A night away together was the best medicine to start the year as a committed and healthy team, intent on making a significant and useful contribution to the college.
Whilst Wednesday the 31st of January was the first day back at school for all students in 2019, it was also the first field trip for the year! Mr Veitch and Dr Preston loaded up 14 boys (Nathan Harrison was sadly still on Spanish exchange and could not attend) and drove them out to Tirohanga Presbyterian Camp for an afternoon and evening of team building and leadership training.
The highlight of the evening was certainly the 'Spiderweb' exercise where the team had to figure out a way to get all 14 boys through some fairly challenging holes in the web. After 1 hour 15 minutes, the boys completed the task with a wonderful sense of accomplishment and exuberance (see the video clip attached - NOTE: once a team member was through to the other side without touching the web, they were not allowed to speak again until all team members were through).
After a fantastic pizza dinner, we shared some insights we had learnt from the team building exercises, discussed the differences between a group and a team, and proceeded to discuss and choose individual roles for the year. Around 10.30pm we headed for bed and it was so hot that evening that a few boys slept out under the stars for the entire night.
The day after, all of the Year 13 cohort joined us at the campsite and the prefects (trained the previous afternoon by Mr Clark), ran the activities for the day and demonstrated excellent leadership and problem-solving skills...perhaps the reason the boys at the college elected them in the first place! The afternoon/evening retreat was a resounding success and will be a permanent fixture in the college calendar from now on.
Prefect Roles for 2019:
Charles Keenan (Head Boy) - general duties
George Bell (Deputy Head Boy) - general duties
Will Edwards (Deputy Head Boy) - general duties
Ben Lund - Health and Well-being
Ben Porter, Nathan Harrison - Arts and Culture
Billy Sheard and Archie Calder - Outdoor and Environmental Liaison
Will Turner, Harrison Biggs - Academic and International Support
Lucas Dickison, Sam Clulee - Social Liaison
David Cannon - Special Character and Service
Tom Dempster, Leroy Ferguson - Sport's Liaison
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