Year 7 and 8 Camps

Year 7 Camp 2021

In March, the Year 7 students participated in the Orientation camp at Valley Homestead situated at Ovens in regional Victoria. Over the course of four days they had many opportunities to develop a range of adventure skills such as climbing and abseiling, a vertical challenge, dual Flying Fox, ropes courses and creating group rafts. But on a less energetic scale, they were also able to enjoy some down time with an Art session, an evening of bushing dancing, a night walk, a pool swim and a movie on the final night. It was a time when they had to face physical challenges yes, but in doing so, also grow in their own personal development and confidence. Many worked co-operatively and supported each other; forging new friendships and connections along the way. By the end of the camp the girls were exhausted, but happy with the memories of the laughs, fun times and experiences shared with many new friends.

MS MARINA PRETTO ASSISTANT HEAD OF YEAR 7

Strengths in Action: Year 8 Camp Reflection

I used my character strength of perseverance to keep hiking up the mountain, under the scorching sun, with a heavy hiking pack on my back even though I was exhausted and sweaty. During the 10km mountain bike ride, I used perseverance, curiosity and bravery to take the risk of trying the difficult bike courses. I used kindness to encourage everyone behind me to keep on going. Strengths I identified in other people were leadership, humour and teamwork, in order to keep the whole group marching ahead and to help others when they were tired. It was easy to identify strengths in myself and others because we were in harsh terrain with only each of us supporting each other through the wilderness for many hours. During the hike, I shifted my attitude to ‘can do’ and persevered ahead and adjusted my outlook by imagining the view to come when we finally reached the top. I also changed my mood and behaviour so that I would help inspire other people to do well by charging ahead and having a positive outlook. I saw that other people had changed their behaviour, mood and attitude so instead of complaining, they all supported each other to keep going and endured ahead. Obstacles that got in the way of using or recognising strengths was the long trek we had to take to reach the top of the mountain. It was hard to use some strengths such as humour or zest because we were all tired and our muscles ached. Enablers which kept me engaged with recognising or using strengths were the view around us when we finally hiked up to the top of the mountain, being able to use my strength of Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence to appreciate my surroundings and soak in the view before making the journey back down. I will continue to look for opportunities to use my character strengths and identify other people’s strengths as it is quite a useful tool in the future when working in groups or teams and seeing who will better fit a role (e.g. for someone with a top strength of creativity, they can use their creative side to help during a project). The benefits of using my strengths and identifying strengths in others are that I can grow as a person, bringing out my top strengths, improving the other strengths and helping others bring out their strengths so they too can flourish.

FELICIA DU YEAR 8 STUDENT