Today was a really good day even though it was really cold in the morning, but it suddenly got hot. Anyways I woke up late so I was late to the meeting. I think I really stood out as a leader. I really like it and I wish I could do it more often, I think my confidence has really gone ahead and I think I have got the courage to stick up for myself. I had this Idea that I would get everyone to headcount 5 minutes early so we were on time. And I think I went really well.

Chloe - Mortlake SC

Today was our 28th day here at the Snowy River Campus. It was our final rest day and we were told to make the most of it. Two groups of people went surfing, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. They had a lot of fun by the sounds of it. The rest of us took the opportunity to work on our Passports and POLs. Passports are books that contain information about our time here and what we have learnt. POLs are Presentations of Learning which explain what we have learnt during our time here and how we have changed and developed as a person. A few of us also ironed the T-shirts which we will be taking home.

Overall, I think we all enjoyed our last rest day. It was a great opportunity for us to have a small break before heading onto the home stretch, with only a week left to go!

Henry, Fitzroy High School and Tallara, Melbourne Girls’ College.

Today it was more of an inside day for everybody, except for 1B that came back from expo at around 2:01pm. Most did just CLP, Passport and compass reading which everybody seemed to really enjoy. Our student leaders today were Riley & Tanisha. They achieved their goal quite well.

Yesterday as Nick and I were student leaders, we set the goal of trying to become closer with everybody and bond more as a community. We achieved our goal well, by playing a game before DEARR, of dodge ball which we believe went well, and hope it continues throughout the next 2 weeks.

Chanai – My personal goal was to be more respectful towards others by:

• Being nicer
• More polite
• Be a good role model
• Treat others how I want be treated.

Nick – My personal goal was to be more of a role model towards others by:

• Doing things out of the blue, random acts of kindness
• Doing the correct thing
• Using my initiative
• Thinking of others

All in all we are happy about being student leaders for the day, and found it very challenging at times, but worth it!

By Chanai- Lara SC & Nick- Gladstone Park SC

Hi I’m Lily and I’m from Mortlake P12 College, yesterday I was student leader for the second time, this time with Bradie. Our community goal was to get headcount under 18 seconds we achieved it finally at Dinner headcount. I had half day bike ride, it was a really nice day to be out on the bikes. We rode for a while and then turned around and headed back, we stopped off at Point Ricardo to have some time out on the beach. On our way back up the very steep hill we flew down to get to the beach, two people broke their chains so they had to walk up the top and wait for Mr Gladstone to come back with the bus. In the afternoon I had my last passport class, cutting and sticking takes so long to do and very frustrating when you get glue stuck on your fingers and everything sticks to your hands. We decided that we should go to the dunes for D.E.A.R.R, for the last time as a group, this time Ms Beck let us go all the way down to the beach. I really enjoy being student leader and yesterday was fun doing it with someone different.

By Lily, Mortlake P12 College

Hi I’m Bradie, I’m from Gladstone Park. Yesterday I woke up extremely nervous because I had my P.O.L (presentation of learning). I had been preparing for this over the weekend, but it was finally time to do it. As I watched everyone else do their presentations, the nerves didn’t settle because every person in my group 2A did really well. But then it was my time to present, I got up and prepared all of my things. To my surprise everything ran as it should and went smoothly. My group was attentive listeners, and they all gave me loads of support. After lunch I had passport 7 with Lily’s group, I finally finished all of the written part for my passport. I could finally start putting it all together. For evening class we had market night, I was the Banker. It was one of the best evening classes that we have had. As banker I could charge the stalls rent at whatever price I wanted. Towards the end of the night I just made a deal with them that you either pay rent or give me your product for free. I ended up having 3 choc chip cookies, 4 cups of popcorn and so many lollies that I lost count, one of the bonuses of being Banker. I haven’t had lollies for 4 weeks, they went down superbly!!! I went apple bobbing and almost drowned two times, but I was able to get the apple in 27 seconds. I got my arm painted by Lily, I got a butterfly and an ‘I <3 Mum’, seeing as it was mother’s day. Overall my time here has been amazing!!!!!!!

By Bradie, Gladstone Park

Hi, my name is Sally Jacobs and I’m from M.G.C. Yesterday Lily (from Mortlake College) and I were student leaders on our 3rd rest day. Our community goal was to ‘get the community to our spirit spot on the dunes for D.E.A.R.R and to screen print all of our T-Shirts’. It took us four hours and 15 helpers to print all of the t-shirts, but we got it done eventually. Everyone did a really good job and they look great! Our next goal wasn’t so easy to fulfil because it was weather dependant and it had been raining all day. But luckily the rain seemed to clear at about 2:00pm and by 4:00pm the sun was out and we were all rugged up in our gortex gear and ready to go. We got to the dunes in good time and watched the sun go down and the clouds move as we sat and wrote in our journals. Expo group 2 was running evening class and they decided to have a movie night/ pyjama party. We voted for movies and unfortunately for the guys the notebook won. After a lot of protest 2 movies were put on at 7:00pm, the incredibles and the notebook. Overall it was a really nice productive day and we are all felling relaxed and ready for the week ahead.

