From the Head

I spent the start of this week joining our Year Seven students on camp just outside of Lake Eildon.  Across this week alone, three separate year groups departed on rescheduled camps as we desperately tried to take every opportunity to finish 2020 with some sense of normality.

I know how much the Year Seven students appreciated the opportunity to get away - it was written on their faces as they undertook the impressive array of activities including horse-riding, survival courses, high ropes, low ropes and archery to name just a few.  Coupled with the chance to ‘get away’ was the opportunity to ‘get to know each other’.  Year Seven is typically a time when new friendships are developed, with COVID and 2020 impacting upon the traditional experience of the first year of Senior School.  Seeing the Year Fives off on their camp on Wednesday, several parents told me that they also welcomed the opportunity for their children.

Being ‘on camp’ myself I saw first hand the benefit of the experience, reminded just how important these school events are to help students develop their social skills, living with each other non-stop for nearly 72 hours. At the end of this extraordinary year, a year where everyone has had to adapt and change to the circumstances imposed on us, I reflected on the dedication of the Girton staff who attended all these camps, camps ‘shoe-horned’ into the last weeks of the year.

I suspect the following simple observation might surprise parents.  It serves to illustrate the responsibilities of any staff member attending camp.  Out of everyone attending the Year Seven camp, there we 72 individuals with medical conditions and special dietary requirements, and twenty of those conditions were potentially life threatening.  

It takes a special person to go away on a school camp.  In the instance of the Year Seven camp, twenty members of the Girton staff left their families and homes for three days to ensure that the camp could take place.  In a year of gratitude, I am grateful to all staff who supported the students, and the School, in delivering extended stays and camp experiences in Prep, Years 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 over the last three weeks.

Dr Clayton Massey

HEAD