Category: Teamwork & Leadership

Rocky Railway Kids Holiday Club

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What is a better way to spend your term break as a kid than creating innovations or hanging out with your energetic friends?


Rocky Railway Kids Holiday Club was held in Subiaco Church of Christ, where it featured in a program to allow both children with a previous background to Christianity or completely new, to get to know Christ. This event was held for a few hours for five days consecutively and had a new, main theme each day with a featured Bible verse and a cartoon animal. There were 7 different stations with a Station Leader and Crew Leaders would take 5 or 6 children and lead them in the different rotations:

  • Sing & Play Express
  • Bible Adventures
  • Loco Motion Games
  • Chew Chew Snacks
  • KidVid Cinema
  • Imagination Station
  • Rocky Wrap-up

My role as a volunteer was being a Crew Leader, requiring my full attention span on 6 children aged from 4 to 12. I was required to lead them to different stations and assist them with anything they would need help with. Being a good Crewleader was crucial, however, our actions reflected on the compassion and kindness Christ has taught us to have, to demonstrate what Christianity is for young children.

The first stop was: Sing & Play station, which is where all the kids and leaders gather together for communal worship with lots of singing and dancing. This part was very challenging at first as publicly dancing and singing is very out of my comfort zone, but we had to set a good example to lead the children. This taught me bravery and the treasured value of courage to persevere through a foreign activity, no matter how anxious or embarrassing I had felt. It was important that I had embraced the moment, as it would teach me to build self-confidence amidst an uncomfortable situation and how I should grasp every opportunity presented.

The value of courage was also taught as one of the five main themes:

Jesus’ power helps us be bold (Trust Jesus !!!)

‘He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless.’ Isaiah 40:29

Leading a group of children of various different ages was arduous and mentally & physically draining (regardless, they are still lovely). With the smallest boy in my group being just 4 years old and the eldest girl being 12, there were conflicts of interest and passions between the five days. This experience has illuminated the utmost importance of patience and gentleness, handling the young minds with tolerance while being mindful of the situation. The practice of patience has also taught me to be an alert listener, to try and resolve any disputes without depending on an adult. Personally, patience should be highly regarded, as analysing situations in a calm and collected manner can be frustrating at times, but highly rewarding.

The most enriching part of the program was certainly bonding and spending time with the kids during ‘Chew Chew Snacks’. Not only the snacks were creatively put together to look like trains and tasted incredible, but this was when the most discussion occurred. For us all, the importance of friendship has been strengthened for us. It was amazing to see all the kids that were nervous going in, to belong and fit in right away and encourage each other during team activities. Whenever a team won, we would all congratulate each other and whenever someone is feeling down or anxious, we would encourage them and support them in whatever way we could. The wonderful thing is that this act of kindness can be applied to our own friendships and peers every day, no matter the setting or your age.

End of day Discussion with my group

Overall, this was an eye-opening experience to progress my core values through working with a different age group. Although I went through many bumps on the way, I am so thankful for this opportunity to bond with so many enthusiastic children and to display the loving ways Christ has gifted us with. I took a lot away from this program, and although I will miss all the friendships, I know I’ll still have those wonderful memories we created together.

Here is a highly recommended Spotlight video of the program:

https://vimeo.com/639014157/273f5bca97

HASS Project Progress: Update 2

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The feedback we received from the Progress Update was to, first of all, decide on the charity that we want to donate our profits to. We discussed it further and we narrowed it down to either the WWII Veterans (an organisation such as Bravery Trust), to the Jewish Holocaust Centre, or to RAAFA which is nearby our school. We felt that it would take the historical side of our project to be more meaningful as this is an institution that dedicates itself to educating, researching and memorialising the Holocaust survivors. Their cause has educated more than 700,000 students in Australia and has a plan on rebuilding their museum.


The second feedback we received was to keep the amount and variety of products we wanted to sell short. We initially wanted to sell 2 products per side from WWII (allies and axis), however, we ended up finalising on selling one item of food per side along with extras on the side.

For the past two weeks, my group has been planning the price of each menu item based on the costs of each ingredient and portion we are planning on making. Our first budget was $50, and soon, we figured that this was way too little as we plan to do 80 portions of our first main and 25 for our second main (a portion being a small paper cup). Our final budget ended up being $135, counting in the costs of the equipment such as the paper cups; paper plates; a square reader (for convenience as many consumers have moved their payments to be on credit or debit instead of carrying cash); the ingredients.

It was a challenge to search and gather ingredients that remained their integrity of freshness while at their minimal cost, requiring our research skills to look through multiple sources to find the most suitable collection for our project. However, it was crucial for us to remember that the aim of our project isn’t to provide the best-tasting food as we are trying to keep to the realness and accuracy of the food in the war. It was also challenging to find a suitable recipe for one of our menu items (the tomato soup) and then proceed to convert all these measurements to 80 portions, requiring our conversion math skills. We also struggled to set up a date on when we would cook all this food due to our schedules being busy and packed with exams and curricular activities, however, we all negotiated and compromised in the end.

