Floating down the river the sunlight reflecting onto the banked trees, the temperature so nice I felt a sense of calmness flow over me. The water in the river like a cup of tea, the native plants responsible for the natural brew.
We started of the day with an intro to canoeing, before we got out into the water. I would have to say that this day has been the most fun for me, as I found a connection with the surrounding area.

Josh (my buddy for the river trip) and I took our time floating down the mirror like river, our prize to see a tiger snake swim elegantly right in front of our boat and then disappearing into the river bank. The moment gone in the second of excitement. I was so amazed at the sight, sensing the reptile’s power and beauty.
We continued to raft until we met the sand between the river and the ocean, viewing the spectacular natural phenomenon upon the sand dunes. 

The whole day, I knew that the practice capsizes would have to come, however with the heat and protected area I felt no restrictions to drown myself.  The activity surprised me how fun it was to get into the water. Josh and I found ourselves capsizing more than once. We tried different techniques to save ourselves from the addictive water.

I felt at ease as I ate my lunch in the warm sand, my hat over my face and the sound of the ocean behind me. 

Our trip back was quiet, as Josh and I connected with the surroundings and drifted back to our port. The only evidence of civilisation was a powerline that ran over the river.

On the way back to school we listened to some music as we reflected over the day in silence.  I started to see how I had changed over the nine days that I had been here. I was sceptical about how I was going to get everything out of this experience, but my understanding has changed now. I know that there will still be moments were I struggle or can’t gain the full knowledge of the activity. But I know that every moment in life is a chance to grow and that I don’t have to rush my education.   

Eugene- Sandringham College

Today group 2 stayed back at campus and completed two different classes.

In the morning we worked on our CLP. Sandringham College’s CLP is going to be to paint a mural in a park based on diversity and to also plant some plants around the mural. Today we worked on planning how we are going to execute the CLP and what we need to do, to do that.

My role in the CLP is gain permission through my connections of Bayside City Council to paint this mural and plant these plants in a park in Bayside. I am also helping Eugene with donations. Once we have finished our CLP we are going to hold an open day with a sausage sizzle and possibly a guest speaker.
In the afternoon we worked on beliefs and values. We played some games, participated in certain activities, shared stories and argued points throughout the day to establish what our beliefs and values were.

The student leaders for today also set an activity out for students based on our results of our most dominant quadrant of our brain and based on our community goal for the day. We had to play games that demonstrated qualities of our least dominant quadrant. My least dominant quadrant being green/blue, I had to play chess. I have to admit I did not like this activity very much as I am not a very big fan of chess but I guess that explains blue quadrant being my least dominant quadrant.

I really enjoyed today and I had heaps of fun. We also almost settled the great milo depression and got our milo back. The new rule is that everyone get 2 teaspoons of milo, served by duty, afternoon tea. So everyone was very happy about that.
I’m super excited for tomorrow when we get to go surfing!

Naomi- Sandringham College

My School for Student Leadership (SSL) experience at the Snowy River campus has been both an enjoyable and memorable experience. I have experienced a number of fun, interesting and challenging activities. My favourite activity so far has been surfing. We went surfing down at the local beach and it was good fun to get in the water and enjoy it with everybody else. The waves weren’t big and were great for the beginners in the group. I managed to catch a few waves and ride some with my good friends that I have already met here.

During our time here we will be planning or Community Learning Project (CLP), a project that we will implement when we get back home in our community. Today our team from Sandringham made really good progress towards our CLP which is to create and artistic mural focussing on the theme of diversity in culture. Whilst we are here we will have to plan out how we are going to undertake our CLP which should be really exciting. I’m only under a quarter through my time here and can’t wait for the next adventure to take under my wing.

By Lachlan Tindall- Sandringham College

Today at Snowy I was student leader. My group stayed back while group two went off to do bridge building. We did thinking and learning in this class we learnt about the brain and how different sides do different things E.g. the left side is more analytical while the right side is more intuitive. We then did an activity to see which side of our brain was more dominant. In this activity we had to pick 24 statements from a page that we thought were most like us. Each statement referred to one quarter of the brain rational, experimental, safekeeping and feeling. My results were; the rational quarter was 5, the experimental quarter was 13, the safekeeping quarter was 2, and the feeling quarter was 1. This means that firstly I am more of a thinker than a doer and secondly that I tend to take more risks. This test may not be accurate but it was still interesting. We then started work on our passports by writing our life stories. The other thing we did was a community walk on one of the bike tracks through the bush. This was good because it was the first time I have been in zone 4.   

Archie - Mallacoota P-12