Camp Blackwood

On the last week of Term 3 the Year 11 VCAL students went to Blackwood Outdoor Education Specialist Camp to assist the staff with fire prevention, site clean-up and helping the students with special needs. Our theme for Semester 2 has been Mixed Abilities and attending this camp allowed us to put our learning into practice.

We arrived at the camp site we were met by Abbey and Eliza and they helped us set up our tents and beds. After we settled in we had a briefing and then set up for our afternoon activities. We went for a walk down to the shed and got rakes and wheel barrows and came back to the camp site and started to clean up the site to make it fire safe. While some raked up leaves others went with the staff to collect and split wood for camp fires.

We had a relaxing evening where we reflected on our day, discussed the plans for tomorrow and also brain stormed ideas for our major project. Over the next few days we worked with a veracity of students and helped them with night walks and fun activities at that camp such as high ropes and archery. One of the highlights of the camp was being able to help the students – it pushed us out of our comfort zone but was so rewarding.

What I took away from camp was that at first you just see the disability and I didn’t really know how to talk to the students, so it was awkward at first but when you actually start talking with them you found out they aren’t so different and they are easy to talk to and I learnt how to step out my comfort zone and talk and take care of younger people in need.

Thanks to the VCAL team for the experience. Blackwood has been one of the highlights of this year.

Swaye Mitchell-Falce