As we trekked through a knee deep, 100 metre long puddle in torrential rain I don’t think any of the year 9 girls were truly sure of what the rest of camp had in store for us. So far we had been climbed a mountain, been bitten by leeches, been scared to death by Miss Hales “deadly leeches” - very funny Miss - and fallen in rivers. And that was just in four hours. By the end of the hike we were all too exhausted to make any sort of hysterics over the fact that yet another leech was climbing up our legs. I can honestly say that I am no longer bothered by leeches which is pretty darn impressive coming from an all-round nature-phobe.
That night we cooked noodles and learnt that no matter how hard the leaders try mineral turpentine cannot be used as gas. Most of us got around 2 hours of sleep and listened to choruses of High School Musical or played musical tents instead. We woke in the morning to a scene, which can only be described as beautiful, but most of us were too sleep deprived to notice. As we left to go back to the cabins there was one thing running through all our minds … showers.
That day we tried, and failed, at archery. We were drenched when it rained yet again at BMX riding and went surprising well at low ropes. But the highlight for most of us were the night games. We played Princess Billionaire and Dodgeball. I’m proud to announce us girls beat the teachers and leaders 3 out of 3 times. After we were all thoroughly exhausted we bunkered down for bed. Miss Hale read us a Max Lucado picture book and we all said goodnight. We had a plan to all meet in one room but that was soon wrecked.
***FLASHBACK TIME***
It’s 10ish at night. The door closes.
“Mrs Downing? Mrs Downing?”
“She’s not here!”
“I know I was just checking!!”
Mrs Downing: “aren’t you supposed to check for Miss Hale to?”
Sufficient to say, our party plans were wrecked.
The next day, after a rather more wholesome night of sleep we woke up to a sunny day. We had devotions and then the guys came back from the campsite. Once they had showered and we finished our devotions we played a massive game called stratego. Most got it, others didn’t. Those who didn’t just stayed out of the way but it was fun. Running around like mad people is thoroughly enjoyable.
As we drove back to Covenant the bus was noticeably quieter. Half of us were asleep. Despite the rain we managed to make the most of it and all of us took away many funny memories. So I leave you with one word. Nigel.
The Year 3 and Year 4 Sleepover is an annual event where students have the chance to pitch a tent at school or bed down for the night in a class room. It is a lot of fun. The excitement levels were very high even before any lollies so the teachers had to work hard to ensure everyone was well and truly exhausted so they would actually sleep!!
Enjoy just 48 of the over 400 photos from the activities. Thanks to parent Michael Lin for taking so many!
Thank you to the amazing teachers who turned around after a full week of lessons to come back for the afternoon activities and sleepover. There was also a wonderful team of parents helping set up and take down tents, cooking, supervising games and making great memories for our kids. Events like this are a great way to build and strengthen our school community.
On Monday, the sixteenth of March, year five and six went on a camp. Year five went to ‘Telford and Skinners’ in the Royal National Park. My mum came to camp with me as a parent helper. We got on buses at nine thirty. When we got there it was very beautiful. There was a big blue lake. I was in group A. Our first activity after lunch was to go on a cruise. That was lots of fun because the guy who drove explained about the Aborigines living along the lake which was really interesting.
Next was sailing. We took turns going on the boats and while we were waiting, we fished off the dock. When I was sailing it was fun because when it was tipping, we got to lean back and put our heads in the water. The next morning after breakfast we had Christian Discovery. That day we did abseiling but I didn’t like that very much because the harness hurt me a lot.
Next was the ….WATERSLIDE!!! The waterslide was one of my favourite things on camp. It was really fun when I went with Miss Hammond because I went really, really fast. The next activity was canoeing. I like it but it was a bit hard coming back against the wind. That night we had a great time. We had a talent show. I dressed up as a German because we had to dress up as something starting with your name. My talent was telling jokes with Danni. It was very fun seeing everybody’s talents. At the end of it we played some games in the hall.
On the last day we did low ropes. It was heaps of fun. My favourite part was the flying fox.
We left the campsite after lunch and we watched ‘Over the Hedge’ on the way home.
Hi Grace,
That was an excellent article about your camping trip. Thanks for your good writing and I looked at and enjoyed all the pictures. Bet your Mom was tired!!
Love you!
Pa
Marian Ensor commented on 27-Apr-2009 03:38 PM
Hi Grace, I finally saw all the pictures. I really enjoyed your story, and the pictures told more of the experience. I had fun picking you out of the crowd, saw your Mom at the Lake, but found you with your cute hat. Keep up the good work with the writing. love, Marian
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On the 16th to the 18th of March, Year 6 went on their camp in the Royal National Park and camped at Rathane. We were all divided into four groups, A, B, C and D. We all did different activities at different times. The activities Year 6 did were abseiling, rock climbing, canoeing, cruise, orienteering and the water slide. The food was great!
