On Thursday 12 February after school we shared our thoughts and ideas about “Leadership”. We began by playing bullrush to run off some steam. We then chose our ‘tent mates’ and started setting up our tent. My group took a long time but after about an hour we got the hang of it. Ben and I went up to the driveway to get pizza for dinner. It took a while but the pizza was very, very nice. We had ice cream and then we all went for showers. There were four showers but no walls so there wasn’t much privacy.

We stayed in our tents until we were able to watch the movie (Remember the Titans).  The movie was awesome!  It was about a football team that had both a black and white coach and players that are were black and white.  Most of the other teams they played were all white.  The team went on camp and had to learn about their black or white cultures.  They didn’t all like each and were racist towards each other.  In the end they came together through teamwork and respect.  But their captain, who was their best defender, was in a car crash and was paralysed from the waist down.  They ended up being the second best football team in the country.  This movie was based on a real story.

We then went to sleep.  Well, I did but I heard boys chattering while I was going to sleep.  I was then woken up by Anton saying, “We need to evacuate!” because there was a massive storm and the rain was pelting down.  We all relocated to the library and I fell asleep again.  At 5:30, I was woken up by the sound of stomping and footsteps.  Ms Lowe came in and said, “Boys go to sleep. It is quarter to six”.  But some boys didn’t listen and then Mr Edwards came in and said, “Go back to bed”.  Ten minutes later the teachers came back and said, “Get up boys, come on!” They also told us to pack up your tents.  The thing is we took an hour and a half to set them up. We took two hours to pack them up but we did have breakfast in the middle.

After doing that Mr Caulfield let us play water polo for 15 mins. Then we got changed and played capture the flag…a camp tradition. At recess we enjoyed watermelon, grapes, marshmallows and a muffin. Mmmm…yummy! The boys in Ms Lowe’s class who were in Rydal went with the Kingswood boys from Mr Edwards’ class down to Strike Bowling at Chatswood for a game of laser tag. The boys who stayed back worked on a blog and after hour, we swapped. It was then lunchtime with a sausage sandwich and a fruit juice.

After lunch, we had to build our own rafts. I was very proud of my team as we won the race across the pool. It looked easy but it was very hard. You had to transport nine people from one end of the pool to another. We got two people to the other side. There were four teams and we only had enough equipment for 2 groups at a time. So after half an hour we switched. We then got changed and had some free time on our iPads to end the best overnight camp ever! I say this on behalf of all of Year Fives.The camp was awesome! I would love to do this camp again!

Thank you to Ms Lowe, Mr Edwards, Mr Cooley and Mr Caulfield for making this happen and staying away from your own families.

By Jack Middleton – Class 5E

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