Senior Stories

Camps and Retreats

By Michael Francis Email this article

A warm welcome back to term for you all, and if the cool, frosty mornings experienced on camp and retreat this past week are any indication, we will need all the warmth we can get!

The term ahead will again see Senior School students engaged in a wide variety of exploits. It has been a busy start, with Year 10 Camps and the Year 12 Retreats having taken place last week. This year was the first time that Mercedes College featured in the Generations in Jazz Festival in Mount Gambier. Congratulations go to the staff and students who experienced it first-hand.

One of the key elements that were explored as a Senior School through Term 1 was being open to growth. The camps and retreats are excellent opportunities for this to occur and both staff and students involved work together to ensure that people feel supported in their personal and spiritual growth.

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Year 10 Camp

Camping can be challenging when the conditions are cold, the food is not as good as at home, the sleep is limited and the physical exertion is tiring, but the reward and sense of accomplishment when students return to school is clearly evident.

Certainly the overflowing esky full of freshly filleted fish that arrived back from the fishing camp was testament to the skills learnt by the campers on this experience! It is such a pleasure to witness the buses returning with tired, but happy, students who have managed to overcome new challenges and enjoy the experience. I encourage them to take this sense of adventure into their studies in Term 2.

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Year 12 Retreat

Retreats are also a challenging experience. Sometimes they require students to be vulnerable and to share quite personal information with others, and the opportunity to get to know fellow students more deeply is not everyone’s forte. All students and staff who participate in the retreats do get to share a common experience and often this can be a watershed for students in their school life.

Some revelations that can come out of the retreats lead to relationships being strengthened and sometimes renewed, but almost always it leads to an understanding that the Year 12 cohort is walking the road together over the final year of study and none of the students need to walk this road alone.

Congratulations to all who attended and gave it their full attention to gain the most out of the experience.

Student Reflections

My favourite activity on retreat was the comparison between faith and trust. It took some time to come to a group conclusion as we were all confused on what the difference was. The images of hope was interesting as people had very different perceptions of the images, which I found quite interesting. Creating personal pockets was an enjoying activity, which drew the year level closer. This is the same with the friendship bracelets. The most fulfilling activity was the candle ceremony.

The program was very enjoyable because the theme was quite interesting to talk about. A lot of the little activities we did people took seriously, which made the whole experience a lot more beneficial. This was especially relevant to the candle ceremony and the affirmations. I also enjoyed how they placed us into groups with people we don’t usually talk to. This allowed me to get to know people better and also create new friendships. Creating friendship bracelets and writing a letter to someone we are grateful for were also important parts of the program, which I think were very valuable and allowed people to give thanks to others they usually don’t or find difficult to talk to. The part I enjoyed the most on retreat was talking to people I don’t usually talk to, especially when we were paired with someone to talk to for 20 minutes.

Year 12 Students

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The Coming Term

As mentioned above, there are many opportunities for our students to be engaged in a variety of experiences over the course of this term. Just some of these are:

• Year 11 Work Experience
• Senior School Social
• Year 10 Personal Project development
• Year 12 RE Seminar on health and sexuality from the Catholic perspective
• Year 11 Drama performance
• Year 11 end of Semester One examinations

As always, keep aware of the calendar through the College website and relevant College staff will be in contact about these specific events as they draw near.

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Student Attendance

As a reminder to students and parents as the term begins in earnest again, if a student is to be absent from school for any period of time, please contact the student's Tutor Group teacher and/or the McAuley Office administrative staff so that our duty of care can be maintained for your children. This is particularly pertinent if a student is to be leaving the school (or school activity – like a sporting carnival or excursion) for any reason during the school day, as we must be aware of the student absence for our records. 

In addition, if your child will be absent for an extended period due to family commitments, please contact me with the details so that I can communicate this with the Principal to keep him informed.

All the best in Term 2, may it be a successful and rewarding period for you all.

Michael Francis
Head of Senior School
mfrancis@mercedes.catholic.edu.au