Sally- Melbourne Girls College and Lily- Mortlake SC

Yesterday Bree and I were student leaders, we enjoyed the experience even though we may have gotten a little bit frustrated it wasn’t that bad, we liked the new experience of talking to the different campus’ in the morning but our community goal completely failed, although some students went outside it defiantly wasn’t everyone. Our quote of the day was “If you’re going through hell, keep going”. Winston Churchill.

I found the public speaking bit nervous but Jimmy found it alright and easy. At the start everyone was late to head count but in the end everyone started arriving on time. It was pretty cool talking to a kid from another campus, he was from the most sustainable school in the world.

Bree & Jimmy

1B today went canoeing down the Yeerung River and it was such a mesmerising experience.

We started the day by packing up the trailer with all of the equipment that we needed, and then we hit the road. When we got to the spot where we were to start, we swiftly unpacked, got into pairs and got onto the water. Mr Burke taught us some paddle stokes and we started to paddle one way up the river. We all crashed into each other and splashed each other and it was a very enjoyable ride. At one stage our whole path was blocked by a large tree, so we decided to take that opportunity to spend just 5 minutes relaxing in our canoes, enjoying the scenery and listening to the environmental sounds. It was amazing.

When we reached our starting point again, we had lunch, then got back onto the water and paddled the other way, towards the beach. We had a stop there and made a human 1B in the sand which kind of failed because it looked more like an 18, but it was fun. When again we got back to the starting point, Charlotte and I demonstrated how to capsize a canoe. We kind of paddled away from the group a bit, then rocked the canoe and fell in. I thought that it would be really cold, but it turned out not to be so bad. I must admit that my feet were quite cold though. Then everyone worked together to get our canoe back up the right way and then we had to awkwardly clamber back in.

We then all did individual capsizes and had to swim our canoe back in. It was a great lesson and it taught us how to be assertive in a situation that results in you falling into the water. We learnt a lot of skills and how to co-operate as a team to smoothly work in a straight line, or to complete going in circles and all kinds of little things.

It was day and it couldn’t have been done without Mr Burke and Ms Beck. Thank you.

Breanna, Mortlake P12 College

Hi, I’m Bree and I’m from SRC. A couple of nights ago we had ‘Gender night’. The boys went down to the campfire and the girls stayed in the common room. We sat in a circle on the ground with a bunch of fake, electric candles in the shape of a love heart in the middle. It was great. Trust me. There was a common question between all of the girls and we each took turns in answering it around the circle. Some of the questions were “What’s your most prized possession?”, “What do you like most about our body?” and “If you could change anything about yourself, what would it be?”. This Gender night really helped all of the girls connect with each other on more of an emotional level as well as a social basis through sharing stories and secrets. There were more than a few tears and quite a lot of laughs. What was so good about the circle was that sense of connection you had with the girl next to you or the girl across the circle. It has certainly improved our sense of community in the girl’s wing and made it even better than it was before. Thank you Gender night.

Bree- Mortlake SC

Hi I’m Tom Rogulic and my leadership partner is Emily. Our community goal was to be energy efficient by making sure that everyone turned their lights off in their rooms and that we didn’t waste the fruit.

My group (2B) had surfing in the morning and CLP in the afternoon. At surfing we learnt how to stand up on our board and how to surf on a wave. It was really exciting and fun because most of us had never surfed before and it was a great experience. In our CLP (community learning project) class my school group finished our master plan and we took photos of each other so we could put it on the front page of our master plan.

Tom- Reservoir HS

Hi I’m Emily and I’m from St Helena Secondary College. I was student leader with Tom and it was a great experience to be student leader. For our community goal, there were only 4 rooms that had lights on so it was a pretty good effort. My group (2B) had Sustainable Living and Surfing. For Sustainable living we talked about energy efficiency and how to save water, electricity and the environment. We then went outside and planted tiny trees along the running track. In the afternoon 2A had surfing. We were all really excited to have a go. It was great fun and I’m looking forward to doing it again on Thursday.

Emily – St. Helena SC

Hello I am Saroj and my student leader partner is Zoe. Our community goal was to start organising the headcount 10 minutes before class.

I think we did very well on most occasions we were all organised 5 min before class. The hardest bit was to make everyone quiet when you asked for their roommate. All of a sudden you would have kids shout out names and where is he/her. Evening class was the worst one everyone was talking, telling everyone to shut up and there was also a big buzz about Gender Night. What I really think is being up there just for 1 day shows how hard it is for the teachers.

