Vardon school trip encourages children to collaborate

Vardon Primary School students were treated to an activity-packed day at Karāpiro Lake just before Easter.

The four senior classes (year 5 and 6’s) were split into two groups that went to Karāpiro Lake on March 22 or 23.

Room 13 Vardon teacher, Sonya Woolf, said: “Our big idea this term was on collaboration, so we wanted to give the kids an experience outside of the classroom, which encompasses a whole range of activities where they have to work collaboratively together.”

The teachers hoped that the children would learn skills like patience, how to adapt and overcome situations, how to work with people they didn’t know and to listen to other people’s ideas.

The trip, which was organised by teachers, parents and the Waikato District Health Board’s Project Energize, included individual and group activities like, water skiing, aqua sliding, kayaking, raft building, archery, and team building exercises.

Year 6 student Poppy Peate said: “We had this really fun activity where we had to get this pole, and there was a duck at the bottom, and you had to get it up by passing sponges down the line.”

The most popular activities were raft building, archery and the blindfolded trust exercise.

Year 6 student Jamie Shaw said he enjoyed all of the activities, but he particularly liked the more challenging ones like raft building and archery: “I liked archery, but it was mostly impossible to hit the target. I shot my arrow right over the hill.”

Eva Orton, who is also a year 6 student, said she had lots of fun on the trip, but was so tired and sore the next day. “The next morning my arms were so sore, I felt like my ribs were broken!”

The children enjoyed being away from the classroom for the day and came away feeling like they had learnt new skills.

“It was a very very very fun day,”  year 6 student Amili Hawera said.