10 Mar 2020
by Amelie Stuut (Year 11 House Leader)
Last weekend, over the 1st to 3rd of March, Galston High School’s student leaders attended a leadership camp at Vision Valley. Over sixty students, comprised of the four leadership teams within the school (prefects, Student Representative Council, house leaders and student librarians) attended.
The purpose of the camp was to assist students to build on leadership skills, plan for the year ahead and develop cooperation between the leadership teams. Activities included traditional leadership skills such as public speaking drills, group challenges and leadership workshops along with physical challenges and group exercises including abseiling, flying fox and game nights.
In the tradition of past leadership camps, student leaders decorated the shared dining room in house colours. House colours set a theme for the camp in building house spirit. As student leaders, we worked together in our house groups to decorate the tables and hang balloons and streamers. It was a great icebreaker and got everyone into the house spirit! Initial activities complete, student leaders then split into their respective leadership teams and did “getting-to-know-you” exercises. The house leaders played a version of bingo in which we had to find people in our group that fit a particular category, for example to find someone who has three dogs or to find someone who walks to school. This activity meant we had to ask each other questions and really allowed us to get to know everyone in each year group. The evening concluded with a games night in which we split into mixed teams and aged groups to play Kahoot and compete in team challenges, work together in a relaxed and fun way.
Monday was a packed day. Each leadership group had different sessions in the day with different activities. In my group, we did a public speaking drill which helped develop confidence speaking in front of a group. We were challenged to talk about a random topic for as long as possible that we were given on the spot. On top of that, while we were speaking we were not allowed to say the words ‘um’, ‘uh’, or ‘like’. My group had one student speak for a minute and a half about ceiling fans! It really helped us gain confidence and challenged us to speak as if we had prepared something.
During the next session, my group undertook a leadership workshop where, in small groups, we had to build a tower out of marshmallows and uncooked spaghetti! The tallest tower that stayed standing won. This exercise was all about developing communication and group cooperation. We learnt how everyone needs to communicate and share ideas, but we all need to combine those ideas and work collectively. We also spoke about the need for a leader in this drill. Someone needed to step up and take control: the towers of teams without a leader mostly fell apart. We reflected on the activity with our group leader and spoke about what worked and what didn’t. Throughout the camp we did activities such as this which were seemingly just fun on the surface, but really helped us understand the basics of being a leader.
In the afternoon we experienced the flying fox and abseiling. Both activities required courage and support from your team mates. We worked together to help each other complete abseiling. Whilst a few people didn’t initially want to do it, with the support of their peers they did and they said it was absolutely fantastic. It really pushed the boundaries of the students and encouraged them to step out of their comfort zone.
Our last session brought all of the groups together to organise our school’s Open Day. We planned the routes of tour groups and assigned roles for the students. Miss Petrulis and Miss Andrus spoke about the plan for the day and what we should do on our tours around the school.
That night, the Prefects of the school ran a games night, including trivia and giant games of Jenga. Each small group had to do small team activities and challenges. The points were collected to see the winning team for the night. The prefects did a great job at hosting the evening and everyone had a really fun night.
Tuesday was our last day and it was devoted to the planning of each team, including events and goals for the year. As a house leader, we spoke about running the sport carnivals and our Oztag competition, as well as our annual easter egg hunt. We added new events, too, including the basketball competition which will happen during Term 3.
The house leaders also rewrote each house team's war cry and at the end of the day we taught it to the other leaders. There was a competition before lunch to see which house could perform their new war cries the best. It really showed how much confidence people had gained as everyone cheered and shouted for their house! It was obvious that everyone had real house spirit and it makes me excited to see the houses compete for the rest of the year.
Overall, the camp was really enjoyable and it helped every student learn new skills and gain confidence. Vision Valley supplied delicious food and accommodation and the organising teachers made it great fun. Every student would have taken something away from the camp. I know I learnt more about the people at my school, I made new friends, I gained house spirit and I learnt how to be confident in my opinion and to speak up more often. The camp was full of great experiences and lessons and, as students, we are grateful to be a part of the leaders of our school and to be given an opportunity like this.