It was a challenge to search and gather ingredients that remained their integrity of freshness while at their minimal cost, requiring our research skills to look through multiple sources to find the most suitable collection for our project. However, it was crucial for us to remember that the aim of our project isn’t to provide the best-tasting food as we are trying to keep to the realness and accuracy of the food in the war. It was also challenging to find a suitable recipe for one of our menu items (the tomato soup) and then proceed to convert all these measurements to 80 portions, requiring our conversion math skills. We also struggled to set up a date on when we would cook all this food due to our schedules being busy and packed with exams and curricular activities, however, we all negotiated and compromised in the end. 

Our next step to complete in our timeline is to design informative posters to explain the origins and context of the food we chose to sell. Our aim is to design it in a creative and innovative way that will capture the eyes of the public so that it is not just repetitive and boring information displayed. We are also planning the set-up and display of the physical store as well as for deciding the costumes/clothes we are going to be dressed in to attract the attention of customers. A few current ideas of a setup we have are:

  • setting up an area where the customers can sit and spreading beanbags and rusty furniture around
  • placing a hidden speaker and occasionally playing sudden sounds from the battlefield
  • Have a nerf gun shooting at the ground (at random times) for a more realistic scenery

Nulsen Quiz Night

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This year, I’ve had the privilege of being a Youth Patron for Nulsen Group. My fellow Patrons and I were given the responsibility of organising and executing the annual Nulsen Quiz Night. Throughout this, my capability of effective communication has grown substantially.

We had started proposing the overall event seven weeks prior and was delegating tasks in our weekly meetings. Effective communication was crucial between the patrons as we had to ensure the finalised date with the Quiz Night did not clash with other events and that our desired venue was free. After our discussions, we decided that we needed to contact Roz Collins, the All Saints’ Events Coordinator, to discuss the creation of our marketing posters and the Try-booking link for purchasing the tickets. I demonstrated effective communication in this circumstance because I had to clearly state to Ms Collins the message that I wanted to get across to different target audiences.

On the night of the event, we had to examine the roles of each patron, such as selling raffle tickets, packing the gift baskets, or welcoming everyone with an address. While selling the raffle tickets to each table, we had to listen to the requests and demands of the buyers for clear communication, confirming that our full attention was on them. A struggle that occurred was when we were approached by multiple people, requiring our divided attention. To ensure effective communication, I maintained full focus and favourable body language without being overwhelmed.

Admittedly, other capabilities of organising, collaborating and leadership have also been demonstrated in the duration of the planning and process of the Quiz Night. But when reflecting on my experience, the development of my personal capability to effectively communicate has allowed me to deliver multiple messages with clarity. I am grateful for the opportunity to utilise effective communication and recognise that this capability will continue to be advanced in the future.

The Importance of Effective Communication Skills in Business

Leadership in Kalbarri

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In Year 9, our All Saints’ College cohort had the privilege to experience an exotic world of camping in Kalbarri, a beautiful site to view the natural habitat, while flourishing with my friendly team members.

One of the mentally excruciating activities we had to encounter was backpacking through a hiking trail in between the gorges. I was responsible in the leadership team for navigation on that day- our team led our group through the creeks, weaving through the dangerous points to prevent injuries. To ensure motivation contained in the high spirits of the team, we led a ‘choir’. We knew delegating tasks were crucial for efficiency, so we played the cards at our strengths. I suggested singing bright and lively Disney songs such as ‘Let it Go’, successfully distracting our mental sorrows as well as checking up on everybody and allowing frequent breaks to ensure our group members were well-rested. When one of our beloved members were struggling with their great loads along the adventure, our blessed team showed the initiative to kindly help unload the cargo and used our integrity remove the hiking gear into our bags. This could have not been done without clear communication or alerted, engaged members. We all knew that our pace and our speed was only as strong as our weakest one in our team, so we distributed the gear to everybody without any hesitation. We went through struggles along the trail: it rained partially, making the slippery creeks damp but we were motivated to keep our delightful mood up, open to discovering another world of learning.

Our Team resting at Nature’s Window after an eventful hike through the gorges.

At night, our cooperative team split into cooking groups. There were no specific leaders, however, we had to run dinner smoothly for our bodies to be nourished. In my team, I brought the ingredients out as well as preparing the vegetables and meat, while my two other mates cooked with the challenging Trangias, a set of cooking gear, to create a wonderful meal. We overcame our frustration of using the Trangias by remaining to have a positive mindset and continuously being grateful for this once-in-a-lifetime-experience. We all helped with the washing up by carrying pots of water, scrubbing with a whizz and had difficulties drying our bowls without getting the black soot or ashes staining our tea towels.

The most valuable thing on camp I have continued to treasure is my long-lasting friendships built through extreme activities such as abseiling and rock climbing. I had to be trustworthy for my fellow peers to allow themselves to be comfortable to rely on me as we faced the difficulties ahead. When one of my newly-made-friends were trying to overcome their anxiety of abseiling and heights, we all got together, applauding that they had such courage, reassuring them that they were doing absolutely fantastic. As they got lowered down, we embraced them with words of encouragement, helping them to overcome their anxiety and fear of heights.

My time at Kalbarri has furthermore developed my leadership, teamwork, communication skills in challenging but fun times while creating life-lasting friendships that I will forever cherish.