Wendy’s Group Week 6 Term 1

Camp at Castle Mountain was a great success for my group and for the children from Jess’s who also came along. It was wonderful to have Jess there with us, helping so much and enjoying the activities. The children were brilliant, with so many of them trying everything and engaging so well with the whole experience. From canoeing to abseiling, crate climbing to mud run, singing around the campfire to ziplining over the dam, walking at dusk up Castle Mountain to helping serve meals, it was a delight to be with the group who helped and encouraged each other and coped so well with some of the challenges that a camp like this will always provide.

Many thanks to the parent drivers who helped us to get there and back! I hope everyone catches up on some sleep and rest over the weekend!

Thanks also to Keeghan for being part of our preparations and also driving us there on Wednesday. Keeghan has two more weeks with us now and will be teaching more and more in the coming days.

While at camp, one of our discussions touched on the concept of external versus internal resources. Other people can help with providing food, clean water, a roof over our heads and band aids for grazed knees. Our internal resources include our courage even when feeling a bit scared, our determination to handle something difficult, to learn better ways or a new skill and think positively when confronting challenges. These are essential elements of a camp experience. It’s not a holiday where we just do fun things. It’s a massive learning opportunity. So it was wonderful on the final day, to hear some of the children saying how proud they felt of themselves for attempting every one of the activities! Rightly so!

Next week, we’ll be writing our thank you letters after camp and we’ll be delving into the design task in our shared water unit with Jess’s group. We’ll be writing stories and using nouns groups in English, moving into addition and subtraction in Maths, trying to get PIPs completed before their due date and we’ll be enjoying a Summerhill Day on Wednesday. I’m hoping that some of the children will be running activities that day.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and manages to keep cool in spite of the forecast heat.

With love,
Wendy