School camps

Mulan's been busy with school camps this past week.

First up, after the music concert last Thursday the orchestra had a camp on Friday through to Sunday.

Pre-Covid, in previous years this was a real camp, going away together for two nights.  But in Covid times they couldn't sleep over, so the camp was just long daytime practices in the school "Event Centre" (AKA hall).

Over the three days it added up to 15.5 hours together, and especially on Saturday Mulan said for the final hour or so their brains were too tired to count the beats.

But overall it sounds like it was a fun and productive weekend.

It was in the school newsletter here (see if you can spot Mulan amongst the cellos).

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On Sunday, Mulan had just a few hours to pack for her second school camp, and this one was a real going-away activity.

This was a compulsory three-day Year 11 PE camp, with NCEA 1 credits on offer.  So apparently they were allowed to be Covid-riskier.

On Monday, Mulan had to be at school at 8am, with packed bags, for the 80-minute bus drive up north to Mangawhai.

Since school is just a five-minute walk away from home, the family walked with her to say goodbye.  As Mama and I stood watching Mulan walk into the gym with her bags, a passing teacher pointedly joked that likely Mulan wouldn't even miss us.  While obviously true, it was also irrelevant to why we were there.

Apart from a brief phone call on Monday evening (from a teacher's phone), we didn't hear anything until Mulan walked in the door at 2pm on Wednesday, slightly stiff from the different-from-usual activities but otherwise good.

The camp was exactly Mulan's style, and she had a great time.  It was at the beach, and they spent a lot of the time in the water surfing, stand-up paddleboarding and kayaking.  They did a short (1 hour) hike, and they had plenty of fun camp activities in their cabins.

Back in school they'll be doing some post-camp written reflections.

Once again, we commented on the school's authoritarianism.  Mobile phones were compulsorily taken away from the girls for the duration of the camp.  (In contrast, at Mulan's club athletics camp last year it was only at team meetings that phones were not allowed.  Kids were trusted to be responsible and self-manage.)

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Fortunately, the school North Island athletics champs, which were planned for the same weekend, were cancelled this year because of Covid.  Otherwise, Mulan would have had a tough decision about a third school camp on offer.