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Activities Week – 15-19 August 2022

How very exciting that we will finally be able to have an Activities Week! It has been two years since our last August camp week, and staff have been working hard to put together some stimulating and engaging options for Woodleigh senior students.

For those who are yet to experience Activities Week, it is a compulsory and important aspect of the Woodleigh journey for all students in Years 7-11. The programs offered during the week aim to:

  • provide the opportunity to extend and apply school curriculum work in a more realistic, interesting and free environment
  • improve physical and mental health through the development of interest in outdoor recreation as a non-competitive and individually fulfilling activity
  • provide opportunities for students to develop skills of co-operative living, leadership, social responsibility and tolerance in group living
  • provide opportunities for students to develop a sense of personal involvement and fulfilment and be part of a caring community, as well as to interact with and be of service to the wider community
  • provide the opportunity to establish relationships between the “new” students as well as staff and the “old” students and staff and for changed/improved student-student and student-teacher relationships
  • encourage students to develop a fuller understanding and appreciation of the natural environment; to help them to become comfortable in “living with nature” to develop positive attitudes and approaches for preserving and conserving natural environments
  • provide opportunities for students to develop an understanding of their own capabilities and the limitations of others through a variety of experiences in the “outdoors.”
  • provide opportunities for students to develop the attitudes and skills associated with self-reliance, especially in an outdoor situation; to develop self-confidence and self-esteem through activities conducted in both urban and natural environments
  • provide the opportunity for students to express and extend their individual talents and have these recognised in a supportive way; in particular to provide a different situation for those who have less success (socially, academically and physically) in school and elsewhere
  • provide mental and emotional satisfaction and practical benefit from exploring and developing an understanding of natural and urban environments.

The Activities are listed in four groups:

• Overnight Camps and Adventures

• Off-campus Activities

• School-based Activities

• Prebooked Camps and Activities

All camps are cross-age and could include students from Years 7-11.

Ski Camps Ballot 2022 (not including Snowsports Race Team)

In the interests of fairness, students who were offered a ski camp place in 2021 will be given the right for first refusal in 2022. If you were offered a ski camp place in 2021 and would like to attend this year, please make sure you put the same camp down as your first preference.

The Activities Week ballot will occur in the middle of this term, and students will know what camps they have been placed on by the end of Term 2.

Whilst every attempt is made to give students their highest possible preference; it is not always possible for everyone to receive their top preference for camp week. Whatever camp students end up going on, rest assured they will make some new connections, strengthen some old ones, and learn something new about themselves, others, and the environment. We thank you for your support and engagement in the program. If you have any questions about Activities Week, please do not hesitate to contact me.

ANDREW PEACH
Director of Outdoor Education