School Camp Fun with Springbank

International students at Springbank get to take part in a quintessential kiwi experience every year in Northland – School Camp!

They sleep in tents they have put up themselves, make their own meals, hang out at the beach and do a lot of fun activities they might never experience in their home countries. For a lot of students, it is one of the highlights of their time in Northland and also a great chance to make new friends.

Here’s what Springbank students had to say about their school camp experience…

“School Camp is a great opportunity to grow as a Class and School community.  You get to do stuff with people from your school you might never have done anything with before.

After a 2.30 hour drive we arrived in Mangawhai, were we stayed for 3 days on a small campground.  It is roundabout 5 minutes away from the beach.  After we arrived we put our tents up and sorted our stuff.

After everyone had his tent up and was ready to go Year 10 and Year 11 students went for a 2.30 hour walk which was really nice for the view.  It was really hot and when we got back to camp, all of us went for a swim which was really good.

We also had the opportunity to go surfing, sea-biscuiting and so much more.  We played games and had one night everyone did a small skit.

My highlights were just being with a lot of people and doing so much fun stuff with them, and it did not matter what we were doing, it was just doing something.  

It was a really good time we had a lot of fun and I would do it again if I could, because we don’t do really have something like at my school back at home.  We have class trips, but you only do something with your class and not with nearly the whole senior school.  

Thank you Springbank for giving me this opportunity.”
Luis Nitschke – Year 11 – Germany

“School camp is an amazing life time experience where you get to know your classmates better, have great fun, be in a different environment, learn about camping, cooking, costs,… Our camp was near the Mangawhai Heads – a small place surrounded by beautiful nature: it is right next to the Ocean with dunes, rocks, open fields with exotic plants,… We always had a lot of activities that we could do such as walks, going for a swim, surfing, sea biscuiting and playing games such as volley and frisbee. I had so much fun and I am so happy that I could have this opportunity to participate.

We also stayed in tents and we prepared our own food. On the last night of these three days the older classes (year 12 and 13) made interactive and funny plays.

I found everything especially interesting since I have never participated in a school camp before.”

Silke Blechschmidt-Dezille, Belgium (Yr 11)

“Each year Springbank School organizes a School Camp at the start of the year. This is a
great opportunity for all the students and teachers to get to know each other better and have
a good start in the year.

This year the senior camp was held at the Campbell Park Youth Camp in Mangawhai Heads.
This was a great location because we were very close to the beach and the camping ground
was very nice.

The camp was very exciting for all of us because of all the cool activities we did there. We
went on a long hike along the beach and on a hill and went swimming afterwards. We played
a lot of volleyball and other fun games and one night all the students from year 12 and 13
had to perform a show on a stage on the camping ground. The highlight for me was when we went sea biscuiting.

I had a lot of fun at camp. Sadly, my school in Germany doesn’t organize school camps but I
think it would be very good if they did because it would be a very nice experience.”

Noah Bach – Germany (Year 11)

“School Camp is a really fun experience. You get to do different outdoor activities, sleep in
tents, cook your own meals and a lot more. We went to Mangawhai on a campsite near the
beach, which was pretty cool! Because it was a really hot week we went for a lot of swims,
but we also got the chance to learn how to surf and to do sea-biscuiting.

In the eveningsafter we had cooked our dinners, we had some funny skits and we played flashlight as well. I had a lot of fun. We have things like this at our school but since we don’t have beaches in Switzerland we rather go hiking or skiing. Also, we don’t have parents that come along and help us or drive us to the campsite, so we have to pack a lot lighter because we have to carry all our stuff and take the public transport.

I had a great time at school camp and would immediately go on another one if I had the chance.”
Camille Clavel, Switzerland

“I was really happy when I heard about the camp, because I think it was a great opportunity for me to get to know my new class. When we arrived there, it was really hot and dry. Thanks to the good organisation we got our tent place really quick, and could immediately start to set up our tent. After a bit of a break, we went to the beach to go hiking. Although I´m not a huge fan of going hiking, this hike was special (for me), due to the amazing view, and the experience, which was very different from my usual normal life.

After the hike we had a chance to go swimming in the ocean which I was very grateful for. One cooling swim later we went back to the coach to get to our camping spot. The
next event also was my most favourite of the whole camp. We all came together and cooked our dinner. I just loved the time spending with my cooking mates and (surprisingly) our spaghetti Bolognese was great. Full and happy we went to bed and had a little chat in the tent before going to sleep.

I actually slept good and the next morning wake up happy. For breakfast we had nice pancakes and luckily coffee. In the morning we went to a playground, got divided in 8 groups and played nice games: crazy bases, volley ball and ultimate Frisbee. It was quite fun and afterwards we even had time for ourselves. Then came “home” had a nice lunch and got the great opportunity to go to asurfing lesson which was really cool, because I love water sport. 

Later on we could spend some time at the beach, go swimming and some kind parents took us sea biscuiting. In the Evening we got a nice dinner and some good entertainment from the year 12 and 13 which had a great performance on the stage in the building on the camping ground. Next morning was really just nice breakfast, pancakes and coffee again, packing up the tents and playing volleyball matches to kill time.

All in all the camp was a really great experience and good for getting to know everybody better.”
Jannes Neher – Germany

“The middle school camp this year was a fun experience for me. I really enjoyed the activities we did at MERC. My favourite was probably sailing, we got to learn new skills and had fun with friends.

After all the activities that got us really tired, we were provided with delicious foods, from the amazing chefs; parents and teachers.

We also enjoyed a fun game of spotlight, in the night, before heading to bed. Not many people did, as I heard, had a good sleep, but personally for me, it was okay.

After our second night at camp we woke up early in the morning, to get all bags and things sorted, have breakfast, and headed of to the Chelsea sugar factory. There, we did some fun bakings, the tour guide there showed us around the factory, and we had a free 30 minutes to play around in the interacting section.

Overall, camp this year was very cool, we were pretty chill, but I think all of us had a great time.”

Angelina Viding – Sweden