I've just spent three days camping at school - no, not report writing season, but whole school camp. I've never been in a school that does anything quite like this, and this year's was particularly successful.
We begin on Wednesday, at the end of normal school hours. The younger students (5 - 7 year olds) go home on the bus, and the fun begins. We pitch our tents (with some help for 8 and 9 year olds from an army of willing parents) which can take some time, and then have dinner together. The extra adult tent-pitchers go home, and our senior students take over. They lead team building games for an hour or so - they learnt them at last week's leadership camp with our cluster schools - and then we have a twilight swim.
A game of spotlight goes down well once it is properly dark, and we finish our evening with warm milo and a cookie, all enjoyed while we're having a story.
Our senior students (9- 12 year olds) head off to bed down on our front paddock, and the junior students enjoy the luxury of large tents to small groups... a far cry from the following night, I assure you.
Thursday is a day for special projects. We are joined by all the other students, so we have the whole school working together. This year we are investigating the ideas that "everyone in a relationship has responsibilities" and "everyone is valuable - we just have to discover how". As part of this we spent the day doing school beautification projects... being responsible for the environment of our learning relationship, and finding out that some people have hidden talents. We built a giant sandpit, removed an old plum tree (no longer fruiting), painted our planters with cheerful patterns, weeded flower beds, planted native trees, designed and painted murals on our bounce boards and did a whole lot of sweeping and tidying.
We shared the results of our labours with our whanau (families) at a barbeque that evening before enjoying a dip in our pool, and then campfire singing. A total fire ban means we got the campfire songs, but not the campfire... but smores taste just as good if you make them in a microwave!
We all slept well that night - even our youngest students who are enjoying their first taste of camping. The junior tents are full to bursting tonight, but they don't seem to mind! Last year we had a five year old starting school on the day of camp, so she stayed over in a tent that night... what an introduction to life at our school!
Friday is much quieter - we view the photos that have been taken while adult helpers move through the tents one by one, helping junior students pack their gear away. Seniors are left to deal with their own, and then they strike their tents. By midday school is looking normal again, apart from the mountain of gear that we squeeze into the school bus along with the remaining children. By 1pm the staff are left in peace to finish tidying, and organising their rooms for Monday morning.
Phew! Tiring, certainly. Worthwhile? Definitely!! Our children have been at school for only four weeks of this school year, and now feel much more connected to each other, to other year groups in school, to our staff, and to their learning environment. We have built teams, achieved things that we can look at every day for the rest of the year and think "wow - we built/painted/planted that!"
Powerful, real-life learning.
Who could ask for more?!
No comments:
Post a Comment