The cabins were AWESOME. They had new bunk beds, with one being a double bed. Some people fell straight asleep while others stayed awake till early morning. For most people the most fun thing was the water slide because we got so many turns!
The funniest part was when Lachlan D and Braden K were trying to be funny and Lachlan dived over Braden’s head while trying to stand up on the water slide. On Tuesday night we had a quiz night and had to answer 10 questions in 5 categories. The winning team was the Epic Fails.
Unfortunately we had to leave on Wednesday. As we sadly and tiredly got on to the bus, we said goodbye to all the instructors.
Year 7 this year welcomed 38 new students so three days spent at Lake Macquarie on camp was a great way to get to know each other. Students enjoyed a range of activities and challenges.
Here are some comments from students:
I liked the activities because they gave us the opportunity to do things that we couldn’t do at home. The activities were great, but not too extreme.
I didn’t like building the raft because it collapsed when we put it in the water. Then everyone fought over whose idea we should use for the second attempt.
Fishing
If you weren’t mature enough you wouldn’t be able to stand the showers or the cabins! The cabins could be lighter with more cheerful colours! Also, they needed more ventilation.
The leaders at camp were so friendly. The discussion time was good because coming from a public school with camps to an amazing Christian camp is really good.
The day activities were all fun and I conquered some of my fears. My favourite moment was when I went down the wall at abseiling, because I hate heights, but I still did it.
Term 4 – A new beginning for the current Year 11s and the commencement of their HSC studies. And to start them off on the marathon ahead, the Annual Year 12 Retreat at Camp Kedron, Ingleside. And what a great time it was. Two days packed with information, seminars and activities.
We started our time together with some, fun and somewhat embarrassing ice breaker type games, where we learnt which students were the most talented at impersonating their favorite animals. This was followed by 2 seminars run by an organization called Elevate Education – One called “Ace Your Exams” which helped students to improve their exam technique and another called “Student Elevation” which dealt with goal setting and motivation. Both were extremely helpful to all who attended and as the presenters were university students who themselves had done extremely well in the HSC, what they communicated, was well received.
After lunch we then had a session on Leadership. This was a chance to exercise some creativity in groups by creating “the worst possible leader speech” which was then acted out by one of the group members. This was very amusing and some feathers were ruffled a little by some of the sexist remarks (as you would expect from a bad leader!) After this we looked at good leadership and what it is to lead your self and to be a person of positive influence in the lives of others.
This was all followed by some free time and then dinner. But it was not till after dinner that the real action began ie Capture the Flag – 18 Boys vs 28 Girls! After much struggling, some crazy dives, lots of prisoners and a few grazed knees Holly Crawford managed to steal the boys flag and secure it in their base 1 – 0. But the boys of course wanting revenge, managed to convince us to play another game and luckily their experience from the first game and their sheer determination finally gave them a win tying up the series 1 all! The decider will be left to the end of next year at the Year 12 Final Evening at School!
The next day Donna Kane spoke to us about her life at school and how she had been bullied in Year 6 & 7 and how this had later manifested in anxiety and depression. She spoke about her difficult path and how God had been faithful in not only getting her through but bringing her healing and joy. She spoke about her current position, working with Operation Mobilization and how students could do a gap year program with this organisation if interested. This was followed by Mrs McQueen who challenged students to think about “where they get their identity” from and to see themselves as created and greatly valued by God. This was then the platform from which they could approach both the HSC and their life ahead and this was a wonderfully uplifting and encouraging time for all.
Later we had Mark Brown from the Bible Society (who we do the Covie Mission Trip with) come and speak about Schoolies Mission to Fiji after the HSC and the wonderful opportunities that were available. This was followed by lunch and some more team building activities and a final debriefing. Then it was off home and overall it was a wonderful 2 days and it was a great place to prepare for the journey ahead!
On Wednesday to Thursday (24 – 25) September, a number of students from Covenant Christian School, Tyndale Christian School and Illawarra Christian School met at Camp Kedron, Ingleside for some fun and fellowship.
The Cartoon Camp was run by our resident expert, Mr Ian Harrowell. He has had extensive experience with cartooning, and has worked with a number of major organisations as a professional artists. The students learned the finer points of drawing curves, faces, and had a wonderful time exploring their gifts over the 4 sessions of drawing. The students were able to grow in their artistic skills, and they became more confident in drawing in a number of different ways. A definite highlight of the camp was the opportunity to have a picture of their own choosing drawn by Ian to take home with them from the camp.
