William Clarke College’s Outdoor Education Program has never been greater, at the helm for timetabling Year 12’s Camp Week Experience (which may I add will be our last) was no other than Director of Student Learning, Mr Chahine. You see, as senior students of the College, we had a more quiet and reflective camp experience compared to the rest of the school. Whilst Year 7 was learning how to sail with a team at Lake Mac and Year 11 on their highly competitive Urban Challenge, the school believed that Year 12 students needed time away from their mobile phones in another way, through exams or what I like to call timed challenges!

Our Year 12 Camp Week Experience began in Year 10, in which the grade was asked to select subjects that they believed best matched their interest. Only through rigorous testing such as the compulsory Work Experience physicals, communicative training with a Senior member of College Staff and intellectual assessment through Morrisby were students able to pick 12 units of skills to utilise when stranded from the comfort of William Clarke College’s main campus.

The grade was asked to gather early Monday Afternoon, knowing what was ahead. The crossing of the infamous Morris Grove. It is said that many Year 12s had once ventured over and had never returned back to William Clarke, we call them, the Alumni. Nevertheless, all students whether walking or hopping ventured across the Grove being very cautious of incoming metal tins with red Ps next to the number plate. It was across the Grove that the students realised the only way to survive against the NESA was the need to conform collectively in alphabetical order in front of the Sports Centre. The students realised the loss of two of their ranks, Daniel N and Patrick M. Rumour has it that the living dead were involved.

Our Head of Year, Mr Macourt informed us of the first challenges. A key principle of the WCC Camp Week is Challenge by Choice, which was provided to us as we picked our 12 units, Standard or Advanced. Each had its advantages, the Standard camp group knew that the challenge was going to involve either one of two questions whilst the Advanced camp group had access to textual references to assist in their crafted response. But above all that, each student knew the timed challenge ahead, to make the written response that conformed to a 20/20 in NESA’s eyes.

Whilst many of the other camp weeks for other grades involved the use of communication, leadership and teamwork, vital skills in the 21st Century Workforce may I add, the Year 12 Camp Week experience was quietly the opposite. Even though we were placed and sat in our two camp groups at the start of the week, the expectation was that silence would echo the sports centre walls, to allow us to discover who we really were which I found really strange because most of us already knew where our identity was, in the 8 digit code that was proved so welcomingly by NESA.

In only 40 minutes plus 5 minutes of challenge briefing time, the Advanced Camp Group found themselves posed with a question about our identity in the modern man. But above all else it was clear in the spectrum of facial expressions, that a deeper and more meaningful question was ringing through everyone’s head, was this question going to allow me to open up to a 99.95 Atar or question marks next to my NESA number in December? Regardless it was clear that the volume of talking and interrupting our friends in explaining how to use 12 quotes in 40 minutes showcased the excitement of the first stage of Camp Week.

As I mentioned earlier, a key part of camp week at WCC is Challenge by Choice. Students were further challenged across the next few days to reflect on differing global issues that resided well in us. For myself, this involved diving into the cyclical nature of the highly volatile Current Account Balance which attempts to find the difference between Australia’s national Trade Balance and overall net income balance as well as other global issues such as identifying the key strategies (and only the ones in NESA syllabus dot points) to ensure solvency of Nihaal’s Dreams. The successful findings in such challenges proved to be highly competitive in particular between the creatively named Economics A and B camp groups as they sought to find answers to the same problems of the Brazilian mining collapses and Russian geopolitical tensions. However other students made the choice to challenge themselves in how to count to 4 (musically) and calculate which 3.6 atoms you broke when you decided to fracture your ankle on a slip and slide on another camp week.

Overall most of Year 12 made it back across the dangers of Morris Grove and found the Camp Week to be very challenging and rigorous however an overwhelmingly positive experience in discovering how to sit in silence for at least 45 minutes, a vital skill in the 9-5 corporate offices. The entire grade is looking forward to a similar camp week experience at the start of Term 3 and after they graduate in Term 4 in which the grade is challenged to sit for 3 hours!