Year 7 Camp
- 21 Feb 2018
On the morning of Wednesday 21 February, all 360 Year 7 students arrived at school, bright and early to depart for Phillip Island! As soon as Mrs Ford told the few students that came early to school to enter the hall, a flood of students followed.
Everyone was jumping and running around to find their friends to greet them; the noise was deafening but it was grand to see everyone’s smiles on their happy faces. Once all the cheerful pre-teens finally calmed down, we sat in our Form groups to have roll call and Mrs Binnion met us in the hall to wish us a wonderful time. It finally came to the time to jump on the buses.
Luckily, because I’m in 7C, I didn’t have to wait long to get on the bus. We all quickly put our bags underneath and lined up efficiently. I’m not sure if this is what everyone does, but I always go to the back of the bus, and as you could imagine it was packed! Thankfully my bus buddy saved me a seat.
One and a half hours later, my back was killing me, but luckily we finally arrived at Phillip Island. As I stepped off the bus I felt goosebumps, and so did others around me. After about four minutes all the other six buses arrived and we went into the auditorium to listen to what the camp staff had to say. We were then sent to find our cabins.
As soon as I arrived in my cabin, I looked around me and didn't see any familiar faces, so that got me a little nervous, but everyone in my cabin was so welcoming, (with them all being close friends), and they really made me feel like I fitted in.
After we all settled in it was time to meet back to start our activities. The activities were: archery, rafting, team building, pool, beach, flying fox, giant swing, disc golf, high ropes, canoeing and the giant slide. I was in group 16, again, with no one I had yet met, but I could just tell I was going to have a great time! The pool turned out to be my favourite activity although the water was icy cold and I was freezing! You know that feeling when you jump into a cold pool and once you’re in for a while you get used to the cold? Well, in this case, that wasn’t what happened! So we used our imaginations, and a few friends and I got a kick board and we played cricket next to the pool for a while, until someone hit the ball into the pool and I was the one who had to jump in and get it.
Our first night was a movie night and we watched ‘Big Hero 6’. It had been a pretty tiring day, so it was good to sit and wind down while watching a movie. I was sitting up the back with some of the new friends I had made that day. Once the movie had ended Mr Rood spoke with us then it was time to head back to our cabin. Mind you, my cabin was far away from where we watched the movie and it was also pitch black, so I was quite scared, but thankfully, I had friends with me walking in the same direction.
On the second night we had our version of ‘McKinnon’s Got Talent’. There were some awesome acts with singing, dancing, stand-up comedy and even roasting the teachers! There were about 25 students involved with that and there was not one act that I didn’t enjoy.
All these activities were great bonding activities especially the team building one. Although it was frustrating it was super fun. Our task was to use three wooden planks to get across an obstacle with the whole group - but there was a catch! We also had to take a dummy on a stretcher across with us!
Unfortunately, it had come to the last day but we still had two activities to get through and mine was going to the beach, it was about a 15 minute walk there. At the beach there were many things we could get involved with, such as playing cricket, sand castle competition, biggest hole dug or you could just sit around and enjoy the beautiful scenery. I chose to play cricket and I was blown away with Mr Quinn’s and Mr Nutting’s cricket skills!
Sadly, it was then time to pile all our bags back on the bus and start to head home. Everyone looked exhausted, including the teachers! Many new friendships had been made and we have such an awesome year level and I'm very grateful to be part of it.
Thankfully we had the best Student Managers - Mr Rood, Mrs Sargent and Mrs Ford to organize the camp for us, and I also cannot forget the awesome staff that came along with us.
Charlotte Tsitas
Year 7 Student
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