A week before the National Holidays, all G-level students from SCIE participated in an exciting camping activity at Dapeng Ecology Garden. Working in individual teams and competing against each other, all the students participated with full enthusiasm. Everyone used both their physical and mental abilities to earn as many points as possible for each of their houses.
After the students came back from their camp, the parents of all G-Level students were invited to school for a meeting. The meeting included the principal (Mr. Neil Mobsby), the pastoral principle ( Mrs. Lisa Haitana) and the G-level heads (Mrs. Summer Xia and Mrs. Karen Clancy). Each of them gave a brief recap about the wide range of activities the students participated in during their time in camp.
After the teachers finished their reports, five students from G1 and G2 talked about their experiences during camping. They explained what they learnt, shared their thoughts, and recollected their most unforgettable memories.
Following the meeting, all parents headed to assigned classrooms under the guidance of staff to enjoy their children’s presentations. This year, they were given the theme “sustainable development”. Students prepared presentations on controversial topics such as global warming, applications of plastic products, nuclear energy, water pollution, electricity supply, animal protection, and the equilibrium of ecosystem. To prepare for the event, they were asked to conduct research in groups and support their arguments with convincing evidence before they put their ideas into speech and presented it to the audience.
The air in the classrooms became tense even before the parents’ arrival. Everyone was busy reading their speeches again and again from their computers, discussing with their neighboring classmates, making final checks and adjustments. The space in the classrooms filled up quickly as parents arrived; many even had to stand in the back as there were no seats left. The thunderous applause as the students walked onto the stage halted at once when their presentations began, and everyone listened attentively as the students delivered their speeches with passion and confidence.
In the presentation, the students presented information they gathered from all possible sources, and demonstrated their data-analysis skills. They have also provided their own perspectives to some of the information that they’ve found, and suggested some solutions for the problems that they discovered. They combined what they learnt in class with the results of the survey that they did together, and were able to apply their theoretical knowledge to social events. They checked their hypotheses using information from books, and proved the theories again with their own results. At the same time, they were also able to improve their international mindedness and critical thinking skills, which raised their levels of knowledge.
Many students still had so much that they wanted to share after they finished their presentations; they felt as if they could go on and on for hours. The sparks colliding intelligent minds soon diminished, because, as we all know, good times never last. But the friendship, skills, and knowledge that the students gained from these activities would stay and continue benefiting them for the rest of their lives.
I was too excited to get any sleep last night. In the morning, we set off at 7 o’clock. With the bright sunshine, we arrived at the place where our camp would take place in.
On the first day, we had lots of group competitions. I felt exhausted when we finished all the competitions. At dusk, I sat on the beach and recalled what had happened on that brilliant day. I found that the most memorable activity was the one called “orienteering”.
The rules of this game is that we should find specific spots in a tourist attraction and the winner is the group that finishes finding all these specific spots in the shortest time possible. Unlike other groups, our group chose to be the most relaxed and happiest rather than the fastest one. After finding most of the spots, we started to play games that was designed by our group members. One of our group members even bought a Barbecued Chicken in the tourist attraction.
The attitude our group held towards the competition surprised me a lot. Additionally, when finding the spots, we chatted and told our own stories, which created a really harmonious atmosphere. The time that I’ve spent in this camp is an unforgettable experience in my life.
As evening closed in, we got back to our camp, only to find that it rained heavily. Since the tents were put outside, it needed moving indoors or it might be immersed in water. What we did was we drafted our tents with all our heavy belongings inside and most of us got wet. What moved me the most was the help of some boys. They carried our tents for us and helped get them downstairs. Some of the boys also stayed all night helping to distribute towels. It’s a terrible experience because it was certainly disgusting to be all wet from head to toe with sand stuck in my shoes, but I also felt warm inside due to cooperation and friendliness of people. After that, there were plenty of chances and activities provided for classmates and students, like the KTV room and free time in tents. Some of us got up early the next morning to watch the sun rise and even wrote our house slogan in the sand. I think camping is an opportunity to solidify our friendship and learn to be devoted.
During the morning of our second day of camp, we participated in 5 activities. I found the most challenging one was the “plank game”, which required 6 people standing on two planks and walking together. As usual the house that completes the quickest wins. This requires a lot of communication and patience. We had to shout “Left! Right! Left! Right!” all the way to prevent from falling. Everyone in the group had a job, whether it was to turn, or get the message from the front to the back. Patience was important because when taking a turn, we had to work slowly together to tell everyone what to do and fortunately we made it through without falling.
Overall, I found that this camping trip brought us all closer together, the people I haven’t even spoken to before became close friends with me and we even planned to hang out together during the holidays. I also got to know my friends better and was able to work more effectively with them. But most importantly, I’ve spent a great amount of time with my classmates, it was both competitive and enjoyable. The memories I made on this trip will definitely be unforgettable.
Good afternoon everyone, I’m Joe from G2 fire, and this is Ray also from G2 fire. Nicely done.
As you may know the camp was delayed for a year and many doubted the significance of it to be carried out this year, since it’s less likely to find a boy/girlfriend, some claimed. However, it came out exceptionally good. Having known each other for a year isn’t a bad thing. We had better cooperation in house games, we are more proficient in breaking rules (no Ms. Clancy we didn’t.) the camp strengthened our links for real.
The camp mainly consisted of numerous team building activities. This is orienteering, which you take silly pictures at indicated locations. The more required pictures you take, the higher points you get. Raft building, which you build a canoe with bulky barrel and useless bamboo stick and sit on it for 15 seconds and soak yourself in saline water. Construction- the game of future architect. The second day we had rolling basketball, passing water balloons etc. everyone was busy participating so we haven’t got good pictures of them. the only problem was that there was an excess of uv-radiation. It was blazing hot by the beach, and you can tell that from my skin color.
Apart from these activities we, of course, had our own night life. We were required to go to bed at around 1030, which is hilariously impossible for the 16-year-old teenagers in the lovely camp. Therefore at 1030 we began the house activity of hide and seek with the teachers. I don’t know where the g1s sought for their shelters but the second floor of the bar was certainly not the ideal place. So was the beach, so was the toilet. There were various entertainments. Karaoke, mini concert, beach walking, card games, telling ghost stories and caught by Mr. Edward, sleeping for an hour or two and embrace the sunrise.
House pride was enormous. We fought incredibly hard till exhaustion, and beyond exhaustion. As a fire captain, I loved my house so deeply, despite being the fourth we’ve done enough to be proud of that. And I believe this is true for most of us.
Thank you all for listening. Have a brilliant day.