The Mathematics Camp provided an opportunity to play the ancient game ‘Go’ – a game of great strategy, skill and complexity! The students had some time learning from our resident expert, Mr Devon Bailey – who gave of his time to teach the students not only how to play the game, but also some of the history of the game. The students played a preminary competition on Wednesday, and then were graded into three groups for the tournament on Thursday. Congratulations to Glen Carmichael of Year 7 (CCS) who defeated Murray Sullivan of Year 8 (CCS) in the Division A Competition. Congratulations also to Clare Naughtin (ICS) who won the division B tournament, and Joshua Hawkins (ICS) who triumphed in division C.
The students also enjoyed a wonderful bushwalk, a fun trivia night, some devotional time, and some great food from the Camp Kedron staff (who always look after us so well!).
We praise God for a wonderful camp, for wonderful weather, and for the chance to develop our skills. We are already looking forward to next year.
wow math camp was great great food and REALLY nice staff and people team yellow rule!!!!!!!!!! i had such a great time there band will definetly go nxt year!
ps levi if ur reading this please post a comment!
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In August, Covenant Year 7 and 8 students were invited to go on a Visual Arts Camp with Tyndale Christian School.
We woke up early on Wednesday morning and went on the bus to the Winmalee Christian Conference Centre near the Blue Mountains. We arrived at morning tea time and were allocated our cabins. We met the Tyndale students, had lunch then were off on our first activity.
We went for a bush walk. We had to collect leaves, gum nuts and anything we found interesting. After this (which was very tiring) we went to an outdoor ‘chapel’. We sat on the benches and our task was to draw a piece of bush in front of us, some drew trees, some drew bushes and others drew gum nuts.
After that we came back and studied different artist’s techniques. We used different 2D media to make our own piece of art. Some students used oil pastels, paint and twigs to bring out the first colours.
We had dinner, and some people swam in the heated pool (which was actually quite cold). We had supper and devotions, played games and went to bed.
The next morning we woke up late, had breakfast (which was exquisite), finished off our paintings from the day before, had a devotion by Mr. Rusin, then we listened to a visiting artist who gave us some inspiration.
Our next workshop was ceramics. We made pieces that resembled nature, the shape, texture and patterns of each one was different. We had lunch and then started a printmaking workshop. We were shown how to do a lino print, a collagraph and a lithograph. We could choose to do two of these printing methods. Each student had to do part of a large picture of a tree, in the end they would all be joined together. Since each student did two prints it meant that two large tree pictures could be made, one for school each school.
After this, we had dinner, watched Benchwarmers, had supper, and went to bed. We were all exhausted from the day’s art.
The next day was the last. We had our Art Exhibition and wandered around, marveling at the work people had done. We went on the flying fox, after that, we had a BBQ lunch, packed our bags, and after a tearful goodbye, went home. On the way back, everyone was happy to be going home, but still missing our new friends. We look forward to seeing them again at the beach.
Thank you Teachers for giving us this experience, we will never forget it.
On Monday 7 April, Year 9, Mrs Wiltshire, Miss Hale, Mr Bannister, Mr Green and Mr James packed their bags to go on a camp full of fun for three days. We arrived at 11.00am and were introduced to our Crusader leaders.
The boys stayed on site for the rest of the day and did activities which consisted of High Ropes, Archery, Soccer and Mission Impossible, and they slept in the cabins that night. The girls had their sleeping items packed and set off in drizzle for a hike. We had five hours of trudging through rugged scenery, down steep slopes, ropes, ladders, over rocks and creeks. Every minute we had the privilege of checking our shoes and legs for any leeches. It was getting dark when we arrived at the camp site and we had to pitch our tents, get out the cooking utensils and cook noodles for dinner. Afterwards we sat around the campfire. By 9.00pm everyone was in their tents, on hard ground! Most people got a decent night’s sleep, however others preferred to stay up and chat, call out and eat lollies. Some got wet from the overnight rain.
The next morning the girls had breakfast around a fire and listened to a devotion by the camp leader about her life and how she turned to God. At 9.00am the mini bus drove the girls back up to the top of the gorge where the boys were. That day the girls did the activities that the boys had done the day before.
It was then the boys’ turn to leave for the hike and sleep out under the stars. After dinner the girls had great fun playing Dodge Ball and Hockey in the hall. We then played a bit of trivia together, with chocolate biscuits for prizes. Lights were out by 10.00pm. Some people had a decent sleep and others consumed more lollies. The next morning the girls had a delicious breakfast followed by a devotion where we split up into small groups, each with a Crusader leader. The boys returned from their hike and we had morning tea together. Sadly, after lunch, the time came where we all had to head home.
My favourite part of camp was doing the high rope activity twice and working together as a group to complete the Mission Impossible activity.
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