YARRA WEEK 1 TERM 2 2023
Hello Everyone and welcome back!
We’re finally rolling with week 1 of our term 2 2023 program underway. We’re working in Yarra this term and have already connected with local services, but let me give you a proper run down first.
On Wednesday the 3rd of May we began our day at Collingwood Station, our meeting ground for the term ahead. We collected our crew and headed down to the Yarra Youth Centre, a space we will frequent over our time together. After receiving a very warm welcome and explanation of the space and its programs, we held some icebreakers to help everyone get more comfortable as a group. It was great seeing everyone taking part, giggling and sliding around in our version of musical chairs. We then moved on to our group values, the very values we will be focusing on over the next 6 weeks. The values were as follows:
Respect
Kindness
Trust
Teamwork
Equality
Quite a variety for the term ahead!
After this session on values we moved on to our first boxing session with our Operation Newstart Renowned coach Sal, a firefighter for the Fire Rescue Victoria. Sal was a great addition on the first day as everyone took a leap out of their comfort zone and pushed themselves through a circuit made just for us! We also got to know further about Sal’s values of Attitude, perseverance and mindset, which truly helped us all through this session. Afterwards, we then thanked Sal for his help on the first day and moved on to the drop off at the end of the day, back at Collingwood College.
On our second day, Thursday the 4th of May, we collected everyone and moved out, towards the outer east. Having banter along the way, we made our way toward Sherbrooke Falls. This was to introduce the crew back to nature and the mindset we would need for our hike camp coming in the next week. Having a few photos here and there we eventually held a mindfulness session where we sat in silence and tried to intune ourselves with the space around us. Though very new to some, everyone was able to take a moment to breathe and come into the space. After this we debriefed on some facts about our next week, before heading to our awaited activity of tree surfing! Having a run down of the activity ahead we all took our own routes in the trees and dealt with the challenging highs and obstacles along our way. All having a rather good time we headed back to the bus after thanking Treetop adventure for letting us use the space and headed home for the day.
On our last day we collected as usual and went to Collingwood Alternative School (CAS), our base of operations. We started off with some self-reflections before having some free time to play some basketball and chat. Once available we borrowed a classroom and began our session into character strengths. These are similar to our values but much more personal and display differently in every individual. Once we had explained a little run down of character strengths we played a small game of ‘Always, often, never’, focusing on different character strengths. Once we were on another self-reflecting journey we completed our own character strength surveys and some journal work. After a quick free time back at the CAS gym, we headed off to the local Melbourne Polytechnic in Fairfield. Once there we were greeted by Ashley, our highly experienced Landscaping teacher at Melbourne Polytechnic. Ashley got us split into 3 groups and began the explanation of how to pave. All groups were highly involved in the session, all making great slabs and getting their own photos with their group's work. We then thanked Ashley for all his hard work and moved on to have a debrief of the week and what we could expect in the coming week.
We had an amazing first week and I can’t wait to see what is in store for us in the coming future!
!NOW FOR STUDENT OF THE WEEK; FEATURING HAYLIE!
What was your favourite part of this week?
“Um i think the tree surfing, it was new and fun”
What was your feelings on the first day?
“Good, meeting new people was exciting”
What were your feelings on the last day of the week?
“I felt good cause i had a fun week”
What was the group's best value this week?
“Um… friendliness? Everyone was nice and friendly to each other”
What could the group work on for next week?
“Listening to you guys, Kate, Alex and Alyssa when we need to”
What activity are you looking forward to?
“Definitely surfing and all the camps”
