Skip to main content

Year 7 Camp 2022

Last week, Year 7 students attended their camp at Lake Dewar YMCA. Both the teachers and students had an amazing time. Students were able to challenge themselves by taking part in a range of programs and activities, whilst taking advantage of the beautiful environment and great facilities. They were also able to continue to consolidate their friendships, solve problems together, work as a team, develop independence and be more socially responsible. Teachers also had the opportunity to build a stronger rapport with the students. 

Year 7 Senators Joshua Costanzo and Ravneet Kaur, have provided reflections on their experience at the camp.

In my opinion, the Year 7 camp will be one to remember. Lots of fun, hands on activities, time to hang out with our friends and awesome night events. Nobody will remember it without a smile on their face. It all started on Wednesday morning, when we went on a bus ride that seemed to take forever because of the anticipation. When we got off, we got time to explore, as well as opportunities to play sport or indoor games with our friends. My first activity was a tiring one, but so much fun - the kick bike triple challenge. We hopped on what was sort of like a scooter-bike hybrid and rode around the camp, completing activities and earning points for our group. My team’s next activity was the raft building. We started off with a couple of logs and some rope and we had to make a raft that could stay in the water. We had tied the knots perfectly and made it the best we could, at least that’s what we thought. The raft fell apart the second we got in the water, and it was just a screaming mess as it ensued.  

Later, we had a dinner of pasta Bolognese and got ready for the disco. I’ll be honest, I definitely went in with limited expectations, but it wound up as one of the best experiences of my time at Hume Anglican Grammar. There were bright lights, there was loud music and dancing, even the teachers got dressed up! Then at the end, prizes were handed out to the best dancers. My friends and I were talking about it for many days afterwards! 

Out of all my activities, my favourite was probably the kayaking and jetty jump. First, we got a quick lesson on how to paddle and steer, then we got straight on the beautiful lake and kayaked to the jetty. I jumped off six times and it was so exhilarating! 

Another activity I loved was the stand-up-paddle boarding, however for me, it was more like fall-in-the-water-paddle boarding. Honestly, I think I fell off about 20 times, but it really was a lot of fun, especially trying to knock other people off! 

All in all, Lake Dewar was a fantastic camp. I’d like to thank the teachers for organising it and getting involved with the activities, and the employees at the YMCA. I’ll never forget this camp! - Joshua

Last week the Year 7s got to go to camp. It was probably the best experience I have had so far and I would love to go back to Lake Dewar again. Everyone enjoyed doing the activities the YMCA staff organised for us! For example, raft building, kayaking, kick bike triple challenge, geocaching, flying fox and many more amazingly fun activities. The camp staff were really friendly and easy to approach, they made all the activities exciting. They let us have fruit in between activities and we were able to go up for seconds too! On behalf of the Year 7 cohort, I would also like to thank the teachers who attended camp and for planning the best disco we could ever imagine. We couldn’t believe there was a real DJ and lights were filling the dark room with light! Thank you to the adults and teachers again for the movie night and keeping us entertained. 

Last but not least, camp has taught us how to better manage our time and how to be more independent. 

Camp will be the best memory of 2022 for Year 7, thanks to the teachers and adults at camp for everything! - Ravneet

Deb Rakatairi – Year 7 Coordinator