APA News

Welcome back for Term 4!  I hope the students had a refreshing holiday and families are prepared for a busy final term.  Last week I had the privilege of attending the Year 5 camp at Emu Gully.  The camp has an ANZAC theme and uses famous stories of the ANZACs through history such as ‘Lenny the Legend’ and the 'Tunnel Rats of Vietnam' to act as inspiration for the activities.  The ANZAC values of courage, mateship, perseverance and self-sacrifice were not only explored and explained, but the activities enabled students to display these qualities.  Reflection was an equally important part of the challenge and students were encouraged to identify how the values were not only present, but the affect this had on achieving the challenge goals. The activities themselves, whilst very safe, were also quite daunting and designed to place people in uncomfortable and unexplored situations. This style of experiential learning helps to normalize mistakes, encourage risk taking and creative problem solving whilst exploring how to work collaboratively. 

I was really impressed with how the students engaged in the camp and their reflection skills.  Below are some student reflections on what they learnt during camp that they shared with the group on the last day:

A leader is not necessarily the person in front telling people what to do.

We all need to work together to achieve our goals.

Never let anybody give up.

Don’t leave people behind.

You can help others face their fears.

Be selfless.

Don’t just worry about yourself - think about others.

Make other people your priority.

We all can be leaders even if we don’t have a title.

There is more than one way to be a leader, there are different styles.

Leadership is a behaviour that anyone can display.

When asked to reflect on their own personal learnings the students were equally as reflective and insightful:

I am capable of anything if I put my mind to it.

Making friends isn’t as hard as I thought.

I don’t need to be so scared about new, challenging things.

I should push my limits and rise to the challenge.

I need to at least try even when it is uncomfortable.

I should always give 100%.

Just give things a go, you never know what you can do.

With reflections such as these I feel the Year 5 students are well on their way to becoming excellent leaders and I wish them well as they begin to consider how they might lead next year.

 Reflecting upon the camp personally, it struck me how much the ANZAC values align with the Mercy values that guide our day-to-day interactions at St Saviour’s.  Jesus, the ultimate guide, inspired Catherine McCauley to live a life of compassion, service and excellence and we as a Catholic community equally strive to follow in their footsteps and do the same.  As the students identified in their reflections, everyone has a role to play in a team and we can all be leaders.  As we round out the year in our final term, I encourage all members of our school community to be guided by our values, to look for opportunities to reach out to others, respond with compassion and strive to give 100% in all our efforts.

Katie Hauser

Assistant Principal Administration