On Tuesday 23 February, 283 eager Year 8 students and 11 competitive homeroom teachers made their way down to the College ovals to participate in MLMC Survivor 2021. All had one goal in mind: to claim the prestigious Survivor Shield. After a motivational pep-talk, students spent the morning competing as homerooms in a series of physical and mental challenges inspired by the TV show Survivor. These challenges are facilitated by the homeroom teachers and this year we were also fortunate to have our Year 10 and 11 VET Sport and Recreation students assisting.
Through competing in Survivor, students are provided an opportunity to bond with their new Year 8 homerooms and recognise the various strengths of their fellow classmates. This will be important in the coming weeks as the Class Captain selection process takes place. Survivor also provides an invaluable opportunity for students to further develop important skills such as teamwork, leadership, cooperation, communication and problem solving.
The competition was fierce with 8 Red and 8 Silver scraping into the ‘Ultimate Challenge’ finale. After a nail-biting grand final, it was 8 Silver who came away victorious. Congratulations to 8 Silver and their homeroom teacher, Mr Dan Beard. Thank you to the amazing team of people who assisted in making this event possible.
Below are some student reflections on the event:
Year 8 Survivor Day was a very fun activity to participate in. Throughout all the Survivor activities I learned to work as a team and discuss our ideas. My favourite activities were the water game and the lock game.
— Jar Lewis (Year 8 Silver)
I was able to connect with my class in a way that probably bought us all closer together as a group with many things in common. My favourite activity was by far the cup and water activity, where we all had the chance to get involved and to cheer each other on. Two homerooms were competing against each other by trying their absolute best to fill up their individual class tubs full of water by using cups to transfer from one tub to the other.
— Issy Hanson (Year 8 Purple)
Year 8 Survivor gave everyone a great opportunity to connect and collaborate with peers as well as the other homerooms. It helped me to meet new people, make new friendships and collaborate. Survivor encouraged everyone to support all their peers. There was also a friendly competitive side to the day, with everyone striving to achieve and do their very best. We had a chance to use our communication skills and teamwork and to challenge ourselves to find our strengths and weaknesses and identify the different types of people in our class. I particularly liked the mental activities, especially the unlock the lock challenge.
— Katherine Hobson (Year 8 Silver)
Survivor was so fun. My favourite activity has to be the book hold, where you had to hold books straight up and stand in a line and see how long you could hold it up for. Another one was the water relay. We did a relay run with a cup of water and had to tip it in a bucket to get it up to a line. When your ping pong ball reaches that mark you win.
— Kaitlyn Kennedy (Year 8 Jade)
