A message from the Principal

I have had the privilege this week to get away from SKiPPS with the Year 5/6 students and team on our school camp to Creswick.

This is our first time at Log Cabin Camp, a location chosen as it gave us a great mixture of adventure activities and easy access to Ballarat and Sovereign Hill to support current Inquiry learning in class around the gold rush and  Australian 19th century history.

Whilst camp is a full-on experience for students and staff alike with very little downtime involved, I believe it is an invaluable opportunity for our students to challenge themselves in so many ways and to learn and grow as learners and people.

Writing this just over 24 hours after we arrived, I have already been lucky enough to see students face up to challenges, work together, take risks and work well outside their comfort zone. 

There are lots of different ways this has looked;

• Deciding how high to go on the giant swing (and whether to hang upside down) 
• Dealing with the realities of sharing a cabin with their classmates.
• Coping with those moments of homesickness that are a natural part of camp
• Facing up to a challenging commando course
• Braving the cold water of the lake on a raft built as a team
• Dealing with setbacks, tiredness and disagreements with friends

Watching this has reminded me that our job as a school is so much more than teaching academic content in the classroom.  

The learners that we are so proud of as they travel through the school are those that take on these different opportunities and become resilient, kind, supportive, courageous and good-humoured people. Camp both develops and tests these qualities in abundance. 

Neil Scott

Principal