Early on the Monday, October 15, the Year 7s and Year 9s, totaling 60 students, plus 6 members of staff, embarked on a journey to camp in Yangshuo, Guilin. The six-day camp comprised of two days of travelling / settling, and four full days of activities. The purpose of this camp was to provide students with valuable outdoors education, as well as developing them as individuals by growing outside the classroom.

After a seven-hour journey on the bus and train, students finally arrived at the camp site, where they also facilitated the first activity of camp, “Cops and Robbers” and “Werewolf”. Subsequently, students set up their own tents and were ready for dinner.

The plethora of camp activities, planned by Mr. Jason Brady and carried out by the staff at Terratribes, challenged students both physically and mentally. These included: rock-climbing, ziplining / abseiling, archery, raft-building, basket weaving, and caving. Students enjoyed all of these activities, in particular rock-climbing and ziplining / abseiling; they were definitely up for the challenge, whether if it was scaling a the side of a mountain that was dozens of meters high, sailing through the air or, descending from fifty meters above ground.

On three of the nights, students had to make their own dinners, the meals cycled through were: pasta, pizza, and Chinese food. Students learned basic cooking skills and enjoyed their own dishes.

As teachers, we bore witness to many moments by students of which we can be proud. We were delighted when some students took our encouragement and became risk-takers, and completed the zipline and abseil; we were glad to see students being communicative as teammates, and as creative thinkers, when they designed and assembled their own rafts; we marveled some of the students’ athletic abilities when climbing up the side of the mountain.

Most importantly, we were especially proud of the growth we witnessed in the students; they had grown more in five days than they would have in five weeks in the classroom. The level of maturity that both the Year 7s and Year 9s have risen to both surprising and touching.