Between January 31st and February 2nd the Year 9 students undertook their annual Outdoor Education trip to Lake Jebel Alywia. The weather on the first day was unusually hot for this time of the year which made for slow walking and many tired students and teachers. That night however the temperature dropped and the students enjoyed camping in the sand dunes and cooking their meal on a small camp stove that they had prepared themselves. The full moon kept many students awake. Students were up and ready to leave the campsite at 7am the following day. Day two saw the students navigate themselves in small groups between destinations using a map, compass and GPS. Each group had a walkie talkie and they were able to communicate with other groups as well as the support vehicle if there was a problem. At each location students had to undertake some initiative challenges which focused on team building, listening and communication skills. The students arrived at the second campsite in good time and spent a few hours setting up camp, relaxing in the shade and enjoying being by the lake. The second night students prepared a group meal together which they had to cook on a campfire, which was followed by some delicious popcorn and singing Mrs. Annie and Yousif happy birthday under the night stars. Unfortunately, on the final day we were unable to go to the Kodra Basic School to teach English, as they had exams, so we popped in briefly to give them some football strips that the Year 9 week with out walls crew had prepared and also to check up on the trees and painting of the classrooms that KICS students had been involved in. I was very impressed by what the Year 9 students had done there!

Please see below some pictures of the trip as well as some of the students comments.      

Did you enjoy undertaking the activities today?

Yes, it helped us to communicate as a group.

How has your behavior affected others in the group?

I think I was a little bit lazy and a lot of people helped me.

List some strategies that you think your group will need to adopt to be successful?

Push yourself as much as you can.
Work together as a group and motivate each other.
Have a good time
Trust each other
Never leave a man or woman down
Each person in the group should do something useful.
Keep all your equipment together.
Get quad bikes
 

What activities did your group find difficult to succeed in and why?

The pole lifting activity as we were not communicating.

Lifting the pole as we were not cooperating

What would you change if you could do the activity again?

I would change peoples’ perspective on trust.

I would consult everything with the group before starting an activity.

Give my ideas

What leadership style did you use?

I lead by example; I tried really hard and motivated others in the group.

I was a bit of a dictator.

I used democratic for navigating and dictator for cooking,

Overall student trip comment

I really enjoyed this trip. I got to know more people, I talked to people that I had never talked to before. I want to thank the teachers for giving us a great time and helping us.

I still don’t like ODE

It was fun, I would do it again.

If your not organized everything goes wrong and it makes

your life harder.

I did quite well, but I need to be more organized

It was very challenging, but fun!

The trip would have been a lot more exciting and fun, if our group was more organized and didn’t complain as much as we did.

I really enjoyed the camping trip. The walking was hard and the weather was hot and dry, but once you reached the camp site, you never wanted to leave. I wished we could have stayed longer.

What did you learn about yourself on this trip?

I am short tempered

I am tidy

I am lazy

You need to stay together as a group

I hate sand

I am afraid of scorpions

Bring less clothes

I am unfit

I learnt that I can actually lead a group

I am helpful