Topics covered in lock

Rock Climbing

Kayaking

Bush Cooking

Leave no trace

My experiences

Rock Climbing

The first topic we covered was rock climbing. This topic was very challenging for me because I had never done anything like it before. I set myself goals for this topic. They were to improve my organisation and my problem solving. This topic definitely helped me improve these skills. I improved my organisation skills because I had to remember to set up everything correctly before we climbed otherwise someone could fall or hurt themselves if the wall wasn’t set up properly. I also improved my problem solving skills during this unit. I improved them because when I was climbing, I had to constantly think about where my hands and feet were going so I could get higher and higher up the wall. The most significant event that happened during rock climbing was me nearly getting to the top of the wall. This inspired me to work harder each lesson because I now had a goal of getting to the top.

Kayaking

The second topic that Lock taught us was how to kayak. I thoroughly enjoyed this topic because I love the water and swimming. Even though I had done kayaking before I learnt a lot during this unit because I had never done kayaking with a skirt on before and I also learnt how to properly capsize. My two goals for this unit were my organisation and to learn how to capsize properly. I chose to work on my organisation skills because I always struggle to remember everything and this was the perfect topic to put my memory to the test. The second week I went on the excursion I forgot to put on my lifejacket and had to run back and get it. The following weeks I didn’t forget to do anything which shows that I had improved my organisation skills. On the fourth week I learned how to capsize properly. At first I had real difficulty trying to gain the confidence to go underwater while I was hooked onto my kayak. By the end of the fifth week I had gained the confidence to capsize and did it properly by the end of that lesson.

Bush Cooking

Bush cooking was the last topic that we covered in our course. For this topic I didn’t enjoy it as much as the last two but still threw myself at it and learned some new skills along the way. In this topic I tried to improve my communication with my group and my leadership within the group. I improved my communication skills by making sure to talk to the group a couple of days before to make sure everyone knew what they were bringing and so everyone was organised. This was an effective way of communication and will use this method if I have a task like bush cooking in the future. I improved my leadership skills in this topic by instructing people what to do and explaining why they had to do it. I made sure to ask them if they fully understood what I was saying so we could perform to the best of our ability. My best experience bush cooking was when I lit a very good fire that would have cooked our food nicely.

Leave no trace and sustainability

In this course we had to make sure we left no trace when we used the facilities provided so the environment didn’t get damaged and so other people after us could enjoy kayaking or bush cooking. For leave no trace it mainly applied to kayaking and bush cooking. The class and I made sure to collect everything we used or brought with us to kayaking so the environment didn’t get polluted by our plastic and so others after us could use the kayaks. In bush cooking we just had to make sure we put out the fire so it didn’t keep emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and so the ground around it didn’t catch it on fire.

Bibliography

https://wellness.studentaffairs.miami.edu/outdoor-adventures/climbing-wall/index.html

https://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/getting-started-kayaking.html

https://www.outwardbound.org.au/bush-cook-tips-get-your-roast-on/

https://www.outwardbound.org.au/bush-cook-tips-get-your-roast-on/

Learning during the task

This task allowed me to explore the dangers of drink driving and discover in more depth why it is unsafe for people to do. I have learnt many facts as to why driving while under the influence is not a reasonable option when you are trying to get home from a party. Some of the facts I have learnt are that over 40,000 people die each year because of drink driving according to some studies. Drink driving is a massive issue that needs sorting out if we want to make our roads safer. Lastly, I have learnt that 43% of Americans have admitted to driving under the influence.

My advice

There is so much advice that can be passed on to young drivers to make them safer and less dangerous. There is always a risk while driving but that risk increases ten fold when you drive under the influence. The main piece of advice I would give young drivers if they are trying to be a safe, responsible driver is to never drive under the influence or get in a car with someone who is drunk and wants to drive. I would give this advice because so many people drink drive and we need to stop people from doing it.

My pledge

To never drive under the influence

To always be a safe driver

To always be a responsible driver

To always follow the road laws

Why I chose this Pledge

I have chosen to commit to this pledge because it will allow me to be a safe and responsible driver. This in turn will keep pedestrians safe, myself safe and other people in vehicles safe. I will implement this pledges message by sticking to my morals and understanding the ramifications if I were to break the pledge.

Link to my Drink driving Poster

As an avid tennis player and a long-standing member of the Belfast tennis club, I was privileged to be elected to the role of captain of 12 and under tennis. A girl and boy were both selected for every age group to lead and be a role model for the other junior tennis players. We attended a monthly meeting to present our ideas and make the club a better place for members.

This role challenged me in many ways. I had to quickly develop my communication and mediation skills as there was significant friction and a clear divide between the senior and junior members of the club. I convinced the other junior committee members that we needed to address this problem and find a resolution rather than letting resentment fester. I explained to the other committee members that I felt we need to build relationships and we should think about what we had in common with the older members. After many ideas and suggestions had been considered the solution was actually very simple; we all loved tennis! We arranged a seniors versus juniors tennis day to allow the two groups to mingle and bond over their favourite activity. The event was a tremendous success and diffused much of the tension that had been building between the two groups.

I used persuasive skills to convince my peers of the need to address a problematic situation and then found an innovative solution that brought two disparate groups together. This experience taught me a great deal about resolving difficult relationship problems through effective communication, mediation and engagement. I was also able to use my creative and organisational skills to think of an idea and then put it into practice.  

