Year 9 mentor group

Our Year 9 camp started off nice and early, as a five-day experience at Toukley. It allowed us to bond with the new girls while enjoying such a beautiful location. We swam at the pristine cove nearby and experienced yet another hike, which was luckily only half-day. We did BMX riding, archery and high ropes, which pushed all of us out of our comfort zones. We played so many fun games at night, allowing us as a year group to become closer.

In Academic Care, we touched on the relevance of stress in our lives and the need to be able to manage it. We also looked at the essential benefits of spreading kindness, in our ‘Random Acts of Kindness’, where each group was given a year group to display a random act of kindness, for example distributing food.

Year 9 included many incursions and excursions. For history, we had an incursion from an actor, who spoke from the experience of a veteran in a repatriation hospital. The performance was extremely intriguing and sad, and allowed us to truly understand the horrendous effect of war on soldiers. For science, we had a fascinating incursion with an Australian marine biologist and photographer. He showed us his unique and enthralling images, which connected to our topic ‘Shark Attack’. We had an excursion to the Opera House to see Romeo and Juliet, our text for Term 3 English. It gave us a visual representation of the play and a different perspective to the story, which opened our eyes to the many interpretations of Shakespeare’s play written so long ago. Another highlight was the Year 9 commerce stalls, where a term of hard work and deadlines allowed us to enjoy a day that featured our creations. These included Krispy Kreme doughnuts, ice cream sandwiches and brownies, and a surprisingly popular booth to throw wet sponges at teachers!

Year 9 was a memorable year, filled with countless stories we will carry with us forever.

Eliza Morgan, Year 9