Grade 8 Camping Trip

As part of the Shawnigan Journey, all Grade 8s do an outdoor trip in the fall and another in the spring. The fall trip helps introduce them to basic canoeing and hiking skills. The canoe groups were able to use both the big 15-person canoe loaned to Shawnigan by Thunder Indigenous Rugby and solo canoes, with everyone having a chance to try both. All gear was shuttled to and from Camp Pringle, so students only had to carry their lunch and a water bottle.

 

One of the hiking groups happened across a black bear and her cub, although the encounter was brief and comparatively uneventful. During their time at Camp Pringle, the Grade 8s took part in activities including canoe tag, volleyball, team challenges, modified Australian-rules football, and capture the flag — some with the full group of Grade 8s and others in smaller groups. In the evening, the students made s’mores on a propane barbecue.

 

The weekend gave the students a chance to learn about the Shawnigan Lake area, and to get to know each other and School staff members in a less formal situation. During the first couple of weeks of the school year, outdoor education teacher Kyle Leis reported, students from the two Grade 8 Houses — Stanton for girls and Levien for boys — didn’t mix much, but the camping trip helped break the ice.

 

The fundamental skills learned on the trip will serve the students well in their upcoming trips later in Grade 8 and in Grade 9. Shawnigan’s Grade 9s are headed out on an excursion of their own over the two weekends, with separate groups either sea kayaking in the Gulf Islands, where they will camp for two nights and help national parks staff clean up invasive species (an important decolonization project) or hike the rugged Juan de Fuca Trail on the southwest coast of Vancouver Island.