Term 1 Week 4 2021
Hello everyone!
On Wednesday we spent the morning learning about respectful relationships at Oxygen. We learnt ways to show respect to ourselves and others and why it is important. We believe that respectful relationships contribute to growth, maturity and self-confidence. It also promotes healthy self-expression, self-awareness and awareness of others. The students have proven to us so far that one of their top character strengths is respect which has helped people to feel safe, valued and accepted. Leading to boxing with Sal for the afternoon, the young people showed improvement since the first session which was great to see! It was a tough session and a lot of effort was put in! Once again, hearts were racing and the blood was pumping which made us all feel so good afterwards. Sal has been a great positive influence on the students and we look forward to our last session with him in a couple weeks time.
On Thursday we departed Melbourne for our Surf Camp at Bancoora Beach. We all had an amazing time! Our surf instructor Jake introduced us to the techniques of how to stand up on the board and we were lucky to have decent water conditions on the first day as everyone was able to catch some waves! We were very impressed with the talent in the group being able to stand up on their very first session. Good job everyone!
After our lesson, we spent the afternoon at Bells Beach where we had the chance to check out Victoria's renowned surf beach and watch other surfers. We also had a mindfulness session, where we all sat at least 10 metres apart and focused on using all our senses. What could we see, touch, smell, hear, taste and feel? In the last few moments we asked the students to think about people who they were grateful for. It is a great moment for the students to sit in silence, disconnected from their phones, games, distractions etc and reconnect with themselves and their surroundings.
We stayed the night at the Bancoora Surf Life Saving Club just off from the beach. We had a beautiful dinner and dessert and everyone had their role including setting up the table, cooking and cleaning. After dinner Brendon and I conducted the mid-term interviews with each student, discussing their progression on the program, what they have learnt and how they can better themselves at school. It was great to hear about their experiences and feelings towards the program so far and how they intend to advance at school. We all needed to release some energy half way through the interviews and so we went for a night walk along the beach which everyone really enjoyed!
The next morning we had Kev as our surf instructor and he led a great stretching class before we got in the water which was definitely needed. This day was a little colder and the water conditions weren't the best, therefore we were really impressed with the students' attitudes, patience and perseverance for the surf lesson. They all gave it a good crack and enjoyed their time being in the water overall. The main focus of this camp was the 3 P's - Patience, Persistence and Participation. During our debrief, students identified times when they used the 3 P's and how they could transfer those skills to school. After lunch we packed the bus and made our way back to Melbourne. Everyone must have been exhausted because the bus ride home was fairly quiet! :)
Great job everyone! See you next week. There will be more photos to come.
