On Monday 2 October there were many staff praying that the rain tanks would be filled and then the clouds would blow out to sea. After 12 hours of continuous torrential rain who would have thought we would wake to a small gap in the clouds and a few square metres of blue sky? By 7am on Tuesday there were children arriving at school ready to get muddy.

In the end, Year 6 enjoyed eight hours of amazing sunshine down at the coast at Luther Heights Youth Camp near Coolum. As we began our journey home at 4.30pm the rain started to fall. God is great! But enough of the weather, it’s time you hear about our day.  Here are just a few reflections from the students.

It was great when…

“we all had to fit into four hoops and help each other.”

“when we were doing low ropes and the “spotters” always helped me out when I was about to fall. I also liked when we did the Rope Swing and everyone was helping them into the hoops.”

“we failed and failed and then we finally finished the challenge.”

“we all tried to balance the sensor and how we all put in a lot of work and just had a laugh.”

“you had to do an obstacle course and two people help you when you fall and it was really nice to know people are helping me.”

“it was great when my group did the thing where we had to swing our team into the hoops. Our team was not that good at the start but we got better the further we got into the activity.”

“we all worked together to capture the rubber chicken by talking and planning with each other to capture the chicken and we captured it twice and won one, thanks to our teamwork.”

“we accomplished the challenge set for us, because everyone was happy, and we knew that we didn’t give up.”

We learnt …

“you don’t have to work with your same type to have fun.”

“how to work together as a team even when sometimes people are difficult to work with, and also learning to trust people more.”

“that to be a team you need to communicate and you need to let everyone say their ideas and that to be a team you need to work together and not to try and do things your own way.”

“you should always listen to other people’s ideas because more heads are better than one and I learnt it is better to work together.”

“that in activities we have to use  teamwork to solve tasks, otherwise we all may end up doing the wrong thing (or falling in a pond).”

“how to work with different people during challenges. and that positive encouragement can help someone to do well.”

“that teamwork is very important. Teamwork does not mean one person bossing all the other people in the group around but everyone adding to a plan to make the plan work better.”

And finally…

“I really enjoyed everything at Luther Heights and it taught me to push myself to my limits and to always include other people’s ideas and to have fun no matter what you do.”

“I thought yesterday was great we had so much fun. My favourite activity was on the beach it was the ball run where we worked together to make a huge slide for the ball and we all worked together to keep digging and we won!”

“The day overall was the best first day back of school in history. I loved how we got to have fun but there was always that teamwork support and encouragement throughout it. Thanks to teachers and the Luther Heights team.”

“I think this Youth Camp was very helpful to Year Six because it helps you work with people you don’t usually hang out with or work with. It also pushes you further than you ever thought you can go. It is definitely preparing us for Year 7.”

Jeanette Roach