School camp

One of the main co-curricular requirements as a teacher at a large independent school in Australia is to attend school camp. At my school this is a week long program, departing school on Monday morning and returning Friday afternoon. For the past three years I have been assigned to Year 7 camp.  It’s meant to be a bonding, getting to know each other experience for the students which is why it happens to early in the year. I like this camp overall, the activities and fun and not too strenuous, and most year 7s are not yet “too cool” to enjoy them. Also the weather is usually nice… our other camps are in autumn/winter and it can be cold and rainy. Some students get homesick but usually there aren’t many other issues to deal with. And I like getting my camp over with early on in the year so I don’t have to plan around it later on. Here is my very rough diary of my week at camp!

Monday

My week has started well. I’ve ended up on a bus that only has about 25 kids on it, and 4 teachers. An excellent ratio and the students are really well behaved on the way down. Before we leave I give the students the usual talk about seat belts, travel sickness, eating on the bus etc. Inevitably, as tends to happen with students meeting me for the first time, one asks if I’m American. I politely respond that I’m in fact Canadian. (Funnily enough adults often carefully ask if I’m “Canadian or American”, but I don’t think it ever occurs to children that I could be anything but an American.) It turns out that one of the students lived in New Jersey for a few years as his dad is a former AFL player turned NFL player. I must look up who this is for my dad!

The drive is just over an hour - another perk of year 7 camp is it’s not very far away! We arrive at camp by 11am and the kids are briefed about the camp rules before being told their camp groups for the week. There are 8 groups, each with about 14 kids. Each group has a camp leader, a teacher and a year 11 student leader. Though I don’t know any of the students in my group, I’ll soon realized I’ve lucked out with a pretty nice group. There are no “too cool” students which is great as they are the ones that roll their eyes or have to be nagged to participate. 

The structure of the week is that 4 groups go out to a separate campsite and set up tents for two nights, and the other 4 stay at the main campgrounds in cabins. Then on Wednesday the groups swap places. I’m pretty happy to find out that my group is doing the tents first. It’s much better this way, you get the “roughing it” part done first and then everyone is so happy to come back to the relative luxury of the cabins for the last two nights. 

After a few icebreaker games our group needs to pack their hiking bags (a task that always takes waaaaay longer than you think it should) and then we are off on our 3.6 km hike to the campsite. 

It’s hot out, 28 degrees and full sun. Some of the kids really struggle with walking with their packs, but overall we arrive without any incidents. 3.6 km sounds short, but it’s hilly and through the bush so it takes a good hour and a half. 

We get to camp and I’m super excited to see that I have a large tent all set up for me! In previous years we’ve had smaller tents and I mentioned to someone that it would be nice to have a tent for teachers that we could stand up in. Frankly I’m getting too old to crawl in and out of small tents. So it is nice to see that my request was granted. 

The kids have to set up their own tents (only the teachers get the luxury of the tent being set up for them) so I help with that and then we get on to cooking dinner. The students chop up lots of veg and mix it with cold cooked chicken, rice noodles and a Thai salad dressing… a good fire-free camp dinner. It is pretty painful watching 12 year olds chop vegetables on a tarp on the ground. Thankfully this year my group manage to do it with minimal dirt added. For dessert we have “bush apple crumble” which is crushed up biscuits, tinned apples and custard. It’s pretty yummy. 

After dinner we have to manage the kids who were getting a bit hyper, all excited for their first night of camp. The kids from the other groups keep coming over to our campsite and I have to bust out my stern teacher voice and send them back. 

The camp leaders try getting all four groups in the tents together to play a game after dinner. But nearly 60 kids, in the dark, playing a game is fairly disastrous. So after about half an hour we go back to our campsite and the kids opt to just chat and play cards in their tents. They are quiet and at least trying to sleep by 10:30 pm, so not too bad for the first night. 

Tuesday

I’ve had a terrible sleep, waking almost every hour until about 4 am. I’m reluctant to get out of my tent this morning but the kids start waking around 6:30 am so I drag myself out. It’s Weetbix and powdered milk for breakfast, yum! Luckily my camp leader offers to boil some water so I can at least have an instant coffee.

Feeling pretty tired, but happy to have some form of caffeine

Our morning activity is mountain biking. We get lost on our way to the activity but it’s nice to be walking through the lush rainforest on a cool and cloudy morning. 

We walk past an area that I learn was a film site for the movie “Where the Wild Things are” with Tom Hanks which is kind of cool!

