YARRA TERM 2 WEEK 1 2024
Hi everyone!
Welcome to first Blog post of the term!
Through these blogs we recap how the past week went, with some students reflections and photos!
Special thanks for our Placement student Adnan for his contribution to this Wednesdays summary!
On Wednesday the 1st, our enthusiastic group gathered at Collingwood Station, the familiar starting point for our Term 2. We started our journey to the Yarra Youth Services. As always, our first day is dedicated to form connections and setting the tone for the weeks ahead. We dove straight into the action with a series of engaging icebreaker activities, designed to dissolve barriers and cultivate a sense of unity among our students and staff. Among the icebreakers, the Tennis ball challenge emerged as the standout Favourite. This team-building exercise required coordination and effective communication, leading to an impressive achievement of passing the ball through palms in a mere (0.45 seconds). The group's collaborative work stood out as they navigated through trial and error, building an attitude of friendship and respect.
After a quick break, we created a values system that serves as our guiding light throughout the term. Trust, respect, helpfulness, kindness, and the commitment to challenge oneself emerged as our guiding principles. By aligning on these core values, we aim to cultivate an environment where everyone's strengths are celebrated and where challenges are approached with resilience and determination.
Next, we made our way to MAYSAR (Melbourne Aboriginal Youth Sport & Recreation). Welcoming our boxing coach Sal, a dedicated firefighter for Fire Rescue Victoria. We started the session by embracing our newly formed values and Sal’s values of attitude. We started with an intense circuit practice, immersing ourselves in the teachings of discipline, positivity, and trust. Lastly under Sal's expert guidance, the group enhanced their skills through sparring sessions, embracing the opportunity to challenge themselves and grow both physically and mentally. As the day drew to a close, it was evident that our first day had laid the groundwork for a term filled with growth and personal empowerment.
On Thursday the 2nd of May, we headed off on our first outdoor activity for the term, A beautiful hike through the Sherbrooke Forest and Tree Surfing with Tree Tops Adventure in the outer east Yarra Ranges shire! We were also excited to be joined by Bede from YSS!
At the beginning of our hike, student Jaymee was designated our leader, navigating the map and checking in on her fellow peers throughout the walk, we stopped to look at some interesting trees and wildlife, with riveting conversations about potential wildlife we might see in the forest! After a short walk we stopped to eat some lunch before heading off on our next activity!
Next up, we headed to Tree tops adventure in Belgrave! Once we arrived we were taken through an introduction on how to navigate the courses before beginning. Following this, fears were faced as our students took on multiple courses throughout the day with some braving the tallest course they offer, with long zip lines and challenging obstacles!
Adnan our placement student gathered some student reflections from the day!
James passionately recalls conquering the "big flying fox" and mastering the "short black" course.
Meanwhile, Jaymee cherished the thrill of speeding down the zip lines and completing both the "blue" and "short black" courses.
To end the week on Friday the 3rd, we spent some time at the Collingwood Alternative College. Students begun learning about their personal character strengths through an online survey. These strengths help us identify our positive traits, things we can work on and helps us get to know ourselves a bit better. Out of a total of 24 character strengths, Teamwork, Kindness, Zest and Love were some of the few results! Following this, enjoying the Collingwood Alternative gym facilities we spent some time playing some games starting off with an intense game of 4x4 Volleyball, as well as rounds of basketball and soccer! After this short break we begun reflecting on some goals that students can work on throughout the term, including strategies they can adopt to help this. To end the day we headed over the Melbourne Polytechnic, a TAFE institution where students got a taste in landscaping and paving, working in groups of 2 to complete a brick pavement, using lots of communication and teamwork, while also practicing precision skills and patience. All students did a great job at this and worked great as a team!
We were incredibly impressed with how the week went, everyone engaged really positively in each activity and have been super welcoming to each other!
