Enhance Term 3 2025 Week 2

Hello and welcome back to the weekly blog!

Tuesday: It has been an eventful week. On Tuesday, we continued working on our community projects. The students were paired up and tasked with producing questions and information to help create their projects, planning either a fundraising event or an awareness campaign for their assigned organisation. Our focus this day was on the Wat Djerring Animal Facility Pet Rescue. We were able to visit their facility, where students learned more about the important work they do, adoption procedures, the level of care the animals receive, and even had the chance to meet some of the pets waiting to find a new home!

Wednesday: On Wednesday morning, we explored more about ourselves by learning about character strengths. Sitting together, we discussed which strengths we each valued most and why, which was a fantastic opportunity to get to know each other better. We then completed a survey to discover our top five-character strengths. This was a fantastic activity as it allowed us to reflect on ourselves and even uncover strengths we did not realise we had.

Later, we were able to visit Collingwood English Language School (CELS) to donate four bikes to four students. Along with this, we taught them about bike safety, bike parts, and how to ride using the ABCD method. Before delivering the project, we used our self-leadership skills to create a detailed action plan and prepare how we would present. That afternoon, our plan came to life as we worked with the CELS students. The session was a success! Our group broke the ice with a game of Octopus and then followed their planning sheet to present each section. They did an amazing job with making them feel comfortable and teaching them all they needed to know about their new bike, showing their character strengths at every opportunity.

Thursday: On Thursday we were fortunate enough to have Manika from the Whittlesea Council come to The Edge and present a board game about natural disasters and climate change. This was another opportunity for students to gain lots of information regarding the Whittlesea council and how they can implement change through their own community project. Students played “The adaption game” where they had to imagine their life through the effects of climate change and what different things they would adapt to help them navigate the rising climates and natural disasters that follow. This was a great insight into how climate change affects the world and how our students can be prepared and begin raising awareness. Following this we headed off the Collingwood English language school once again to complete a classroom session with some primary aged students. The Newstart crew came prepared with an interaction PowerPoint teaching students about sea animals in preparation for our aquarium visit. They participated in some fun games of octopus and created their own “what am I” to test each other’s knowledge. This was such a fantastic session, and our leaders really highlighted their leadership styles on which they have been working.

Friday: We finished the week strong with an awesome nature walk and tree-surfing adventure on Friday. Our first activity was a guided nature walk, where students were given paint sample cards and tasked with finding natural objects that best matched the colours. This activity tested leadership and communication skills, with Ephraim leading the group using the map. Everyone did an awesome job with the activity. Steffi and Mahyar came out as winners of the challenge!

Afterwards, we headed to Belgrave Trees Adventure. We were given a safety briefing and demonstration before tackling everyone’s chosen courses. Each course presented new challenges, which they all smashed! Sam, Ephraim, Lilly, and Mahyar completed a thrilling 10-15 metre drop. With Steffi and Ngamoni tackling long and exhilarating ziplines. By the end of the activity, everyone had completed the short black course with encouragement, they all conquered the long zipline. After thanking the Treetop Adventure staff for their encouragement, we headed home exhausted but with proud efforts. Thanks for catching up on this week's blog, read below for Micaelas interview with Lily and Ngamoni!

This week's interview:

What has been your Highlight from this week?

Lily: “Jumping off the big, tall drop in the red course”

Ngamoni: “Today (Tree surfing), because it was very different to what we did this week”

What was something interesting that you learnt about one of the organisations or activities that you did?

Ngamoni: “On Tuesday, I learnt new things about the bikes, but also didn’t know how much language can be a barrier in teaching the Cels students”

What is one skill you can take from this week that you'll use in your everyday future?

Lily: “Courage to jump”

If you had to choose a Leadership style that you represented this week, what would it be / with an example?

Ngamoni: “Self-leadership, because I was motivated to come”

Lily: “Self-leadership because I did the jump and push myself to do it”