the work because you were with other classmates and working together.  Maybe there was more laughing than working, but the time flew in any case.

The days began at 8am, with half an hour to get dressed and make our way to the communal dining room.  The breakfast feast was fabulous with scones, cereal, or eggs and a multitude of juices to choose from.  No loitering here, once finished students joined their ensemble or bandmates and got their instruments ready for the day.  There were plenty of breaks throughout the day giving the opportunity to fuel up with snacks to get us through the day of intense music playing.  I will say, the music cohort was certainly well fed.  Sometimes it felt like we were all on tour, part of a big band roaming the countryside visiting diners dotted along our tour route. 

Music Camp was a great way to hone your musical skills.  Frequently breaking into sectionals, forming smaller groups of musicians lead by a specific music instructor, also gave us the opportunity to be tutored individually with tips and suggestions tailored to each player.  As a fan of music and playing music, it was a great experience spending three days perfecting our music.  We were all there for the same reason which was to hone our skills and have fun along the way. 

So if you’re wondering whether to attend Music Camp next year, I say go for it!

Year 8 Excursion to You Yangs 

By Diane Roe Year 8, Ridgeway Campus

This year, the whole of Year 8 went on an excursion to the You Yangs as part of a science task. The main purpose of this excursion was to discover and learn more about igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks, and the significance of the You Yangs to the First Nations people. My class and a few others went on this excursion on the 1st of June, while other classes went on different days of the same week.

During this trip we did three activities. Weeding, hiking and a guided tour around the big rock. For the first activity, we were tasked with pulling out a type of weed called boneseed that had infested the You Yangs’ natural grounds when the settlers arrived and took over the area. We held a competition to see which group could get rid of the most boneseed. By the end of it, every single group pulled more than 50 weeds in their section.

The hike was up the contour track, and we all had to find a rock, identify what type of rock it was, and analyse all the different properties it held, recording all this information in a table. Depending on the path each class decided to take, the hike was anywhere from 1km to 3km long.

For our last activity, the tour guides walked us around the big rock and taught us lots of different facts about the You Yangs. We learned about the landscape and the history behind it, like how when the settlers arrived, they introduced a variety of foreign plants and animals to the area. Around the end of the tour, we got to walk on top of the big rock and take photos. The tour guides showed us the water wells in the rocks and told us how the You Yangs had been formed over thousands of years.