Camp Week is a buzzword spoken between many students across the school year at our College, particularly in the lead up to Term 1 Week 8. It’s a time that students feel many emotions towards, anything between excitement and anticipation, to nerves and apprehension. And while Camp Week is all about our students, have you ever wondered what your teachers think about Camp Week?
I’ve done a lot of camps in the time that I have been at the College, ranging from City Mission, to Year 7 Camp, Southbound with Year 10, and repeating the same camps with different year groups. A lot of staff will also repeat the same camps across their tenure and fall into a familiar rhythm of routine in Term 1 and Term 4, but not without some apprehension and thoughts about the week ahead. What will the weather be like? Will our students take on the opportunities presented to them? Will I get enough sleep, or will I spend three hours patrolling halls or checking tents? When we head off to camp, we usually have one primary goal in mind that we hope to achieve through all the little day-to-day things that occur over the week: How do we help these young people develop their Christ-like character during the week ahead?
This year I’ve had the joy of joining the Year 7 Camp, and to say it has been a pleasure watching students succeed in this goal has been an understatement. Year 7 Camp is a particularly special one as students are getting to know their grade, and are slowly, tentatively, but willingly, expanding their social circles through the activities and opportunities given to them. Additionally, we get to witness students develop in their understanding and love for Christ, and explore the ways in which they can replicate this behaviour in their everyday actions. This is made clear in the day activities when staff and students give activities a go, which leads into all students gaining the courage to push themselves that little bit further, whether that is hitting the top of the rock climbing wall or even just scaling up a few rungs, supported by the cheers and encouragement of their newfound friends.
The other benefit for a lot of teachers on Camp, is getting to know your students that much better, which more often than not leads to years of “hellos” , “how are you?” and fond reminiscing back to Camp with those same exact students, even if I don’t see them in one of my classes down the track.
When asking my students the question of “how have you shown courage throughout this camp?” I’ve been given responses ranging from “giving dragon boating a go”, to “making a new friend a day”. These responses, and the excited faces as we get on the buses back to the College each year, is what makes Camp as enjoyable as it is for your teachers. When we leave at the end of the week, we are thinking about the small and big wins from camp that our students have achieved.