The highlight for me was the gender night. I am not sure what the girls did but the boys had a fire and used cards with questions and answered them with our partners and the really good questions everyone had answered them by going around the fire.

The overall worst bit about being a student leader is that you have to eat last. I had the half day bike ride so I was really hungry for lunch. Instead of hoping your table is being picked next you just have to wait. The best bit was when I put my hand up and slowly everyone went quiet.

I really enjoyed being a student leader and definitely hope to have a chance to do it again.

Saroj- Camperdown College

Our names are Tali and Callum and we were student leaders on the 1st of May 2013. Today we had Passport and Surfing.

In surfing we went down to East Cape beach to meet the instructor. He taught us the correct way to stand up on the board by lifting your knees up, putting your feet on each side and attempting to stand. He also taught us how to catch a wave by arching your back up and riding the wave all the way to the shore. At the end of the class we were allowed to go out and have a normal swim. The waves were massive and everyone kept getting dumped. It was the funniest and most exciting time we’ve had while being here!

Tali- Reservior HS and Callum- Camperdown College

Today was a rest day so there were proposals to go off campus. One of these was to go the CFA opening to help out with the BBQ. The other one was to go to the beach to swim and play beach games.

For half of the day it was a little bit easier to control everyone because not everyone in the community was at the campus all at once. Today made both of us realise how difficult it was to control 45 talkative kids with not much help from teachers. Our community goal was to get everyone to headcount early and the past student leaders had set that goal before and hadn’t succeeded yet so we decided that if we organised a game 10 or 15 minutes early, people would remembered to go to headcount and would actually WANT to get there earlier. We achieved this goal & got everyone 10 minutes early to play ‘celebrity heads’ and ‘heads down thumbs up’, woooooo! Rhys also took a different approach and told everyone that whoever won the game would be allowed to get lunch first.

Rhys - Camperdown College and Freya- Fitzroy HS

Today was a significant day, as it was ANZAC day. We held a small ceremony in the morning to commemorate the day. Mr Reeves gave a speech about ANZAC day and what it is all about. It was interesting as he told us about the history of ANZAC day. Some fellow students also gave short speeches, and we had a minute’s silence. Mr Bourke played the last post.

Today I had beliefs and values with Mr Johnson. We talked about what we all believe in and what other religions believe in. Then we did a bit on what values that we all like in our friends and others around us. Then I had Passport 2 and this criterion was about Getting Along. We wrote some stuff about how we get along with our peers and what we like in friendships in our community. I did most of the questions but I may need to finish it off in my spare time.

Devon - Camperdown College

My group, 2A, went canoeing today. The weather was wonderful, and we had heaps of fun. We learnt about the different stokes, how to turn and how to rescue yourself if you capsize. We canoed up the river and down the river too. We even went to shore near the mouth of the Yeerung River, and walked along the beach. Overall, the whole team really enjoyed the day, even when we had to capsize and the water was really cold!

Tallara -Melbourne Girls' College

Hi, I’m Son Nguyen and my partner is Caitlyn Jones. Our community goal as student leaders was to get everybody to class on time and to also get everybody to settle in with the class.

We did a good job but most people kept talking for a few minutes so not everyone settled in as quick. Everyone tried at certain times during the day though. It was really good being student leader because it made us realise how frustrating it can be standing up the front, waiting for people to listen. It was a good opportunity to be committed to our community, by being up the front at the right time so we could try to get everyone where they needed to be on time. We are getting better at being at class on time during the week. Being student leader give us the excitement because we have to uphold responsibilities for that day. We’re having fun and hope we can be student leader again.

Son- Reservoir HS and Caitlyn- Lara SC

Hi our names are Shaun Harrington and Gabrielle Welch and it’s been around a week since we have arrived at Snowy River Campus. Our community goal for yesterday was make sure everyone gets to class on time so we don’t run overtime.

Our plan was to round people up 5 minutes before class so we could start head count on time. Gabby and Shaun worked well to achieve this goal by saying to everyone to be ready for class. However, we ran over time because everyone was talking during reflection so that was a minor detour. We then got back on track after evening class. It was a bit annoying because no one was listening to us but we just had to be patient and wait for everyone to listen and we finally got there.

Yesterday everyone was very excited to get their laptops so we could email our families and friends. We are all very excited about this technology so we can contact home and not have to wait a long time to receive and send letters. Gabby and Shaun highly recommend if you get the opportunity to take on this experience you really should. It has only been a week and everyone is getting along really well and having a blast!

Shaun- Lara SC and Gabrielle- St Helena SC,
Term 2A 2013