The mountain biking itself is a pretty fun activity. Most of the kids are pretty confident on a bike and all can at least ride. Even the ones that are a little bit nervous give it a go. There are some very steep hills that we all need to get off and walk up or down at times.

We make a stop at Kurth Kiln, a historic site that was built during the Second World War to produce charcoal.

We have lunch and then it’s off to the afternoon activity. I’m pretty tired by now! The activity is called initiatives and it’s a series of team building challenges. The kids have fun but as a teacher I’m just watching and man the afternoon feels loooooong. 

We get back to our campsite and everyone is pretty tired and we all just chill out. The students have a nap or read or play cards together and I take the opportunity to have a 20 minute lie down which helps a lot! I then have time to get stuck into my book “The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida”. It won the 2022 Booker Prize and it’s the book for my book club but I’m founding it a bit hard to follow.

Next it’s time to get the kids to make dinner. We are having pasta with a veg and tomato sauce, and if nothing else at least it’s pretty healthy!

After dinner we play some games with the other camp groups which is a bit more successful then last night’s attempt, and then the students are in their tents by 10 pm. I’m praying for a better sleep tonight!

Wednesday 

I’ve woken up after a solid night’s sleep and I feel like a different person! And just like that, my two nights in the tent are over! Back to a bed tonight. The students seem to be sleeping in so I get dressed quickly and go for a 10 minute walk. Breakfast is Weetbix and instant coffee again… I’m ready for real coffee again soon!

We pack up the campsite and head out to our first activity of the day: high ropes. The highlight is a student who was very afraid of heights building up to climbing to the top of a challenge and (after a 15-second panic attack) he walks to the middle of the ropes so he can come down. Yay! I’m so proud of this kid!

After high ropes we get to head back to the main campsite, woohoo! The hard part of camp is done and we can look forward to sleeping indoors, in a bed, and meals that don’t come with a side of dirt.

My group is doing a session on Indigenous art in the afternoon, which is a calm activity and requires zero input from me. I take the opportunity to do a bit of school work and read my book.

Dinner is a lovely butter chicken followed by chocolate mousse AND apple crumble. It’s divine. 

After dinner all the students have to do their “solo” time. This is a common part of all camps at my school, which starts out small and builds to a 24 hour solo/survival experience in year 10. It’s much less daunting in Year 7, they only have to spend an hour on their own, where they can write in a journal or just sit silently, contemplating life… or other things. The students can get very anxious about having to spend an hour alone, not speaking to anyone, even though they can still actually see everyone! 

It’s a lovely calm hour as the sun sets and the kids all manage to stay quiet the whole time. There is a very serene feeling at the camp and it’s now time for bed.

One of my work besties is the Head of Year 7 and she gives the students an amazing speech about how important it is that her staff get a good night’s sleep and so the kids must go to bed by 9:30 pm for that to happen. She’s pretty scary and threatens them with sleeping out in the common area on a mattress on the floor if they are caught talking/making noise after 9:30 pm, and you can tell she means it. It works, and they are in bed with lights out by the deadline, and sleep really well throughout the night.

Thursday 

I wake up after another good sleep, this time in a bed in a cabin with another teacher, who thankfully doesn’t snore. That’s not always the case on these camps! It’s a beautiful morning which will soon turn in to a hot day. I squeeze in a 15 minute walk doing laps of the property, taking a few pictures along the way:

At breakfast, which is Weetbix (with real milk!) and pancakes, I ask one of my students if he slept well. He winces and says not really. I ask him if he had any snorers in his cabin and he replies “no… farters”. Bahahhahaha! It’s the funniest thing I’ve heard all camp.

In the morning my camp group do an orienteering challenge, and then we have a low ropes course and the flying fox after lunch. It’s a pretty cruisy day and I can feel that the end of camp is near.  

Dinner is lasagna and dessert. After dinner the Year 11 camp leaders run a trivia night which is chaotic but the students have a good time. They again settle pretty well for bed by 10 pm and sleep well.

Friday

Last day of camp! Woohoo! I slept well again and am starting to think that this whole camp thing is not so bad. 

My group is doing canoeing this morning. It’s a hot one so it’s great to be on the water. 

We play lots of games with the students and it’s a fun way to end camp. Before we know it we are getting out the canoes and headed back to the campground. Lunch is some very delicious gyro's and then it's time to get on the bus and head home!

We are back at school by 3pm and I'm at home, in the garden with a gin and tonic by about 3:45, congratulating myself on a successful school camp... and happy knowing that my camp duty is over for another year!