The P4 Camp is an outdoor education trip to the club El Bosque in Huachipa, which is organized by Markham College for the P4 students. I remember going to this same trip when I was in P4, and meeting the teachers from primary school once again made me even more excited to go. However this time I was going no longer a P4 student but as leader.

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Before the trip, we had a meeting with Mrs Moane (P4 Leader Teacher), Mr Hildebrand (HELIX Organizer) and Mr Vincent. This meeting was to inform the leaders about the itinerary and us about all the activities that the P4 students were going to do. Mrs Moane also explained the group how we should treat the children as they are still very little and most of them were scared of being away from their parents. ​

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I was leader of group I with Alonso Gainza as a co-leader and Miss ... as our supervisor. We were in charge of 17 students

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Wednesday 19th

​I arrived at Markham Lower School at 6:30am and before leaving to El Bosque we had another small meeting with Miss Moane to double-check that everything was fine and that we understood all the activities perfectly. Then we went to the busses and headed off to the camp. It was a 2 hour journey, and us the leaders arrived first to organize everything and  get the tents set up. When the P4 students arrived we had lunch and then we went to our first activity which was in the swimming pool. The children needed to create a boat from plastic bottles and cross from one side to another side of the pool.

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Thursday 20th

​During the night some of the girls woke up scared of the dark, so I had to calm them and then put them to sleep. In the morning we had breakfast and I had to encourage some of the girls to eat, following the advice of Miss Moane who had told me beforehand that some of the girls had eating problems. But before, I helped my groups to pack up their things because we were going to change from sleeping in the cabin to sleeping in tents. During this day, we had 4 activities which were zip line, adventure walk, camp cooking and art with nature. In the night, there was a talent show where my group participated dancing and singing. The leaders also performed with a song that we sang with Mr Hilderbrand when we were in P4 camp, years ago. 

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Friday 21th​

This was our last day in the campsite so as soon as we woke up; we tidied our things and left them at the entrance of the camp. Then the leaders had to pack up all the tents. After that, we went for breakfast and finished the day with the last two activities of Climbing and Tie-dye.

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Reflection: Going back to the P4 camp as a leader was a completely different experience from before, I had more responsibilities and more expectations of myself of what could I offer. During the P4 camp, I was enthusiastic, outgoing and motivated which helped me bond with the children. Nevertheless, the P4 students were always energetic, trying to start the activities without listening to the instructions first, however I used the following method: the one that was sitting first in line and listening to what I was saying would be the first one to actually do the activity, so everyone from my group was patient and always motivating one another 

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Learning outcomes:

LO 1 Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth --> I felt i developed greater patience through working with younger kids, I was able to help and guide them during the whole trip  

LO 2 Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process --> A great challenge was having to calm down the youngsters when they were scared at night. 

LO 4 Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences --> I was always present with team of girls and helped them during the whole trip

LO 5 Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively. ---> Alonso and I were the leaders and helped each other when needed 

LO 7 Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions. --> We spoke with our group about global issues

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