Term 3, Week 5 Middle Years of Schooling News
It is a very busy middle of the term in Middle Years with our Year 9 students having just returned from their camp experience last week, the Year 8 students embarking on their Middle Years leadership journey on Wednesday of this week with a Leadership training day and the Middle Years annual social taking place Friday week on the 18th of August.
The Year 9 camp is always a highlight of the year for the students who attend. The camp challenges the students on a physical level individually, but it is the challenge to work together co-operatively as a group which is the key purpose of the event. Through the activities they complete the students must come together and achieve outcomes as a unit. They experience an independence across the four days of the camp that they have not had before, in terms of solving problems and meeting challenges. Both the camp leaders and accompanying teaching staff take a back seat and it is the students who must rise to the occasion. They invariably do, and they return to school with an increased awareness of just what they can achieve together.
Not all students attend the camp and so we run an alternative program for those students who stay at school which links in effectively with the students’ studies in History and English. This program takes the students to a variety of local historical sites including the Maritime Museum and Fort Lytton on the Brisbane River. It also includes some activities which present the students with individual challenges as well. The group went rock climbing at the Lawnton PCYC on Thursday and then put these skills into practice on the Friday, climbing both Mt Beerburrum and Mt Ngungun.
Leadership in the Middle Years at St Paul’s is very much about working within teams and this learning will start for the Year 8 cohort when they are led through a leadership program by the leadership training team at YLead. YLead have been working with our students in a variety of capacities over the past three years. They bring an energy to this process which excites the students and hopefully awakens in them a desire to get involved and find a place in the leadership process. Leadership is not necessarily about being the one at the front, but finding the place where you are best equipped to contribute. Getting involved is the key and this is the message we will be signalling to students this week.
All our Middle Years students can get involved at the Middle Years social on Friday the 18 August. There will be entertainment in the form of a DJ provided by the Metro Mouse group as well as live performances by our Year 9 students on stage. Metro Mouse will also be providing photography on the night to capture our students in their very best 1980s outfits. The 80s is the theme for the night so the kids need to break out the shoulder pads, leg warmers and big hair and ‘choose life’ by getting their tickets early and supporting our student organising committee. The event runs from 6-10pm on the night and there will be drinks and snacks available. Tickets are $10 and can be pre-purchased prior to the evening at the Middle Years administration.
Certainly there is plenty coming up in our dynamic Middle Years precinct.
Mr Cameron Howes
Head of Middle Schooling (Pastoral)
