These last two months have been an extremely busy time for our Year 9 cohort, heading off to Sydney on 11 September for the Urban Challenge Camp, and then their presenting their Expo projects in the Junior Showcase evening on 12 October.

It was a huge undertaking for many of our students who were getting on a plane for their first time and/or going to Sydney, but their enthusiasm to the new adventure did not deter them …. not even the 6 am arrival to school on that very cold Monday morning. Who needs sleep any way?

Here are some Camp and Expo stories that our Year 9 students wanted to share with the rest of the SHC community, and again, we want to thank everyone involved in supporting our Year 9 in Camp and Expo

“I think that Sydney was one of my favourite camps I have been to by far. But I think that is probably because of the memories I made with my friends, whether that's accidentally locking all of our key cards inside our hotel and having to take the elevator back to the lobby wearing nothing on our feet, or laughing so hard we couldn’t breathe. It was fun to run around a city that I wasn’t familiar with, because everything was different to Melbourne. My favourite thing we did was probably taking the night ferry around the harbour and looking at Sydney from a different view, but it is incredibly difficult to choose just one thing. On the last day at the airport, I felt so exhausted from the week in Sydney, and all I wanted to do was sleep, so I did.” Lily B.

“Going to Bondi beach was amazing! The cabins we stayed in were fantastic, and helping to cook the snags was a good thing, being helpful and nice to others. Surfing and bodyboarding was exhilarating”. James C

“The Year 9 camp this year was 100% the best camp I’ve ever been on. The Urban Challenge activities were a lot of fun and our instructor Greggles was really funny. Throughout the camp we did a lot of team building activities and got to bond better with classmates we don’t normally talk to. As well as getting to see more of what our teachers' personalities and character strengths are.

Some of the best activities we did were the Surfing/Boogie boarding, the sand sculpture challenge, and the Manly beach clean up. Overall, I’m really grateful I got to experience this camp and I hope the next Year 9’s enjoy the camp just as much as I did”. Charlotte G