Camp Reflection

by Tanreet Pannu, St Nea

Wednesday

“Let it go! Let it go! I’ll rise like the break of daaaaaawn.” We were all singing Let It Go while crossing the bridge entering Phillip Island. After about 10 minutes of “amazing” singing we reached the campsite. It was going to be the best camp ever! It was about a 1 hour and 45 minute drive. As we entered the island there was a ginormous anchor at the front. When we departed off the bus we could see the pool and our cabins (which were still in cleaning). Once all the suitcases were out we all listened to the rules of camp; while eating our lunch. We were introduced to our group leader and pupils. My group teacher was Ms Karaan. Our first activity of the day was the flying fox. We were trying to find the fling fox when we realised we went in a ginormous circle around the camp. Our Flying Fox instructor’s name was Shaye. She was standing on a 6 metre tall tower behind an 80 metre zip line. One by one we were all harnessed and sent over to the tower. There was also a basketball hoop where we could throw a ball in. After everyone had a turn we all went back to the oval and met some other groups to walk to Clip’ n ‘Climb. It was about an 18 minute walk and the weather was lovely. As we entered, I saw so many rock climbing walls I was so excited I couldn’t stop jumping around. Finally, when the instructor lady finished talking about the rules, we put our harnesses on and ran to all the climbing walls. After an hour we were all sweating and bought some drinks and ice - cream.

Next we went to the trampolines. The trampolines were really fun. While the two people were jumping, the others played games like Wink Murderer, Night in the museum and more. We left 10 minutes before the end of the lesson to get ready for the pool. Going to the pool was really fun because there were pool noodles, balls and all of our friends. In the pool some people had races, others tried to stay afloat but we all enjoyed it. And the best part is that we all went in! By the end of the session it was 5pm and we were introduced to our cabin and had showers.

At 5:45pm we had dinner. For dinner we had chicken schnitzel with veggies and gravy. For dessert it was vanilla flavoured ice - cream in a waffle cone. After dinner we did our night activities. Our first activity was talking about leadership. We talked about what being a leader means, what leaders there are and what we have to do as a leader.

Our second activity was playing stadium games. We went to a stadium and played lots of games which we had to keep scores of. The highest score in Year 7 was 118 points altogether. My group got 109 points and we came in 2nd place.

Our final night activity was going on a night time walk. It was amazing and creepy at the same time. Once we reached an oval we ‘started’ (watching Mr Martin have a nap) writing some camp articles. Finally it was 9:30pm and half an hour until bedtime. But before that there was one last thing missing. SUPPER!! For supper we had biscuits. There were lots of biscuits. Once we were in our cabins we couldn’t stop chatting. It was super fun talking almost until 11pm. Anyways, we all got a good night's sleep.

Thursday

Today we woke up at 5:30am to go on a morning walk. We all (our cabin) got ready and set off to find Miss Kennedy waiting for us. At the morning walk there were 10 of us walking. We were just in time to reach the beach and watch the sunrise. For breakfast we got toast and cereal. Which was surprising because I thought we were going to get something fancy. Our group went straight to archery. I had never done archery before so I was nervous I would get hurt, but I didn’t!!!! There were two people in our group who got a bullseye. Next it was crate stack. Crate stack was when we have one person in our team harnessed, another person handing the harnessed person the crates and two people pulling the rope to pull the harnessed person up. Slowly the person has to stack and climb the crates as the pulling people pull them up. When it was my turn to be harnessed I was so scared but made it up to 7 crates. The highest in our group was 10 and highest in the total Year 7 was 14. Our next activity was craft. Craft was a nice and relaxed activity. We made bags. On one side of my bag I drew all the things my family loved. And on the other side I wrote and decorated the words ‘SHOPPING FRENZEE’. Now we use it all the time.

