By Shyam Kanagalingam
We went to Kalbarri for the Year 9 camp. Everybody in the year level was allocated a camp group in which we mostly stayed in for the entirety of the camp. The camp challenged each of us and helped us develop different skills such as leadership and organisation skills. These skills were mostly exhibited in activities such as hiking and cooking. I had to use leadership and organisation skills when trying to help myself and my group manage time and carry out our day efficiently.
In our camp groups, we were put into smaller groups in which we cooked our meals. Once given the instructions and ingredients, each cooking group would allocate roles for every individual. I would normally setup the wok and cook the food in the wok, however sometimes I cut the vegetables instead. If a cooking group didn’t work well together to cook their meal, then they would all have to wait longer to eat their food. One night, my cooking group and I, weren’t working very efficiently. We had to re-allocate roles based on what we all could do and then we started working better for the remaining nights.
Each day there was a small group of four individuals who would plan how the day would go around the activities that were already set by the teachers. We made these our leadership groups and each day there was a new group. The leadership group would decide how long we would have to do each activity in order to have the day go according to plan. When it was my group’s turn to be the leadership group, I had to come up with a plan with my group mates, so that we finished getting ready and went to our activities on time. We had the sky walk and nature’s window activities that day, so we had to make sure we got to those on time. This helped with my organisational skills because I had to set a plan and go through with it. It also helped with my leadership skills because I had to help my leadership group make sure that everybody was organised and on time.
The camp was very physically strenuous due to the amount of walking that we all had to do. Some people including me, were able to walk faster than others with the heavy packs. Others found it hard sometimes. This meant that we had to create a system so that we didn’t leave people too far behind. We made a system where if somebody said “Orange light,” it meant slow down, “Red light,” meant stop and “green light,” meant go normal speed again. This made sure that the group was close enough together and also made sure that if there were injuries that the group wasn’t too far apart to manage them. Thankfully we didn’t have to deal with any serious injuries. On one of the walks my friend hurt his ankle. Luckily it wasn’t serious and he was able to finish the walk before receiving medical attention.
Overall the camp was a fun adventure and a great way to enhance our organisation and leadership skills. I hope that the school gives us more opportunities like this one in the future.
