College News

NCC has a well-considered and structured ‘camping’ program for each year. The Middle School program builds in complexity to match the development in Year 7, the whole year level goes to camp together with the title ‘Focus, Friends and Faith’. Through various group initiative activities, students are challenged to stretch their comfort zone in as many areas as possible, especially physically, socially and spiritually. The camp is placed after NAPLAN tests (this year Tuesday 17th to Friday 20th May). This camp is an excellent chance for students to get to know others in their grade and build social cohesion which will assist them as they journey through school together. In 2016, the Year 7 Camp will again be held at Maranatha Recreation Centre, Yandina.

The Year 8 Camp is the first of the ‘single-gender’ camps where the boys and girls go to separate locations. The camp is a ‘stepping up’ experience, symbolically making reference to the development of character in the journey toward adulthood and responsible decision-making. The same gender staff travel with the students and lead a variety of experiences which develop the students’ confidence in meeting a range of challenges.

It is hoped that each student will find at least one aspect of the camp difficult and thereby develop their personal confidence and inter-dependence that is an important lesson for successfully progressing through other challenges in life. Currently, the boys travel to ‘Pindari’ camp in northern NSW and the girls to ‘Kiah Park’ near Gympie.

The Year 9 Camp is the culminating experience of the Middle School and is structured very deliberately. The title is ‘Celebrating Milestones’ and is focused around the concepts of ‘rites of passage’ in the journey to adulthood, a positive concept that is often replaced with negative risk-taking experiences in the western world. Once again students are led in single- gender camps and parents are required to be involved in special ‘celebrations’ before and after camp. Students are led through a series of lessons prior to camp which are focused on what it means to be an adult in more than just a physical way, and what sort of adult the world needs them to be. These lessons coincide with a spiritual challenge as the young people move toward a personalising of their beliefs and values which start as ‘inherited’ beliefs and values from their parents and other significant adults. This is a very important and special experience for all Year 9 students and their families.