Next it was lunchtime and I was starving. For lunch all the Year 7’s walked to the beach and got given a ham and veggie sandwich. After most people ate the sandwich we got given icy poles. Finally (so my friend would stop bugging me), we went to the beach. Lots of people went for a swim but I just built a sand city with rock soldiers protecting it. I also built a special Kung Fu school which the soldiers go to, to learn to fight off evil villains. One of the rocks looked like a rhino. Some people were also playing cricket. After lunch we went to our final activity of the day, outside stadium games. We played dodgeball and rats and rabbits against another group. I found out that our group is really competitive. We won dodgeball 0-7. It was originally 0-3 but the surprise last round was worth 4 points. After all that we had dinner. Dinner was Tortilla’s. It was yummy but very hard to eat because it was so big! We had 15 minutes to get ready before the Killester Idol!

The Killester Idol is basically a Talent Show with judges. This panel of judges was made up of Ms Karaan, Ms Scott and Mr Hussani. In the Killester Idol many people performed. Some of the performances were comedy shows, sing alongs, piano players and more! But my favourite was Let it go, which was led by Hyojoo, Nicole and Emily M from 07 NEA. The entire year 7 sang Let It Go!!!! After the Killester Idol it was still 9pm so Ms Scott(ee) led the entire Year 7 to a dance party. There were so many songs being played. By the end of the party my cabin was so tired we didn’t even bother trying to stay up all night.

Friday

Today was the last day of camp and we were all going to see our parents again. First we had the usual breakfast (toast and cereal), then we got ready and were allowed to go on any ride we wanted. The first one we chose was the Giant Swing. It was ginormous. The first swing was the scariest for me and the person on the swing because I thought I had broken the swing! When it was my turn I got called up to practice the Liturgy Speech I was doing. So I never got a turn. After the practice, Harveen and I went to the Pedal Bikes. We were racing and she won.

Next we did Liturgy. We prayed for everyone and everything and handed out our welcome cards we made to hand out to Year 7 kids we didn’t know. After that we had lunch. For lunch we had burgers. We had lunch outside on the oval because they were cleaning the dining room. After lunch we had to clean up our cabins, pack up and wait outside. Slowly we all got on the bus and we were all ready to leave.

On the bus I ate lollies and talked to Brianna, Manmeet, Marilyn and Harveen. Finally we reached Killester College and all got off the bus. So we all helped get the suitcases in one pile. Then I got my things and saw my mum! I ran up to her and gave her a ginormous hug and I saw others doing it as well. Now off to a long weekend!!!

Year 7 Leadership

By Jessica Nguyen - St. Maria Goretti

Personally, I think that running for leadership is overall super exciting and nerve wracking. Everyday when you walk into school for that week, you are nervous just in case the video where you sit and read a speech is shown to everyone.

Sports leader, House leader, Arts leader, Sustainability leader, Community service leader, Celebrations leader and Student council, those are all the available roles. Just as the teachers were reading them out I immediately thought of how fun and amazing it would be to become a leader and I quickly applied.

The first step to applying to leadership was the form, we were given forms that we needed to fill out including, your name, class, photo, and why you would be a good leader. Filling in the form was difficult, considering as it was our first term here, we had not done much for the school community and it was making me reconsider if I could even become a leader. But I remembered this; Even if you cannot do big extravagant miracles, you can still make a change, one small favor at a time. So I just wrote about the things I had done to help my peers in any way I could.

Next up was the video, the video was the difficult part. It was intimidating to think that all my friends would be watching this and that I had to make it perfect with subtitles, transitions, cuts and effects. After a tiring 10 minutes of recording, I had to start with the editing. Editing was hard as it is hard staring at your own face and listening to your own voice for that long. But after I got into it, time flew!

By 9pm I was able to finish up on my video and sent it over nervously. Applying for leadership is fun and takes effort. I think that the hardest part personally was trying to fit a whole speech into one minute and just waiting for your video to be played on its own was just terrifying but in the end, I am proud of my video, and that made me feel less embarrassed.

I think that the next chance you have, you should run for any Leadership position you want! It may be scary and time consuming, but I think that it is all worth it in the end!

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