Prefects Leadership Camp

Whanganui High Schools annual Prefects Leadership Camp was on Monday 30 April & Tuesday 1 May 2018.

The annual Prefect Camp is always a highlight for the Student Leadership team of Whanganui High School, and this year was no exception. This camp however, unlike traditional leadership camps (often structured and developed by community organisations), was designed entirely by three of our Head Prefects; Saskia Knight (Head Girl), Josiah Kirk (Head Boy) and Jonathan Maples (Deputy Head Boy). It was designed in the form of an ‘Amazing Race’ held in Wellington.

After hours of planning and hard thinking, we managed to scatter a wide variety of activities and challenges around Wellington that would require teams to solve a riddle describing a location that would then unlock the various challenges in the area. These were locations such as the Beehive and Parliament, Te Papa, Cuba Street, Wellington Cable Car and the National War Memorial. Once the clues were solved, the team were then set various activities to be completed at each of these locations. The race involved plenty of exercise as well as encouraging team bonding, communication and problem solving and also allowed the groups to recognise one another’s skills and strengths within the team. Everything learnt and discovered over the course of the race will be extremely beneficial to the Prefect groups throughout the remainder of this year.

“There was so much positive feedback from the Prefects and everyone seemed to have a really enjoyable time, especially the teachers who made their own team which also happened to come second on the day! In particular, people really seemed to value the bonding that occured within their Prefect groups. It was not the fastest and easiest thing to organise but the results have shown that all the work and time that went in to the planning of the camp was definitely worth while.” - Josiah Kirk.

“Organising this race was definitely a challenge. We had to use google maps as it was not possible to visit Wellington to plan the details and locations. However, I thoroughly enjoyed working with Josiah and Jonathan and it was really rewarding putting this camp together. Although we did not get to participate in the race, I feel we still got the opportunity to work together and bond as a team. The feedback I received made all the work we put in feel totally worthwhile.” - Saskia Knight.

“Our goal was to get our prefect teams to bond and learn more about each other so that when they organise bigger events during the year, they will know how to approach them as a team and not as individual dictators. From the amount of participation shown and positive feedback from groups, I am happy to say that the amazing race was a massive success, and it will be interesting to see how each prefect team will benefit from this bonding camp, and how they will work together throughout the year.” - Jonathan Maples.