Year 3/4 Camp

One of the many great things about school operations and wider life starting to return to normal this term has been the unexpected ability to go on the Year 3/4 School Camp.

We had been booked in to travel to Forest Edge Camp in Neerim East this week for almost two years, a wonderful place we have visited many times before with previous groups of Year 3/4 students. As remote learning and the wider COVID restrictions carried on over the winter and early spring, we has assumed that a school camp this year was out of the question.

School Camps are a wonderful opportunity for children to have fun but also grow and learn in so many different ways. The skills and attitudes of independence, organisation, teamwork, risk taking and resilience are all tested and developed by attending camp. If we had not been able to go ahead this year, our students would have been worse off for it.

We were therefore thrilled to hear that school camps for schools in metropolitan Melbourne were back on again a few weeks ago. The workload since then on the 3/4 teachers and in particular Stephanie Coles, our 3/4 team leader has been huge but they have pulled a great camp together in record time. I need to thank the teachers and staff who planned and attended this camp for this additional work at such a busy time of the year.

I am writing this on the final evening at Forest Edge just after a group of 102 very tired campers have gone to bed. We have been blessed with perfect weather for camp and the students have had an incredible time and been a complete credit to our school. We are so happy that, after a year when these children have missed out on so much, they were able to have this great experience together as a group.