A student speaks.... Read on what DP student have to say about the Breakout Camp. 

To kick off the school year in true Stonehill style, we all participated in a 2-day breakout camp in order to get to know our new diploma comrades and facilitate some team building skills among our group. On the first day, inspired by Mr Shepherd’s theory of teamwork, we set out to play what I like to call ‘Spaghetti Chase’, a slightly rudimentary, and twisted version of Capture The Flag, wherein we had to get strands of spaghetti into the other team’s circle without getting caught. This was both exhausting and exhilarating, but really taught us how to organize ourselves based on our strengths to produce the best result for the team. This was followed by some more team games, involving wit and little out-of-the-box thinking. By this time we could already hear the BBQ grills hissing, the coal was ablaze, and we all gathered for a scrumptious barbeque feast. We all mingled with each other getting to know our new friends, helping them out understand the new system and sharing stories and interests over burgers was quite fun. After dinner, we all sat around a cozy bonfire, students and teachers danced, played music and as a result everyone opened up and came closer together. A movie was to follow the rather calming bonfire, we were greeted with heaps of snacks and drinks for the night, Ms Manpreet was truly spoiling us! Austin Powers entertained us for ninety minutes, after which we would call it a day and a good night. We were all eager to know what the next day had in store for all of us.

We all woke up the next day and headed to Breakthrough, an outbound adventure destination where we would do activities with some of the underprivileged children of U and I. The place contained a range of activities, including low rope and high rope balance courses. We were all gonna try these, helping each other every step of the way. The low rope course was done without a harness because our friends became our harness, if anyone went off balance, the rest of the group had to support them and protect them from falling. The high rope course was also very intimidating at first, but encouragement from everyone enabled every person to complete it. We also played various team games, which required us to use strategy, balance and planning to try to a certain task or even win a game of human tic-tac-toe! In the end, it was endearing to see how well we interacted with U and I children, and how quickly we showed unity with them during all the games. We ended our day at Breakthrough playing sports and getting to know one another even more, almost so much that we have created hysterical nicknames for people now! All in all, this breakout camp really did break any sort of shell we were trapped in and brought us one step close to being a united, cooperative diploma student body. - Anvit, D1