SAFE SNORKEL

Safety: (number one in our day. Everyone’s ok and doesn’t get hurt.)

Accident:(report all accidents to staff)

First aid: (staff members only to administer)

Emergency:  (continuous hoots. Strait to collection point on beach and look for buddy.)Sun: (wear hats & sunscreen-repeat application after swimming.)

Nourishment: eat & drink regularly to avoid hypothermia & dehydration

Ocean: don’t enter the water without direction from staff and only swim / snorkel in designated areas

Reef: reefs are sharp- don’t swim too close to the reef and NO TOUCH policy on all dives.

Keep together: always swim close to your buddy and remain in sight. Communicate regularly to check they’re O.K- go through signals.

Environment: keep warm (wear wetsuit)-inform buddy & staff member if it’s getting too cold.

Leave no trace: continually monitor the area for rubbish-keep your belongings together in your bag & keep watch for any strangers in the area.

Coogee Snorkel trail

Firstly we went to practice our snorkeling skills at coogee.

The trail

Snorkeling skills

My best session at coogee

My personal development throughout the snorkeling

The development of my capabilities

organisation

When I first started out at Muir I was not organised at all. I was forgetting to bring a bag or I wouldn’t pack my stuff the night before. This would affect my brother and sister trying to get to school as well. As the Muir course continued I realised that I was learning how to become organised. I was remembering to bring my bag and I was packing my stuff the night before. This made life much easier when I was trying to get out in the morning.

problem solving

Problem solving was a very hard thing for me to try and incorporate in snorkeling because I like to stick to a structured day, and when something doesn’t plan out the way it’s meant to, I find it hard to keep on track. Me not being able to problem solve would affect Mu and I during snorkeling. It would affect us because maybe the weather would be bad that day and I wouldn’t think to put on both my layers because it was only meant to be sunny.

Resilient

I have always thought of myself as being a very resilient person because I have always tried my best at things and if I didn’t do well I would persevere and get a better mark next time. I also have been resilient because I have moved halfway across the world to a new school that does things very differently, I have had to change sports clubs and I have had to make new friends. Muir has cemented being resilient into me because one week I got extremely cold at the end of the session but I pushed through and made it back to school safely.

By Jack Maxwell

Things to do on our powerpoint

Make sure to press the bottom right corner of the powerpoint to make it full screen

Remember you can tap the slide to get onto the next slide

In this project, we learnt about the principles of justice that uphold Australia’s legal system, such as the presumption of innocence, an impartial judiciary, and the right to legal representation. I studied the case of Lloyd Rayney, and analyzed how these principles were both upheld and violated in this case. After writing an essay on the topic, we were required to incorporate feedback and edit the essay so that it was fit for online publication. This essay is the end result of that editing process. It demonstrates my ability to take feedback, and to refine a piece of written work to produce a professional result.

What this case is about

This case is about who killed Miss Rayney. The case started in 2007 when Ms Rayney was deemed missing, and a few days later was found dead. In 2010 three years later Mr Rayney was found Guilty. Then in 2012 he was acquitted and found not guilty. The same verdict was upheld in 2013. The subsequent years of Mr Rayney showed that he lost his permit to practice law and he got a 2.62 million deformation damages pay out. This case was supported by the principles of justice more than it was compromised by them.

The principles of justice

• All individuals are equal before the law

• Individuals have the right to a fair hearing

• The judiciary are independent and impartial

• Individuals have the right to a reasonable appeal

How Mr Rayney was Supported

Mr Rayney was granted a judge only trial to stop a “trial by media” and to uphold the principle of justice ” all individuals have the right to a fair hearing”.

The judge remained independent and impartial towards Mr Rayney during the case and wasn’t swayed by the medias input. The judge stated that “discreditable actions does not prove guilt” and fell ” short of proof beyond reasonable doubt”.

The judge was also not swayed by money or politics.

Mr Rayney was allowed an appeal if he wanted as well.

How Mr Rayney’s case was compromised

The police didn’t expand the search as much as they should have. The chief police investigator Jack Lee said “Mr Rayney was the only suspect”.

The case was also compromised by the media. The media had made everyone believe that he was guilty before he was convicted. The media also made a terrible bias towards Mr Rayney.

How the case could have been improved

The police could have expanded the search for who the killer was and the police also shouldn’t have just made Mr Rayney a suspect, they should have carried out thorough checks on every possible suspect. This could have allowed the police to find who had actually killed Miss Rayney. This would have upheld the principle of justice, all individuals are equal before the law.

The court should have restricted what the media could expose about the case so there wouldn’t be a bias towards Mr Rayney. This would have allowed the trial to have a jury and could have allowed a different outcome. This would have then upheld the principle of justice, the judiciary are independent and impartial.

The chief police investigator Jack Lee could have not been biased against him from the start and Jack Lee should have not just deemed Rayney as the “only suspect”. This likely may have lessened the media bias and would have upheld the principle of justice, all individuals are equal before the law.

Conclusion

In conclusion this case was supported by the principles of justice more than it was compromised by them but it was compromised more than it should have been. This case to a great extent could have been improved. Overall the police should have handled this case better. The judge however remained impartial the whole time.

For more information on Australian law click here

Access to Justice – Law Council of Australia

For more information on the Lloyd Rayney case timeline click here

Timeline: Lloyd Rayney murder trial – ABC News